Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles How often to clean the barrel?

So I am still doing load development with my newly barreled 7mm Rem Mag. I followed the break in procedure to a tee and at about 35 rounds I began to do "load development". I now have between 60-70 rounds that have been fired downrange. All but the first ten shots, which were cleaned after every shot, I have cleaned thoroughly after each 5 shot group.

As I have done this I have often wondered how often I should be cleaning during load development.

What do all of you do? My last barrel shot much better when it had 5-7 rounds down it after a thorough cleaning.

How clean do you take it down to when you are loading 5 shots of this and then 5 shots of that?

I forgot how much work this load development stuff could be. That said, I had a couple really good groups with the 168 Berger VLD tonight. I will keep playing around with them.

FH

If it were my 7mag, Id clean after every 15 shots, 2 wet patches of Butch's, followed by 5 passes wet bronze brush, push that crud out with wet patch with Kroil, then 1 dry patch, followed by more shooting. One I get home id do the same but follow with wet patch with Militec-1 followed by 1 or 2 dry patches.

Fire Hawk,

I no longer follow break in procedure. When I am working up a load I may clean the barrel after 30-50 shots.

I don't clean mine at all, as smokeless powder not going to clog it up. I have a friend who shoots long range competitive. She's one of the top shooters in the US, and says she does not clean her rifle barrel at all, all season. If she does, then it takes 15 or so shots to get it shooting where it was before. If the last time you cleaned it, it didn't have copper in it, I wouldn't bother. A gunsmith I know, who was head of the Army Marksmanship units gun making, said, when cleaning the barrel, take a patch with some Hoppes on it, run it down the barrel using a jag smaller than the caliber, say a 7mm in a 308 barrel, and push the wet patch through. then follow that with a couple dry ones. No need to scour the bore with a brush, as the dust from the powder the only thing in there. Too tight a patch gives you black from the barrel itself, and makes you think it's still dirty, when it isn't. I used to use "tight" patches myself, but found it wasn't necessary. You are seeing that it takes several shots to "foul" the bore again, so why unfoul it. Smokeless is not going to cause rust, etc. through drawing in water, like BP does.

When shooting BP even, in matches, between targets I will push a wet and dry patches down the barrel, mostly to keep the accumulated burnt BP in the barrel from hardening, while we're changing targets. But keep the barrel at a certain level of fouled, so it'll keep shooting the same.

I just spent about 30 minutes running patches through the barrel thoroughly cleaning it again. I was surprised at the amount of blue there was. Butch's revealed it easy enough.

Ringman, I am beginning to think that stripping this barrel to bare metal after each 5 shot group, resets too many variables.

Thanks for your responses guys. Keep em coming if you have more advice.

FH

Thanks Ghost! You must have posted while I was typing. These thoughts are much of what I am thinking as well. Now I have to go "foul" my barrel again.

FH

I don't follow that one. When a barrel is clean you can use whatever solvent and as tight a patch as you want and it won't come out black.

Yeah. Once a barrel settles in, I clean VERY rarely.

I simply shoot a box or two of factory ammo down range to settle the rifle in the stock and begin working up loads. The rifle may get cleaned after the factory ammo, but seldom gets cleaned until the load work is done.

I just throw DBC in all my barrels. I clean after the first 5-10 rounds, again after 50 more, and then I don't clean again until accuracy starts to diminish, which is usually at least a few hundred rounds...

I'm a minimalist when it comes to cleaning (luckily I live in a desert, so it's easy).

I will not spend more than 5 min / gun cleaning after a shooting session ( 1 wet Hoppes, 5 hoppe brush strokes, 2 wet hoppes, two dry, 2 Break free, wipe with BF chamois).

I shoot mostly TSX and don't de-copper at all.

Any barrel that needs de-coppering doesn't live here.

During hunting season (Aug-Jan), I'll often foul 2-3 guns with 4-5 shots and leave them that way until all my tags are filled.

life is short....

I'll shoot clean shoot for about 10 rounds in a new pipe, then jump right to load work. I don't clean while shooting at all even if 50 rounds+ go down the pipe. I'll clean them at the house before the next trip to the range, fire a fouler and get after it again. Personally don't care for tubes that like to be well fouled, but nearly all of mine take at least one fouler from a squeaky clean pipe to start doing their thing.

You'll commonly have a flyer on the first round when switching loads during a load development session due to differing bore conditions. Good reason to always shoot at least 4 to get an idea if a load has promise when shooting multiple loads.

When it's time for hunting season, I'll foul a clean pipe, may shoot a group, confirm zero, and keep them dirty for the entire season to avoid a clean pipe flyer in the field.

loder

How can you evaluate the different loads if you don't start them out at the same place?? Which would be a clean bore.
Cleaning rifles is kinda like reading the Bible: people tend to pick out the parts that suits them and ignore the rest. Carbon fouling is hydroscopic (it draws water). If you live in Arizona, that can mean little; if you live in Florida, it can mean when you get around to cleaning your rifle, you may find a nice set of pits under all that crud.

Easy, they either shoot to my qualification or I move on to the next loads. A good pipe will shoot it's pet loads well at 5 rounds after cleaning or 40 rounds after cleaning. If it doesn't, it's time for a new bbl.

What is DBC?

I don't either, if blacks coming out then it's dirty, if blues coming out then it's dirty and fouled as well. As well, I don't believe one can clean down to bare metal after it's been fired. You can get it clean but not down to bare metal. If a person is a believer in barrel break in (and I am) it's my opinion you have one and only one shot (pardon the pun) at breaking it in right.

I'm not here to argue or discuss this gack as we all have to go with what our experinces tell us to do. I've seen a lot of barrels go thru their life cycle from beginning to end so for me and my barrels I will be breaking them in and I wont' allow moly down them either.

Shoot straight and hunt hard!

Dober

Dyna-bore coat. Used to be called Ultra bore coat.

If you're testing loads for accuracy potential, be careful with a clean barrel, I've had some that didn't settle down until they'd had 5 or 10 rounds fired after a thorough cleaning.

At this point I have followed Shillen's recommendation for breaking in one of their barrels. I have always cleaned with two wet patches of butches bore shine, then brush about 10 strokes, pushes out with another wet butches bore shine then two dry patches. I did this after every shot for the first ten shots. I can't remember (if it was after 5 shots or every other shot, whatever Shillen recommended) what I did from 11-20, but I know from then until now (about 75 shots in total) I have cleaned after every five shots.

So Dober, after this break in process, how often do you clean your barrels?

Thanks guys!

I would assume it is entirely broken in now, and I will be getting serious with load development.

Look at what you wrote, and think about it for a minute.

If your barrel changes after five shots, how can you even start to think about "comparing" different loads without cleaning?

If load B shoots better than load A, was it because it was actually a better load, or did load A "pave the way" for B to look better?

To be a valid comparison, you have to start with an even field at the beginning.

Either shoot both loads from a freshly cleaned barrel, or, if you prefer fouled results, shoot 10 of each load, but use the second five of each (from equally fouled bores) as your evaluation.

Otherwise, you don't have a clue as to the true comparison of loads on equal grounds.