how often to clean a .22lr ?

dogcatcher223

dogcatcher223

New member
Bought a brick of ammo for my new 22 and was wondering how many I can blaze through it before I need to clean it. Reason I ask is it is a pain in the ass to clean. THANKS!
 
Not often as far as the barrel is concerned. The manual on a Marlin I bought says the barrel should only be cleaned when it gets wet.
The action will need to be cleaned to keep the gun functioning, esp. the extractor.
 
To clean mine from the breech you need to take the barrel off, otherwise I can clean from the muzzle but it will get the chamber and action all dirty. My Marlin had so much fouling there was like a varnish on the crown!
 
For me, it is very infrequent - say once a year or whenever I change the brand of ammo. My Winchester 190 semi-auto has been in play for 30+ years. It is still going great without any problems in ejecting/re-loading.

Cheers! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Danny Boy
 
I beg to differ, this may be contrary to the old hunting dogma about the 22lr, but here goes. Take it from someone out of a whole family of smallbore rifle competitors, clean that 22 after EVERY shooting session. After a hunting outing where you only shoot a few rounds its not that important, but when you shoot a whole bunch at the range or plinking this is what happens.
Every time you fire a round a little bit of molten silica (from the primer) drops out of the case, just in front of it. It builds up a little as you continue to shoot, but stays soft during a shooting session. When you are done and as the rifle cools over the next several hours this little "smiley" (it looks like a smiley face if you look down the barrel from the breach end) hardens into kind of a glass. Once it is hardened it is very dificult to remove because it has bonded to the steel. The next time you go out to shoot, the first couple rounds tear this "smiley" out of the barrel, taking a few microns of steel with it. If you repeat this process the smiley becomes a ring. And then it starts another smiley ahead of that one, and so on.
These rings will absolutely ruin accuracy. Quite a few years ago we looked at the club rifles at our local range that had quit shooting well and had been set aside. Some of these rifles had 5 or 6 of these rings just ahead of the chamber. A gunsmith who was also a member of the club took the rifles and set the barrels back about an inch and rechambered them. Voiala! They went back to shooting like the were new again.
As far as I know, this phenomenon is unique to rimfires due to the priming compound they use. And like I said during a shooting session or match you don't need to clean it (unless powder fouling is affecting the accuracy) because it is kept soft by the following rounds keeping the barrel warm. My brother has an Anshutz that he won the state junior championship with. He bought it from a previous state junior champion, who bought if from another state junior champion. I got into shooting more after college and started shooting that rifle in competition as well. We figure that rifle has had a quarter to a half million rounds through it. It shoots just as good now as it ever did because it has been cleaned after EVERY time its been shot.
 
I clean the chamber/leade area pretty frequently, the bore not so much. Even then I probably clean more often than is popular nowdays. After cleaning, it takes me as many as 25 rounds to properly re-season the bore and get the rifle shooting as it was.

Even Dan Lilja recommends cleaning the leade every 150-200 rounds with a loose fitting bronze brush, I tend to think he knows what he is talking about.

When I clean, I do use a bore guide and a one-piece rod with an integral jag. If it can't be cleaned from the breech end just use one of the pull throughs, like the Bore Snake.

There probably have been many rifles ruined by improper cleaning methods.
 
I know an Olympic Gold Medal winner, Art Cooke, who has a prone rifle with close to a million rounds through it and it has never had the barrel cleaned. It is still winning prone matches.

If you have a top quality match barrel that does not get lead fouling, I don't think it is necessary to clean the barrel. Of course, if your rifle is stored under humid conditions, it should be cleaned and oiled after every use.

In a match barrel, using a brush can cause it to take up to 100 rounds for best accuracy to return.

I am talking about match barrels here. Most factory barrels are probably a bit rougher and will require cleaning regularly to remove lead fouling. And all actions need cleaning, especially semi-autos.

Jack
 
Jack,

My Ultra Light Arms bolt-action shows a little "tightness" chambering after about 150 rounds or so. It is match chambered and engraves the bullet. The overall tolerances are so tight, I doubt I could go for 500 rounds without cleaning the chamber/leade. I don't use a bronze brush on the bore, only nylon. I usually let the rifle tell me when she wants to be cleaned.

JB
 
Daily! Clean 'em DAILY!

Well........ depends.......

I cleaned my grandson's rifle (Ruger 10/22) and mine (old Belgium Browning Semi-auto) daily for 4 days when we were shooting groundsquirrels.

Of course, we fired 2800 rounds in 4 days.....

(After a day of shooting, one pull of a Boresnake was not enough, but twice through did the job.)

Otherwise, I seldom clean a 22. But in a humid climate, oil after each shooting session to keep moisture from accumulating in the bore, which can cause rust, and an excuse to replace the rifle. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I have witnessed both ends of the spectrum via the cleaning bug! However I do like to clean my own rifles after ever session and if I can't make that date for some reason, I will spray some gun oil (NEVER SOLVENT)down the barrel and through out the action just to keep things from rusting, until I get back to the gun.

Now on the .22 cal I will clean the barrel and action after every 50 rounds or so. It is just a well learned habit and in saying so, I have never regretted such a practice over the past several decades.
 
Back
Top