Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Clean weapons or shoot till they puke?

I actually cleaned two rifles and the 1911 this evening. Last few years I've been shooting more and cleaning less often. No real reason just how it's been working out.
So do you clean after every time out like I used to. Or as "BS" used to say, "shoot it till it pukes?"

I clean 'em 'cuz it is mind relaxing. Mostly just use wet and dry patches though.

Clean?

i clean my 700p 300 rum after every trip to the range or if i'm hunting with it after about 15-20 rounds the factory barrel foals pretty quick my 300 wm has a hart barrel and i can shot 40-50 rounds and get all most no copper fouling i usaully clean it after the season is over

I clean them when they quit shooting. It's not like they're going to mold or something...

Dennis

I personally don't clean a bore often unless a particular rifle is both a real fouler AND the fouling has a functional effect on what I'm doing. Since I'm not shooting matches, the latter is pretty rare...

But, it varies. I do clean regularly in the early part if a new barrel's life, when actual crud is coming out, and when it is still usually rough and fouling badly. Plus that's when I'm finding "the loads" and shooting for group size more than just to hit a rock or steel plate.

That's how I do it; certainly not saying it's right nor wrong...

Lets see, the rimfires get cleaned when they no longer extract spent cases.

anything else might get cleaned once a year. I'll jump the gun and clean an dry them out if they get submerged though.

If I want to relax, a stone and a dull knife is the answer

Ya, relax time is usually reloading. I think the whole infantry thing makes cleaning weapons work not fun. They seem to get cleaned about the time I start feeling guilty about abusing them.

Cant get relaxed when I reload, it just dont happen.

Now that I think about it, Seems like the .223 was cleaned out after deer season, and the 12ga was cleaned out after using it as a paddle.

I've got a the boat paddle that works as a 12 gauge too. It's ugly but it's a bird slaying machine.

Think were goona try for birds again this weekend. Might give it a go before the lil get to gether....Providing the slough is open enough to thread a conoe through. It was pretty froze up sunday morning.

I don't consider it cleaning.. to me cleaning is the full meal deal...scrub out the bore etc...

ever since I discovered bore snakes.. I sure run a lot of bore snakes down the barrel...

but I usually do that when the groups open up when shoot the high volume shooters...

I will do it on the other rifles when I bring them back to the barn to get put away...

in the 22 LRs and rimfires, I am finding once cleaned, it takes 8 to 10 shots for the tight groups to return... so they don't get cleaned much at all.. if they do, it is run a bore snake down the barrel, NO OIL on it.. and I call it good...

Have a friend that decided to test his AR. He had to clean the bolt carrier group I think 2 or 3 times during the year but never the barrel. That was appx 8000 rounds of firing, and the last of it was at Nationals at Camp Perry and he still shot winning level scores.

I clean when the accuracy dies, and I'm pretty picky on accuracy. I MIGHT clean once a year on some guns if I make myself but generally not.

I could see a factory fouling tube needing it more often though, but I certainly cant' see cleaning more often than every few hundred rounds or I'd replace the tube.

Jeff

Just a comment about your post. I know in the military & police depts. the term "WEAPON" is used. I'm an NRA Instructor & we use gun, rifle, pistol, handgun, & revolver. The anti's go out of their way to call our hunting guns & personal defense guns "WEAPONS". These "WEAPONS" are used to kill people in their eyes. We should all try & dispense with this word. I have to catch myself often from using this word even in training. Now for your topic. I will run an oily patch down the barrel if storing for a while. If storing for a long time I clean well & then oil. During hunting season I do nothing.

I dislike the word "GUN" more than I do "WEAPON", of course I've been in the Army or Army Reserves most of my adult life. They are weapons and they are tools it just depends on the way they are used, just like a knife. Gun to me is just too generic and if you are using it for hunting or target shooting I'd prefer the term rifle, pistol, or shotgun used. Personal defense, those firearms are weapons just as any M16/M4/M9 or Police sidearm in my opinion. If ever put in the situation where I have to defend myself, family or property, I'm going to damn sure use a weapon.

As far as the original post I don't clean my rimfires as well until they fail to extract. My centerfire rifles get the bore cleaned when accuracy fails. I always wipe them down when I handle them and put them away however. I live in a very dry climate so I don�t have to fight rust but if they do get stored for a long time I run an oily patch down the barrel as well.

TBear

Sorry about the use of words. Guess I never relized it was one of those words like killing vs harvesting. I don't use the word "gun" when refering to a firearm, just won't do it. Maybe I should have used firearm as it is more specific than weapon and a little less threating to the lib filth that calls me a murdering baby killer.

But I see your point and will try to work on it.

The older I get, the less I clean.

I scrub my rifle bores if I'm going to do any load testing, otherwise I just make sure my guns are dry & relatively clean when I come home from hunting.

My carry guns are all Glocks partially because they don't need much love to run.

After I return from firing it--one shot or 88--I clean it with two patches of Butches, a dry patch, and one of Hoppes. Adds less than two minutes of effort while I'm decapping and sizing cases, making notes, etc. Every 300 shots with a brush and JB paste. On a hunting trip, I don't clean it at all.

AR15: I disassemble and clean the bolt carrier every couple of hundred rounds. this takes far more time than cleaning a barrel.

22's and BB (shotguns)I clean them when they tell me to.

As for me and centerfires, my way for me is I am pretty darn anal about cleaning them and keeping the barrels clean.

I've been thru the life cycle"" of a lot of barrels and that's taught me that for me this is the best way.

If I weren't running tubes from beginning to end and was only shooting them a hundred or a couple of hundred rounds a year then my ways may be different.

Dober

It's good the hear other's cleaning schedules so I don't feel so guilty when I miss mine.

Most of my hunting is in the Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and California and shots can be long. Not to start the debate again of which shoots flatter, the 280AI or 7 Mag, but I do shoot a lot of magnums and they are tougher on bores.

Add to the mix that I live in California and I'm in the process of finding loads for Barnes TSX bullets which will copper foul the bore more quickly the CUP bullets.

Anyways, when shooting for groups with the TSX's, I fire a fouling shot, shoot a group of three, let cool and fire another group of three. Then I clean with Butch's, and run one dry patch, after which I clean with Sweets and let sit for 10-15 minutes. At this point I start groups with another rifle. After the 10 minutes I run a dry patch, again clean with Butch's assure the Sweets is removed completely and run a couple of dry patches.

If I'm just shooting at plates and plinking, I'll use Hornady's or Sierra's and will shoot 15 -20 between cleans.

The last thing I do before leaving the range is clean the bores and wipe down all the rifles.