Actually for long range work its not a waste at all. But then again not everyone needs the long range accuracy or shoots as many rounds. IE I can go 500 rounds or so without cleaning and no effect or not much. Whats anyones elses definition of how long between cleaning?
If it were only needing service rifle match winning accuracy out to only 600 then I could shoot a barrel dead likely, without cleaning. But at some point you clean depending on your needs.
As to large group shots like the challenge, yes you are right and no you are not. If not shooting at least 10 or 20 shot groups at some point, you never know what the gun does as it warms.
OTOH if you shoot 1 shot groups on the same target 10 or so days in a row you have done the same thing. Essentially the same with 3 or 5 shot groups but they have to be on the same target.
I"m not saying this even tells what the gun does, but it certainly tells what the shooter/gun combo are capable of. VS saying I shot this one group one time.... like the group I shot once, new Kreiger after break in, lol, at 600, 5 shots just around 1.250 inches... thats just a good group for sure, but the gun was not capable of repeating it.
But then again around a campfire face to face we would all have a super time discussing, and cussing.
Putting that first round where it needs to go is the most important in matches and in game shooting for sure.
Back to cleaning... I have no clue how many rounds our hunting 308 has since cleaning... I think its about 40 right now... simply don't need to shoot it now that we know what it does and have data. But were I shooting 1000 in a match, then it would get cleaned after a couple of matches or when I noticed the Rock tube accuracy start to get weird. IE groups climbing or falling would be an indicator of a bit of powder/carbon fouling that needed to go very likely.
