How often do you clean your barrel?

[nervoustrig]

There is no right way. Any individual's cleaning regimen is some variation of a theme. If there is a right way, it is any method that gets the barrel clean and doesn't risk damage to the bore or crown and uses readily available tools and isn't an undue skill or time burden.

For barrels shooting pellets, it is seldom necessary to use anything more aggressive than a pull through with snug cotton patches wetted with a penetrating oil of some kind (Hoppes #9, Kroil, WD-40, etc.).

However a rough bore and/or shooting slugs may sometimes require scrubbing with a bronze brush. Harder lead alloys (e.g. Crosman pellets) may leave lead deposits that are more difficult to remove, particularly where the pellets or slugs strip through a choke.

A few years ago I got into the habit of prepping the bore of all new barrels with at least J-B Bore Compound. Many barrels will benefit from starting with something more coarse. Not polishing, just knocking down the surface fretting left over from the rifling process. Forcibly dragging a rifling button through the bore tends to leave a landscape of what we might call micro burrs. Anyway, after this treatment the bore will not only go longer between cleanings, it will be easier to clean when the time comes. Rarely do I need more than 5 patches to clean a pellet barrel that has been prepped this way.

 

[fuznut]

Nervoustrig 

Thank you for your reply. A lot of what you say makes sense and I agree with. Slugs I'm sure do lead a barrel far more than any pellet ever would. And a choke would as well how could it not? I am less sure that a snug patch soaked in oil is going to remove enough lead to have any meaningful effect on the accuracy of a barrel. But yes a brass or bronze brush make lead removal possible but in a heavy leaded barrel it's a lot of work. The elephant in the room here is how can some barrels seem to go forever uncleaned with no noticeable loss of accuracy. I can't help but wonder if lead fouling might sometimes be a handy excuse for lack luster performance when the reason is not the gun or barrel. Surely not! Wash my mouth out with soap and send me straight to the bowels of hell for thinking such a blasphemous notion. It's the gun! It's always the gun!

 

[SladeSteele]

Once