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I never need to clean my barrel -- am I the only one?

If it is a relative new gun, and if I am in a tuning procces, I do clean the barrel once in a while "just in case". I do that simply to rule out a dirty barrel being the cause, if I am not happy with grouping on target. If I see no improvement before and after, I then learn that particular barrel does not need cleaning at least after x- ammount of shots.
 
Thats great ... tho on question, will suspect mostly crickets :rolleyes:
Was having odd poi issues with two used AAS500XS platforms… removed shrouds to clean barrels and found cleaning rubbish bits in space between barrel and shroud …. Removed trash and spot on … cleaning pellets are worthless especially on shrouded barrels
😖
 
Was having odd poi issues with two used AAS500XS platforms… removed shrouds to clean barrels and found cleaning rubbish bits in space between barrel and shroud …. Removed trash and spot on … cleaning pellets are worthless especially on shrouded barrels
😖
Why I'm such a HUGE fan of HOPPES Bore snakes w/o brushes .... Tight to very snug SQUEEKY clean draw threw ... Love them !!!
 
I clean the barrel every week or two when I wipe down the stock and get the sticky hand cheese off the metal work.

In my neck of the woods everything gets a coating of dust on it quick. Even if your barrel isn't "leading up" you need to get the abrasive dust out of it and off the working parts.

I have never seen an improvement in accuracy or a drop off in accuracy from cleaning any of my air rifles.

Every one of my powderburners shoot better with 10-15 shots down the tube. And every one suffers after 50-60. The secret is equilibrium. An air rifle barrel has a longer equilibrium so it takes a lot more shots to see the effect of "fouling". Likewise a squeaky clean bore dosent need "fouling shots" to achieve equilibrium.

I don't clean for accuracy. I clean because the gun is dirty inside and out and has gritty New Mexico sand all over it. I have never gotten a bore so dirty it didn't shoot well. Never gotten one too clean either.

In my experience as long as you have an oil free dry bore after you clean it shoots stable for thousands of shots. If you leave a little "special sauce" in the bore it takes a few shots to stabilize. This isn't about a "clean bore" needing to be "re- seasoned" it's about an oily bore needing to dry out. A few trips down the bore with an acetone patch after using a penetrant to clean and it needs no "seasoning shots".
 
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My RAW barrels get lead crap in the 1st 3" of barrel or so on chamber end. Looks like port shavings to me. So knowing this I definitely clean my barrel. Nothing crazy but since I'm always chasing 1/2 - groups at 75-100 yrds, I can't see why I would want to leave that crap in there very long. My lone critter getter get neglected in comparison. Maybe because of internal oring & mod or just laziness
 
WOW 4 pages of YES / NO and some detailed "how i do it's "
My only question i thought of is , why would manufactures put an O ring in the path of cleaning the barrel ? seems like a design flaw to me .
Yeah I wish they all did it like RAW or RTI. I'm not fond of the oring in barrel gig but must be some good reason so many do it.
 
I always clean the barrel when I first purchase a gun, new or used. New guns tend to ship over greasy and oily from the manufacturers. Guessing its to ensure no rust upon delivery. I also see it as a sign of how well the gun was maintained by the previous owner. Then maybe every 4 to 6 months on a crappy weather day I'll run a patch, oil stocks, check O rings that type of thing, its not like it takes a long time or hurts anything. I do this mostly out of curiosity. I line up 3 or 4 pistols or rifles and check them all at once. I cleaned 3 pistols yesterday, maybe 45 minutes to and hour work total.
 
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I clean the barrels of my guns about once a year when I am putting the rifles up for the winter so they'll have a coating of Ballistol to protect them in storage. I am definitely not a competition shooter, but I just haven't noticed that cleaning them makes me (or them) a better shot. I will say that my two LW barreled guns needed cleaning IMO a few times when they were new. I could see stuff hanging off the edges of the lands. The accuracy was fine in both cases but I didn't like what I was looking at. Now that they're seasoned, they don't appear to do that any more. I just leave them be except for that once a year light cleaning that I mentioned.