Outsider Wrote:And did i mention how much scrubbing and how many patches it takes to get that barrel clean!!! I hope all this fuss over breaking in the barrel is worth it...i am at 5 shots and 5 complete scrubdowns...and about half of a trash bag full of patches....

bwaites Wrote:Why? Shoot it, shoot it, shoot it. Clean the powder residue, and shoot it some more!

A total waste of time to do that cleaning regimen thing. Not ONE person can prove it does anything but wear the barrel out from the cleaning rod rubbing in the wrong places. Lots of people who I respect and who shoot on the National and International scene are convinced the whole cleaning thing is simply a ploy by the barrel makers to make you wear out the barrel faster!

Not needed, not necessary. Clean it from the factory to make sure there is no machining or assembly gunk left, then shoot it, shoot it, shoot it!

txgunner00 Wrote:How do you really feel about it?

bwaites Wrote:I realize there is a small group of people out there who enjoy the ritual of cleaning.....But the vast majority of shooters like to shoot, yet we get bamboozled into thinking that we aren't doing something right if we shoot our guns.

I went 700+ rounds once between sticking cleaning rods down my Grendel throat, and I regularly go 500 rounds. I don't do anything until the accuracy starts to drop off, and thats usually around 500 rounds.

Shoot more, clean less!

LRRPF52 told me at Boomershoot that he's done enough cleaning for a lifetime, and he only cleans if absolutely necessary. I think along the same lines now, and I'm a guy who washes my hands about 150 times a day. (I'm in Medicine and see patients all day long!)

I used to clean everything after every range trip....no more!

bwaites Wrote:I realize there is a small group of people out there who enjoy the ritual of cleaning.....But the vast majority of shooters like to shoot, yet we get bamboozled into thinking that we aren't doing something right if we shoot our guns.

I went 700+ rounds once between sticking cleaning rods down my Grendel throat, and I regularly go 500 rounds. I don't do anything until the accuracy starts to drop off, and thats usually around 500 rounds.

Shoot more, clean less!

LRRPF52 told me at Boomershoot that he's done enough cleaning for a lifetime, and he only cleans if absolutely necessary. I think along the same lines now, and I'm a guy who washes my hands about 150 times a day. (I'm in Medicine and see patients all day long!)

I used to clean everything after every range trip....no more!

A320PYLT Wrote:My only issue is that every time you shoot its like welding small amounts of copper to the inside of your barrel. Now I will lightly clean after inspecting a brand new fresh from the store barrel to ensure that there are no burrs or other small particles in there.

I used to clean after every outing, I have since stopped that to some extend. I dont scrub the inside of my barrel because that wire brush can do damage. I run it thru there twice then use the cloth and then a very light amount of oil. Now this may be right or wrong but when I look down my barrels with a light they look clean and that makes me feel good about it.

A320

Outsider Wrote:Screw me? LOL yeah, i have been looking at them, i was hoping to get one of the surefire muzzle brakes, but the odd thread size seems to be giving me fits finding one to fit it....Any suggestions?

bwaites Wrote:I don't necessarily disagree with you on the copper issue, I'm just not sure its a problem. Copper and bronze make great bearing surfaces. Bronze last longer because its harder, but billions of bronze bushings have been made. I really am starting to believe that copper in the barrel is not a bad thing. It took about 10-20 shots for my 7mm WSM to settle down after a complete barrel cleaning with the whole copper out idea. That leads me to believe that the copper in there was a good thing. I shot it about 3-400 times between copper cleanings, and it stayed accurate until it had something like 1500+ rounds down the tube, which is more than I was told to expect. Now I clean it with some type of carbon remover, and move on. I have a brand new barrel on the WSM, so I'll see how that idea works pretty soon! No copper cleaning and we'll see.

bwaites Wrote:I don't necessarily disagree with you on the copper issue, I'm just not sure its a problem. Copper and bronze make great bearing surfaces. Bronze last longer because its harder, but billions of bronze bushings have been made. I really am starting to believe that copper in the barrel is not a bad thing. It took about 10-20 shots for my 7mm WSM to settle down after a complete barrel cleaning with the whole copper out idea. That leads me to believe that the copper in there was a good thing. I shot it about 3-400 times between copper cleanings, and it stayed accurate until it had something like 1500+ rounds down the tube, which is more than I was told to expect. Now I clean it with some type of carbon remover, and move on. I have a brand new barrel on the WSM, so I'll see how that idea works pretty soon! No copper cleaning and we'll see.