Copper fouling, when is enough?

[Jinx-)]

I clean my rifles after every shooting session, recently I was told not to clean Savage barrels and let copper fall on its own. Well I just fired 20 shots, so should I wait for it to fill my barrel full? The way I understood clean after 200 shots or so...

 

[Broz]

I would watch the accuracy and let the rifle tell you when to clean. If it shoots better after 20 then keep shooting until groups open up. But if it shoots tighter groups when clean I would clean more often.

Jeff

 

[Gene]

After being thoroughly cleaned, many barrels shoot poorly for a while. One of mine returns to good groups only after 8 - 10 shots from a clean barrel.

 

[Jinx-)]

This one capable of 0.3" when clean, but after 10 - 15 rounds groups open up.

 

[Broz]

This one capable of 0.3" when clean, but after 10 - 15 rounds groups open up.

Solid copper bullets?

In any rate I would clean that rifle every 15 rounds untill it stops coppering so badly. Keeping it clean will allow the next bullets to smooth the rough spots out.

If you are not using Boretech Eliminator I would suggest you give it a try.

Jeff

 

[J E Custom]

This one capable of 0.3" when clean, but after 10 - 15 rounds groups open up.

I have found this to be more likely than the case where the rifle gets better after lots of shots.

Most barrels shoot best clean and some shoot best after a fouling shot, but the accuracy falls
off after 5 to 12 shots.

It has a lot to do with the barrel like Broz said, and is easy to find out buy starting with a very
clean barrel and shooting at the same point of impact and keeping tract of each shot, allowing
the barrel to cool 4 or 5 minutes between shots until accuracy falls off.

A lot or the rifles have a problem shooting a 5 shot group but will put 3 in the same hole.
(Have you ever had a fantastic group going only to mess it up on the fifth shot? that is normally
the problem or the barrel heats up.

After break in i test all of my rifles to find out if they like a fouling shot or will put the cold bore
(clean) shot in the same spot. Then I keep shooting until accuracy falls off so I know how many
between shots cleaning are possible.

Once the barrel is fouled and accuracy has fallen off it will reach some point where accuracy
doesn't get worse and if this accuracy level is exceptable then there is hardly any limit on
the number of shots that can be fired.

I have a 308 match rifle that will shoot under 1/4 MOA for the first 6 or 7 rounds then it settles
in at around 1/2 MOA for the remainder of a 100 shot match without cleaning. so I would shoot
the first 60 rounds and clean before moving to 600 and 1000 yard slow fire. And would clean
between these relays.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Jinx-)]

I had this rifle for 5 years, but it always get heavy copper buildup after 10 - 15 shots. On this one I used KG-12 and it took 4 hours with patches and brush to get copper out, this is not just one spot it looks like copper gets build through out the bore, on lands and valleys, some places deep down the barrel are shiny red. I didn't fire solid copper bullets through it, 20 shots I made where 150 gr Nosler BT and 140 gr SGK. Also it groups better with 3 shots, so I do not fire 5 shot groups with it.