Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Do you shoot over lube or a dry Barrel ?

Do you shoot over a lube/oil or over a dry bore?
I live in very humid enviroment and keep the bore of my rifles lightly lubed with oil .
When I get ready to shoot I run 2 or 3 dry patches down the bore to get rid of any excess oil that might bulge the barrel.
But I never use a solvent just dry patches.

I have read to NEVER shoot over a completely dry bore for best accuracy and less barrel wear.
I have read to ALWAYS Shoot over A LIGHTLY lubed bore to prevent rust and lessen barrel wear.

What is your preferred Method for best accuracy and rust Protection?
And explain WHY you use the method you use.

If you shoot more than a round or two, how do you avoid shooting through a dry bore?

Answering a question with a question ? LOL
I suppose after a couple of shots to lightly lube the bore again.
When Hunting (deer for example)that would not seem to be to difficult to do.

To expand on the original question ,do most use a solvent to completly clean oil out of barrel before shooting or just dry patch ?

dry patch and go

Not really. Embedded in the question was my answer. I think the advice you got to "never shoot through a dry bore" was ridiculous, given that one or two shots will dry out the bore. So I'd follow that advice to the same degree I'd follow any other advice of the same quality.

Personally, I don't worry about it, and I don't oil my bores unless the rifle will be put away for a long time.

If it is and I've oiled the bore, it doesn't make a lot of difference to me at the range because I'll shoot one or two foulers before I do any serious shooting anyway and after that the bore will be dry.

Or I'll do as fotis said, and run a dry patch through.

When I get ready to hunt and the first shot is important, I'll leave the bore fouled from the last range session assuming it's shooting good, with no oil or solvent in the bore.

I think the advice came from a credible source albeit talking about a custom barrel.#4
http://www.gunclubofamerica.com/art...ing-techniques-that-everyone-should-use/

If you hunted in an area with High Humidity (75% and higher)at times would you still leave the bore dry?

Thanks for the input

With jacketed slugs and smokeless, the bore is dry.

In BPCR circles with big heavy lead slugs for sure lube it first

I wouldn't oil it during the hunting season but I'd probably oil it for storage with something like Barricade afterward. It's probably not necessary, people smarter than me like MD have written that fouling in the bore is not a problem with modern powder and primers, even in humid climates. So it's probably overkill.

PS, most of my rifles have custom barrels, and almost all rounds fired travel down a dry bore. I just can't understand the concept of stopping to run an oiled patch down the bore after every couple of shots at the range. Bullets fly differently in an oiled vs a dry bore, so your accuracy would go down the toilet if you were constantly doing that.

PS.PS, I clicked your link and personally, I didn't like the advice there; some of it was just hawking his own products.

60-80 strokes with a copper brush for every 10-15 rounds fired and use of an abrasive bore cleaner to remove copper is ironic in light of his concern about prematurely wearing out a barrel by shooting through it.

My advice would be to skip all the bore-stroking and abrasives and use a good foaming bore cleaner like Wipe-out. It works.

Thanks for the information

Maybe I didn,t word my initial question as well as I could have.

I am not really concerned with fouling but am concerned with the bore of my rifle getting Rust on the lands and grooves .

I have seen rust form on the outside of rifles carried in the conditions that I hunt (high humidity)and while I am concerned to a degree about how the outside of my rifle fares I am MUCH more concerned with the Bore of my rifle.

I am not talking about stopping to oil every couple of shots at the range to target shoot with a high volume of shots but rather to simulate keeping a light coat of oil in the bore (either in clean barrel or over the fouling) to protect the bore when hunting.

If I sight in with a lightly oiled bore then my bullet impact should remain the same when hunting.

If I lived in an area with low humidity then I would have no concern with keeping oil in the bore of my rifles.

I wasnt necasarily referring to the link to show the best way to clean but rather that Holland says to fire over a lightly lubed barrel.

I am not a high volume shooter and will probably only put 3 boxes of ammo(yearly) through any given centerfire deer hunting) rifle I have .
This is why I am not that concerned with fouling but even though I may not shoot that much anymore I still want to PREVENT rust from forming in my barrel when Hunting AND maintain my desired POI that I have when sighting in.

Thanks for everyones input

An issue that every responsible rifleman faces is knowing where the first round from a cold bore lands. As long as you have tested that and know where that first round goes, then a light lube in the bore is a matter of personal choice.

Lube in the bore affects bullet impact and accuracy, so the answer to your question depends on your needs...at closer range, the effects matter a lot less.

But...having said that I would avoid putting anything in the bore containing teflon, like rem lube, as it is very tenacious.

One of the reasons why stainless barrels are a good option.

Just shoot. Keep it lubed by shooting some more. Skip the oil and the lube. Keep shooting.

I am coating all my barrels to help preserve them.

Wife and I shot for years in competition... 20K rounds a year or so.

We would shoot upwards to or over 500 rounds between cleanings.

I don't ever recall oiling a barrel after cleaning it after I found it to be a waste.

And lets just say my area ain't low on humidity....

As to the first shot... I find that even with or without oil, after storing for months... the first shot is generally a bit off the mark...

For the most part I lighty oil my bores after cleaning, and dry patch before shooting!

No, it was fine. I was responding to this part, specifically, the WHY part and the best accuracy part:





If you're convinced you need to hunt with oil in the bore to prevent rust and you have a system that works for you, that's the reason to put oil in the bore, or the WHY.

Not what some guy hawking cleaning products on the internet has said. Because his advice is ridiculous.

If you were to take a poll on here (long range forum) and ask how many follow his advice to never shoot through a dry bore, the answer would be zero. Long-range shooters tend to shoot a lot, and also want to get the best accuracy from their rifles they can. Neither of which is compatible with "never shooting through a dry bore."

And I know you didn't ask about cleaning, but you did say that the guy on your link was some kind of "authority" so I was just pointing out that his advice on cleaning is ridiculous too.

This works for me.

I just coat all my bores with DBC and forget about corrosion problems. I also use moly in most of my tubes, so there's a little lube in there as a bonus. I never oil my bores.

When I lived in Hawaii that was a different environment (90% humidity and 300 inches of rain a year) and many shooters would put oil down bores and then spray a boresnake with carb or brake cleaner and pull it through before shooting. I watched blued steel rust overnight if you forgot to wipe it down and stainless would follow suit if you waited a few days.

Now I typically clean with wipeout or patch out, push a dry patch through to finish and put nothing but bullets down it until it starts to shoot bad. I just cleaned a .270 down to bare steel after several hundred rounds so I could look at the throat. First round out at 200 yards landed in the middle of the group from a "dry barrel".

As smokepole mentioned I would be leery of anyone promoting 4 strokes of a brush for every round fired unless he owned a barrel shop and wanted to push sales.

a bronze brush if stroked 20 times or 200 is going to wear a steel barrel?

I don't like brushing that much but I don't see it wearing a barrel personally.

I've done over 1000 strokes with a brush, patch and diamond lap paste and still had copper in a bad barrel..... I"ve done it with JB too.

I just don't see how a brush can wear a barrel.

How far are you shooting? How accurate do your shots need to be? How long are your hunts? Blues or stainless barrel?

These are all factors you should take into consideration.

I hunt in open country with low humidity. Oil in the barrel typically throws your first shot a full MOA, so I never hunt with oil in my barrel.

If I was hunting in some southeastern swamp where 50 yards was a "long shot", my methods might be different.

Then why do people recommend using a bore guide? It's not a metal hardness issue, it's a grit on the rod and brush issue, and the fact that running anything in and out of your bore and over the crown a few hundred times when you don't need to is not a good idea.