I admit I'm ignorant of this topic after years of just buying a new firearm and going out to shoot. Does the importance vary among calibers? What is the best technique that you find? I hear things like shoot 25, clean, then 10 clean then 5 clean.

As someone who's done that in the past I think it's a waste of time for hunting rifles. I finally had my first full custom rifle built last year. It has a Bartlein barrel and shot a 0.5 moa group with the first load I tried in it. The guy that built it is a former competitive bench rest shooter. And he told me to clean the barrel after the first 20 rounds or so then just clean as I normally would. He did say that accuracy and velocity would improve during the first 100 rounds, but I didn't really notice that.

Some people get silly with it, but peace of mind and confidence in your equipment is important. I use Cooper's method of every 5 shots for the first 25. I run a bore snake with the fabric coated in Sweet's or Hoppe's about 5 times. Most barrel mfgs have their proprietary method.

I also run some pretty hot rounds so I never shoot more than a 5 shot group if shooting for accuracy; 3 if suppressed.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/proper-break-in-of-a-rifle-for-max-accuracy.30440/

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/objective-research-on-barrel-break-in-procedures.27321/

Accurate rifles taught me that cleaning is over rated. By a lot. Shoot until the gun starts to be less accurate. Then clean, and start over. I have at least one rifle that has over 500 rounds through it without any cleaning. Not sure if the accuracy will ever dip. Until then, I'll just keep shooting.

Pacnor barrel on my main rifle. I will run a bore snake thru it if I have been out in a dust or rain storm all day. Otherwise never touch it. I do wax the exterior every year to cut down on moisture problems.

This place has gone straight to hell.

I'm ambivalent on the benefits of a rigid break-in protocol. I've broken in some and went straight to hard use with others. Can't say that I can tell the difference. As far as cleaning and fouling shots go....this I know to be critical. When I clean a rifle at the range, I fire a fouler if I am planning to use the rifle for a cold bore kill shot on the next outing. After cleaning I run a patch with CLP Break-Free down the bore. The 1st shot with the wet bore is always 1-2 MOA away from the group. Also depends a lot on how you shoot and what you're shooting. A 100 yard poke under a feeder versus a 700 yard shot at a bull elk at 9k elevation. With the former, you'll never notice the difference.

I clean every couple shots until patches don't indicate heavy copper fouling. After that I seldom clean. Sometimes it's a quick process sometimes not. Have no idea if longterm it makes any difference in accuracy but it will be easier to clean down the road.

slammerag said:

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I clean every couple shots until patches don't indicate heavy copper fouling. After that I seldom clean. Sometimes it's a quick process sometimes not. Have no idea if longterm it makes any difference in accuracy but it will be easier to clean down the road.

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I do something very similar.

I am convinced that it has zero effect on longterm accuracy but that isn't why I do it. I do it simply to learn my barrel - I want to know if it collects copper or not. Often it will show traces of copper fouling for the first few groups then not so much.

A nice, lapped barrel with cut rifling shouldn't hold much if any copper after break in. I just like to know that for sure.

For factory barrels I don't worry about it at all- just custom ones. And hoppes doesn't tell you **** you need a copper solvent.

With modern smokeless powders, cleaning is really an overrated metric. It was a necessity when powders were corrosive, because over time they would actually damage the interior of the barrel and thus ruin the firearm. There are no commercial corrosive powders on the market today, so the cleaning aspect isn't nearly as important as it used to be.

Break in of a new barrel is purely a function of opinion. Every manufacturer has their own method, some don't even bother to offer a method. Do what you want to do on that aspect.

Fouling is one of the key components to how a gun shoots. The barrel that shoots best perfectly clean would be one in a million, if not one in 10 million. Every barrel finds the best accuracy with some degree of fouling. A poster above summed it up best - shoot until accuracy goes down, then clean, re-foul and start shooting again.

Only time anything would change is if your gun got really wet, dropped in the mud, sand, etc. and simply needed a maintenance cleaning to remove unwanted debris. Cleaning the action regularly is still a good practice.

Are Y'all telling me there is no carbon in gun powder or that carbon does not attract moisture?

No need to change your oil as long as your truck still runs. If it starts idling a little rough, then maybe look into it. Til then, let 'er rip tater chip.

It was my understanding that break-in procedures were developed to remove burrs from cut rifling. With so many now made with the button method, those burrs never develop. In addition, most quality barrels are hand lapped; further reducing the need to break-in the barrel.

Being stuck in the past is fun. Enjoy all that meaningless cleaning.

Every bench rest competitor is stuck in the past.

Have you seen the average age/health condition of the benchrest competitor vs the PRS competitor?

There's a reason the old fats play on the benches and haven't caught up....

Lmao

Both Tony Shankle and Ryan Cleckner clean after use. They both believe in an equilibrium and I think that is right for most people.

How much cleaning depends on how much you should and how long the gun will be stored. Leave it until accuracy drops off is laughable and I would say this is more stuck in the past then those that moderately clean after a range session. (This may be slightly more reasonable for copper fouling vs carbon. Also, I find it funny that a copper brush will "ruin" a steel barrel)

FYI a bore snake does little to nothing. I know a lot of people believe in them but I have fun a camera down the barrel then a snake a few time then a camera. Moves (not removes) a few loose particles and barely lubes the barrel on a rifle.

I don't know what either of those are. Ain't nobody trying to be the best at exercising.

Y'all clear your rifles?

2-3 times a day

I checked my book.

I have 527 rounds down my Tikka CTR barrel without cleaning.

I have over 2000 rounds down a supressor without touching any solvent.

I invite anyone to:

A) Bring their borescope and take a look.
B) Bring your rifle that you waste cleaning materials and time on and attempt to out shoot it.

I simply do not believe that I have a unicorn of a rifle barrel.

Do I clean other rifles more often? Yes. But only when the accuracy drops off. I have a Remington mountain rifle that opens up after 15 or so rounds. I'm not a fan of that gun. It doesn't get shot. Its less accurate when clean/fouled than my Tikka at 500 rounds.

All to say that cleaning has its place, but lots of folks I know that clean just to clean because someone says so. Ok why??

VoreMoar12 said:

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2-3 times a day

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It's my gun and I'll clean it for as long and as hard as I want!

slammerag said:

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I clean every couple shots until patches don't indicate heavy copper fouling. After that I seldom clean. Sometimes it's a quick process sometimes not. Have no idea if longterm it makes any difference in accuracy but it will be easier to clean down the road.

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This is basically what I was told by the folks who built my custom 6mm.