Not cleaning rimfires ?

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Had the Krico (will have owned it 35 years in 32 days time) out at the range yesterday arv.

I grew up putting 50-100 rounds a year through it, rabbit hunting. cleaned it religiously after every outing...1996 after Oz' Port Arthur and compulsory registration and licencing contingent on joining a club, I shot LOTS more through it, but still cleaned it every week after shooting.

Always took a couple of "foulers" in order to shoot OK, but my wife's Microgroove Brno always outshot it.

Read the discussions on other forums about the military rimfire teams not cleaning, so that the wax on the bore remained stable for next time.

So haven't cleaned it in 4 trips over six months (by cleaning, I mean cleaning, I use a loose patch to push the powder residue out).

Yesterday, it hit smack on very first shot, and put 30 Winchester 42gr subsonics into the centre 1" square at 50 metres in a row...honestly, it has never shot that well.

Change ammo, change point of impact for some ammos (CCI minimag a LOT...and wild)...CCI blue box didn't move it, just like my wife's Brno (teh fact that both rifles are interchangeable on those two staples is good).

Maybe I would have been MUCH better at hitting rabbits in the day if I'd cut back on the cleaning...was always worried about the storing the rifle for 4 months.

Got a couple of misfires towards the end, maybe 500 rounds into the new regime, but over 6 months...rinsed the bolt in my "two stroke" of wax and grease remover and ATF. The firing pin is light, as is the spring on the Krico.

So I'm a convert, leave the wax in the bore.
 
There's more guns in Oz now than before the bans.

They never got half of the target guns in the 1996 era, but many left the sport. Many of us were forced into joining gun clubs, and I know many who went from a .22 with 50-100 rounds per year to 4-5 guns, and 3-4,000 rounds per year, as a result of having to join a club to keep their 15 y.o. birthday present.

There's always continued and ongoing onslaught of legislators...e.g. pump and auto shotguns banned...works well for 20 years until the media find out that there's lever action shotguns out there, which they portray as a loophole, get facebook thumbsup, and it's same old all over again.

Yes, there are gun owners in Oz.
 
I shoot competition with .22 Rimfire rifle and I build custom Ruger 10/22 rifles with custom barrels and chambers. I have read extensively on this subject and also talked to several rifle manufacturers. The real issue with cleaning is the wear on the chamber not so much the barrel bore unless you are cleaning it wrong then the barrel bore could get damaged. Cleaning the bore is a "Sweet spot" with a .22 once you match the ammo to the barrel you have to experiment with how many rounds you can get away with before accuracy drops off. What wears out most barrels is the powder in the .22 bullet actually hardens and collects on the bottom of your barrel bore.

Now for proper cleaning I do not recommend using a rod and patch on a quality barrel it is just to easy to mess up and damage the barrel or the throat/chamber of the barrel. Use either a bore snake or some weed wackier line with a knot on one end and small patches run one with solvent then one dry and I like to do one run with Remoil or simple gun oil. Every time you run a brush down your barrel it wears the throat of the barrel where the bullet sits before ignition and over time it will wear to a point where it will effect accuracy.

On a side note many .22 rifles shoot best with barrels between 16" to 18" long especially bull barrels why? Because.22 ammo powder is all used up at about 12" inches the rest is just gravy. And short bull barrels are real stiff with less vibration. I hope this helps.
 
I’m not particularl about cleaning my guns and it’s never done any harm. So long as you’re not shooting corrosive ammo it’ll been fine.

Heck, come to think of it, I think I’ve only ever cleaned my .22 rifle once, which was when I first got it. And I’ve shot it gobs of times with no issue.
 
I think the biggest thing to keep clean on .22's is the action, more so than the barrel. Especially on semi autos. Most .22 ammo is FILTHY and really can gunk up a gun quickly. I simply wash them out in clean Kerosene, and give them a good blowing with compressed air. Then lubricate. For the barrel I just run an oily patch down the bore.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
I think the biggest thing to keep clean on .22's is the action, more so than the barrel. Especially on semi autos. Most .22 ammo is FILTHY and really can gunk up a gun quickly. I simply wash them out in clean Kerosene, and give them a good blowing with compressed air. Then lubricate. For the barrel I just run an oily patch down the bore.


I have noticed this, particularly on anything with a short barrel like a 22 pistol. I have a 22 caliber slide conversion for my SIG P220 and when I shoot rimfire.. boy there's all sorts of unburned powder all inside the frame of the pistol.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
I think the biggest thing to keep clean on .22's is the action, more so than the barrel. Especially on semi autos. Most .22 ammo is FILTHY and really can gunk up a gun quickly. I simply wash them out in clean Kerosene, and give them a good blowing with compressed air. Then lubricate. For the barrel I just run an oily patch down the bore.


I agree and I was going to say clean the action and the chamber. A clean action and chamber will keep the gun reliable. For basic cleanings in between shooting sessions, A CLP type product with a few passes with a bore snake is more than good enough while being gentle.
 
cool to hear you have a brno..i have a brno model 4 and a few cz 452 models..they all go about 1k between bore cleanings..most shoot better this way, altho one cz shoots great right away after a cleaning.
 
Originally Posted By: LotI
I run a CLP'd Boresnake only. My .22's have never seen a rod.


LOL do you step on your Boresnake to drag it through the barrel. I hear that dirt from you shoes and the ground does wonders for the crown and bore. I can't tell you how many people I've seen people do this at the range. When you ask them about it the just get this blank stare on their face.
 
Originally Posted By: Slick17601
Anschutz only recommends cleaning the bore every 5,000 rounds. They are final word in rimfire accuracy.



That's more specific to Anschutz.
I don't know if most folks will shot 5,000 rnds on a single gun, that seems like a lifetime.

Last time I ran a patch thru a .219 Zipper barrel it came out green, meaning there was
old copper in the rifling. Lots of .22 loads have a thin copper plating that'll do the same thing.
 
Good stuff Camprunner ! ... Ruger 10/22's are so customizable - so many great options I could never figure out what I wanted / needed so I'm yet to have one (lol) ! I do own a Ruger MRK III Stainless Target Bull Barrel pistol with a red dot sight which is a great value and a lot of fun !
 
Thanks guys, all good info.

I'm reticent about the bore snakes...Have seen plenty of .303 SMLEs with nasty crown wear due to entrained grit on the pull through.

I DO use weedwhacker cord as a single use on the underlever GAMO air rifle...but am questioning that now too.
 
Another negative about Bore Snakes, is over the years I have seen a total of three of them snap off inside the bore. And all of them were a nightmare to get out. Enough that I wouldn't risk their use because of it. Granted they were all well used, and the solvents and oils most likely deteriorated the condition of the cord over time. If anyone likes and uses these things, I would only suggest that they be changed out frequently. Avoid pushing their service life.

One guy ended up taking it to a gunsmith to get it removed. He couldn't get it to budge. The gunsmith removed so many of them he had a set of soft, cold rolled steel plugs he turned up, in various calibers just a few thousandths under the land diameter, that would screw into a cleaning rod. A bit like an oversize jag tip, only longer, to push them out.
 
At the farm, I never recall my dad ever cleaning any of the .22 rifles. He cleaned his hunting rifles religiously, but the .22 rifles never got touched. One was a single shot that was older than both of us put together, and the other was an entry level semi-automatic. Both worked just fine and were sufficiently accurate by my reckoning.
 
Back in about 1955, my dad, while just a boy traded his bolt action repeater Cooey for a nice tube fed Remington 550-1 semi auto. It never was cleaned much over the years. When I joined the reserves in 2001 I learned how to clean OCD style and it has taken a few years to break that habit. I found OCD style is not needed. Anyways, the 550-1 shot as good as it ever did but had lots of fail to functions. I found lots of carbon deposits in the action (recoil operated action) that I had to scrape and chisel out. I punched out the bore until it was shiny and tore the action down and cleaned everything out. It shot about the same. The biggest change that effected the rifle was seeing a parts diagram and finding out that the extractor claw and its associated spring and plunger were missing. Ever since then it has fired perfectly. I rarely clean the bore but keep the action well lubed and relatively clean.

My centerfires are cleaned when I notice the accuracy is off or they get rained on or have been shooting in the cold and bring them inside.

edit; I use a boresnake for the .22 almost exclusively as with the 17 HMR.
 
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