.17HMR

[Muir]

Marlin Firearms Co flatly states that cleaning of their 17's is not necessary. Go figure.

A friend and I tested some 17 caliber barrels for Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co when the HMR came out and we found that one of the evil culprits of inaccuracy was over cleaning. We noted that it took an average of about 150 rounds to shoot the remnants of manufacturing lubricant from the new barrels (yes, we cleaned them thoroughly before we shot them). After that, cleaning affected various barrels differently. Some shot well after 10 rounds and some took 50. If you used something like Break Free CLP you were back to square one. We finally got into the habit of just shooting them.

Since that time I have heard from a few shooters who claim that their accuracy goes to pot after 100-200 rounds without cleaning. I haven't been able to pinpoint any rhyme or reason to it.~Muir

 

[finnbear270]

Maybe just an individual barrel thing?

 

[Dawnraider]

That's very interesting Muir,i only clean the barrel as par of the course, as i said it's never really fouled like that,accuracy has never been a factor in cleaning it so that sounds like they could be right.Mines a 16"heavy barrel anschutz,the other place that i find needs a regular seeing to though is the end of the muzzel,i always clean it with some solvent when my mods off for a clean.
Neil

 

[Muir]

Finn: That's what we finally concluded. A good lesson for those who post wanting the "best load" for their what-ever rifle; all barrels are different!

D.R.: We only cleaned them when we got them dusty. We did most of our testing in the desert-bordering alfalfa fields along the Mexican border, shooting ground squirrels. On a dusty day we'd pull a dry patch thru them just to clear out the dirt. Otherwise, we cleaned every thing but the bore.~Muir

(And on a still desert morning they would still shoot an inch at 200 yards with select ammo!)

 

[njc110381]

Barrel wise I don't clean mine often. I'll usually bore snake it with Napier gun cleaner if it gets wet, but I haven't used copper solvent since the run in (which due to the lack of copper on the patch only lasted for two or three rounds!). It just doesn't seem to need it.

When me and my mentor where trying mine out from new (a 16" CZ American) it was doing an inch at 100m for me. I was happy with that as a new shooter. Now whether this is luck or what I don't know, but off a bag shooting prone my mentor who is a pretty good shot clover leafed a 3 shot group with it! Since then I've been getting penny sized groups regularly and often two of those shots are same hole. I don't know if cleaning would make it better, I doubt it. I tend to clean my guns when they lose accuracy. If they shoot where you point them why mess with it?