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what are everyone's cleaning methods for their bolt action .22's?
- clean every how many rounds? deep scrub with brushes?

How are you going about cleaning the chamber?

I am new to bolt actions, have only had 10/22's, so mind my ignorance.

I'm picking up an Anschutz 1712 soon and want to do things right

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Start with a quality bore guide and a quality one piece rod..

That is the most important piece of the puzzle. Everybody has a different cleaning regiment but I’ll push a solvent soaked patch down every couple hundred rounds and give it 10-15 strokes with a brush every thousand or so..


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That's probably the simplest and best protocol yet.


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Originally Posted by Certifiable
Start with a quality bore guide and a quality one piece rod..

That is the most important piece of the puzzle. Everybody has a different cleaning regiment but I’ll push a solvent soaked patch down every couple hundred rounds and give it 10-15 strokes with a brush every thousand or so..


Thank you that gives me some piece of mind.

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Originally Posted by Certifiable
Start with a quality bore guide and a quality one piece rod..

That is the most important piece of the puzzle. Everybody has a different cleaning regiment but I’ll push a solvent soaked patch down every couple hundred rounds and give it 10-15 strokes with a brush every thousand or so..



What bore guide do you recommend?


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Sinclair International used to have a large selection of bore guides.

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Ed the vast majority of mine are possum hollow. Of course you can spend more but I have No complaints


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what about the process for cleaning the chamber?

I've got a membership with an indoor range about 10 minutes from my house and a whole boatload of ammo to shoot, so I will probably be there 2 to 3 times a week, 40 to 50 rounds per visit. so maybe 100-150 rounds a week. maybe even 200 if I can schedule my life properly. I'm trying to build my offhand target shooting skills for silhouette and service rifle competition.
I'll be shooting alot and want it to function properly and not let it get built up.

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My chamber cleaning tool is a highly customized affair…

I use a pistol cleaning rod and a worn down .22 brush bent to 90 degrees. I’ll soak the chamber/carbon ring overnight with kroil then scrub back and forth applying very careful pressure outward in all directions.

Obviously one must be careful to keep the brush in line with the bore to not rub metal to metal but it’s not too difficult to do if you pay attention
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When I shot competitively {4 position smallbore} I went through a whole season of practice and league matches without cleaning the bore of my Winchester 52C. At the end of the season it would still shoot 100's from prone.

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A Chinese made bolt action got really popular at our gun club years ago. the club president showed me how it shot sub-1 inch at 100yds.

A year later i asked him about it, and was he still winning matches with it. He said, "nope, not anymore".
I asked what happened and he said, "I cleaned it".

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I asked Chris Simmons about this very topic. If you're not familiar with him, he won both the NRL22 and PRS Rimfire Championships last year.

He detailed how and when he cleans his rifles. Usually, he cleans the night before a match so that when he shoots sighters the next morning, he'll re-season the bore and doesn't have to worry about how many rounds have been shot since the last cleaning.

He said his theory is that at some point, accuracy will drop off. The question though is at what round count after cleaning does the accuracy drop off...

If he cleans before each match, he's consistent.

I use poly-pellets soaked with Bore-Tech Rimfire Blend. As others have mentioned, a bore guide and a one-piece rod are important as well.

I usually will place 2 - 3 soaked poly-pellets at the bore and another 2 - 3 in the chamber and throat area. I let those sit for 30 minutes or more and this seems to do a great job of keeping the carbon build-up to a minimum.

As always, YMMV

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It's been 40 years since shooting varsity 3-position smallbore in college (Anschutz 1413) but I would go the whole season without using bore solvent and wet patch. After a practice session, or after a 120 shot-for-score in-season match, I would use a dry bronze bore brush, which had modified threads. I filed the threads down so they wouldn't thread into the female end of the coated cleaning rod. I always pushed the dry bore brush forward. I did not pull it back through the bore. I didn't want to put any wear on the crown. The reduced diameter/filed down bore brush male threaded section was easy to just pull off as it exited the muzzle. I pulled back the bare rod and mounted the dry bore brush on it, and pushed it forward again. I did this 5 times.

Then I ran a dry patch down the bore on a pointed jag (not slotted, and not pulled back) . I did this 5 times.

I used to do the "wet bore brush/solvented soaked patch cleaning regime", but I got tired of having to get the bore to "recondition" after the big wet cleaning. The dry brush/patch system gave a predictable cold bore first shot that got me into full practice or match mode right away.

I would wipe the outside of the barrel/action with a light oil when the rifle was put away after practice or a match, and a lightly oiled patch on the rear lug faces, and bolt body for lubrication

Again, that was 40 years ago. It served me well back then, but I have no idea what the recommended cleaning process is used today.


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I get my one piece cleaning rods, firearm specific bore guides and cleaning supplies from J. Dewey Mfg.

https://deweyrods.com/product-category/parts-accessories/rod-guides/weapon-specific-bore-guides/


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I agree that a good .22 bore will be like the Energizer Bunny and just keep going and going without cleaning - until it doesn't. Since I can't predict when accuracy will go south I simply clean them periodically whether they need it or not. I wouldn't want to attend a three day match while wondering if the rifle's accuracy is going to fall off in the middle of the event. I don't mind devoting a handful of cartridges dumped into the backstop to re-season the bore.


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I shoot monthly NRL22, regional NRL22X and am soon to attend my 4th of 5 NRL22 National Championship match in a few weeks.

Don Smith custom CZ 455. Use a Mike Lucas bore guide. Pro-Shot micro steel 42" rifle .22-.26 Cal. rod with 20 cal and/or 22 cal jags (depending upon patch size). 50-50 mix of Kroil and Shooter's Choice is my solvent of choice followed by Montana Rimfire Blend. Patch 3-4 times to remove fouling. Let soak at least 5-10 minutes; sometimes over night if i'm no hurry. Quality 22 cal bronze brush for bore. 6mm bronze or nylon brush, dipped in same 50-50 mix of Kroil and Shooter's Choice for chamber. Patch out to dry. Don Smith told me never more than 250 rounds between cleaning. I try but sometimes fail at not exceeding that number; especially when i'm having fun shooting.

Try to keep chamber clean, removing carbon so you don't get the dreaded carbon donut in front of the case mouth. If left uncleaned for too long a ring of "pits" might form in the chamber right in front of the case mouth. Once it's there their is no cure other than to clean it more often or change barrels. I've seen it with quality Kidd and Lilja as well as factory CZ, barrels. The ring of pits can accumulate a carbon ring fast. That carbon ring will quickly (30 seconds or so) harden and when you send a 1st round shot, it will squeeze/swag the bullets .224" bullet down under bore diameter, allowing gas to pass the bullet causing a low velocity, low point of impact. After the first shot, the carbon ring is softened and subsequent rounds will not squeeze/swag down nor have low point of impacts. I've see this with lead, target grade ammo, not copper clad bullets. I typically see POI as much as 2 to 4 moa low. Cost me 4th place in the 1st NRL22 Championship match where a 25-35 yd aspirin sized target is missed, bumping me to 10th since my first round impact in 6 of the courses of fire had very small targets for the first target. I would literally watch my bullet fly toward the steel target, missing below it. I've discussed this at length with my buddy at Vudoo 22 rifles and he concurs.

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Thanks, Alan. I appreciate hearing other's protocols.

How did you decide on Kroil/Shooter's Choice for your fluid? I've heard guys talking up straight Kroil but never tried it. I'm an Ed's Red guy but am open to other ideas.


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Back in the late 60's early 70's two older friends of mine bought Savage imported Anschutz 54 sporters from Sears. The one friend (my best friends Dad) shot his some, but other one Mike used to shoot his quite a bit in local rimfire benchrest and BR50 matches. His gun consistently beat even the heavy gun scores.
In the instructions for those rifles it stated something to the effect "This is a ultra-honed lead lapped barrel. Use of a bore brush or copper clad ammo will void the warranty."
To this day, I will occasionally run a damp patch through the bore of my rifles if I am shooting ammo with similar type lubes. If I am switching to a different lube type I will run a trimmed down brush for about two or three passes.

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Originally Posted by gnoahhh
Thanks, Alan. I appreciate hearing other's protocols.

How did you decide on Kroil/Shooter's Choice for your fluid? I've heard guys talking up straight Kroil but never tried it. I'm an Ed's Red guy but am open to other ideas.


I can't recall if it was Don Smith or someone else who shared that with me. Works quite well.

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I cleaned my pair of 37 Remington after the outdoor prone matches ended in the fall, the shot them indoors thru the winter and the next year without cleaning. Patches soaked with hoppes then 25 strokes with a brush followed by hoppes and clean patches until clean


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