Do your shoot better after NOT cleaning them??

[fordwannabe]

I am from the old school my mentors taught me to clean a gun back to bare metal(bore) after each shooting session and it didn't matter how much you shot. I am finding that the more I shoot my marlins the better the groups get. Anybody else seeing this? My usual practice was to sight in and then clean, before the season started I'd fire a fouler or two and then not clean until the season was over or I got whatever I was hunting. I have fired about 50 rounds out of my 35 rem with out cleaning and it's doing better and better..any comments? Thanks Tom

[Kansas Ed]

Especially with small bore pistol, I've seen instances where it took a whole box of ammo (.22LR) through a revolver for the groups to come in. Some firearms are more picky than others, but IME the barrel sometimes needs to take a "set" to the gilding metal in the bullet. I've never really understood this, but have seen it in person many times. After a good scrubbing on some of these firearms it sometimes takes up to another box of LR ammo to get it back to where it was.

Ed

[Mike D.]

I'm one of the holdouts that doesn't clean my rifles very often. With the use of modern powders and primers, cleaning after each and every firing is highly overrated. I do clean the guns after the hunting seasons are over. Out this way, humidity is not an issue and some Winchesters stay in a vehicle all year. There's a '92 in my PU that's been there for two years, and a '95 has been left in a jeep for months at a time. No rust, no problem.

[madman4570]

My experience, dont need to clean them(the bore)after each session. Now when shooting soft lead stuff I clean the bore more often.But like say the HBAR with FMJ's dont notice a lick of diffrence.In fact after about 20rds seems to put them in a little tighter.(up to at least 300 no problem)after that I clean it!Most times that 300 is in the same week!

[crs]

All good sensible stuff for those of us that shoot big bore, slow rifles, but I have seen a few exceptions as follows:
Very high velocity ammo such as Weatherby 7mm Magnum can deposit copper fouling that will enlarge group size after 10 shots. This will cause the group size to grow as the fouling increases. A Dallas area gunsmith that is certified by Weatherby installed the muzzle brake on my daughters Mark V 7 mm Weatherby Magnum and told me how to tighten the action screws and how to clean the rifle bore for maximum accuracy. His advice was that with Weatherby ammo, clean out the copper every 12 shots. I did this and the groups dropped from 1/2 foot to 1/2 inch ! Needless to say she was delighted and this cleaning schedule has been maintained and the groups remain sub minute of angle.

This copper removal pholosophy also applied to Lyle's Savage 110 .243 with Hornady Light magnum ammo at around 3000 fps. It now groups better even than the Weatherby!

I recently discussed this with a local gunsmith friend that builds high velocity target and varmint rifles and he said "Of course, every one knows that" (or should).

[Nath]

Both my 94ae shot better fouled and the 336. My 700 in 308 need a few rounds to settle down and so is left but inspected all the time.
If I come in and the bore is damp an oily patch goes down bore but the oil is removed before shooting again but the jacket material is not removed untill I feel it needs doing etc.

My 9422 never gets done apart from the chamber.

Nath.

[Dave]

The old joke is "That gun is shooting so well I am afraid to clean it" but there is a lot of truth in that. I usually clean a gun at the end of the season. I do believe most guns shoot better dirty than clean. Not ridiculously dirty but just seasoned.

I might run a patch of Shooter's Choice down a bore after I shoot maybe 40-60 rounds or if I can't remember how many rounds have been through a gun since I cleaned it last.

Very seldom do I use something like Sweets and really get everything out of a bore unless it is a used gun I just got. Most of my guns have smooth bores and don't really copper up anyway.

I don't see the sense in super cleaning a gun after every time you shoot it.