Frequency of cleaning

[Smellydog]

Dear OP.
A 22 has its soft lead bullets lubricated.
Some are a wettish lube, some a stiff lube.
Very few have no lube.
Said lube coats the bore, some call it seasoning the bore.
Generally a 22 shoots best when the bore is fully coated with said bullet lube.
Hence, you shouldn't really need to clean it other than if you just fancy doing it.

By all means clean the bolt and extractor as others have said. A build up of said lube can impair the function or extraction, ejection and firing.
The auto should be cleaned more often and believe it or not best run dry of additional oil because combustion material sticks to the oil and will quickly cause stoppages.

 

[Mungo]

Clean .22 if groups open up. It might never happen.
Expect to have to fire anything from 15 to 50 shots after cleaning to get it to perform as well as it did before

I bought my current .22 in 2012. Still yet to clean it. Shoots fine.

 

[west_meon]

.22 are slightly different, but for centre fires if you clean the barrel after every outing, you know exactly what state the barrel is in when you next pull the trigger. If you rarely clean it, you will have no idea what is down there clogging up the rifling, and the extra pressures that may be caused.

I asked a rifle-smith about the frequency with which you should clean centre fire rifles - every use, every 20 rounds, every 100 rounds etc?

His reply was "Do you wipe your bum each time you go for a sh*t, or only after every 100th sh*t?"

 

[Utectok]

Dear OP.
A 22 has its soft lead bullets lubricated.
Some are a wettish lube, some a stiff lube.
Very few have no lube.
Said lube coats the bore, some call it seasoning the bore.
Generally a 22 shoots best when the bore is fully coated with said bullet lube.
Hence, you shouldn't really need to clean it other than if you just fancy doing it.

By all means clean the bolt and extractor as others have said. A build up of said lube can impair the function or extraction, ejection and firing.
The auto should be cleaned more often and believe it or not best run dry of additional oil because combustion material sticks to the oil and will quickly cause stoppages.

At 22 I had hard lead bullets lubricated.
Now I have some with a wettish lube, some a stiff lube.
Very few have no lube

 

[Smellydog]

At 22 I had hard lead bullets lubricated.
Now I have some with a wettish lube, some a stiff lube.
Very few have no lube

I was patiently waiting....

 

[CreedSnore]

Theres no way to be consistently dirty! but you can be consistently clean (mostly) and as accurate shooting has a lot to do with consistency it probably makes sense to keep clean.

 

[Utectok]

I was patiently waiting....

Didn’t have to wait long lol

 

[MarinePMI]

There are some fastidious people here apparently.

JMTCW, but when it comes to cleaning firearms, it should be done sparingly. And "cleaning" should be separated into two categories: cleaning the bore, and cleaning everything but the bore. You should always clean the outside of the rifle after an outing. But for the bores:

Centerfire rifles: Clean when the accuracy begins to fall off (usually 300 or so rounds, unless it's a really rough barrel, which will require copper removal much sooner).

Shotguns: Meh. When the plastic wad buildup begins to show just before the choke tube. It's a shotgun. Cleaning it isn't going to make it more accurate...because it's a shotgun. Most modern semi-auto shotguns can tolerate a lot of dirt and grime before causing issues. Some don't care one way or the other (hence how Benelli earned it's reputation for reliability).

Rimfire: Clean as little as possible (the bore) and just wipe the outside down. Clean the bolt when needed. Cleaning the bore just wastes ammunition, trying to season the bore again after cleaning.

"More guns have been damaged by cleaning, than have been shot out." Remember that.



As to consistency, for most rifles, a clean, cold bore shot is almost never where the POI is when fouled. If you must clean your rifle's bore, at least note what the CCB shift is, so that the first shot goes where you want it.

While carbon can, and does, attract moisture. And it can "speed up corrosion". The fact of the matter is, that most people clean their rifles far more often than needed and the "corrosion" is often overhyped.

Again, JMTCW.

 

[timbrayford]

Having ruined guns by going down the rust & dust route years ago I now prefer to keep them clean after each use. I used to have a Remington 597 in 22lr, it was the must awkward rifle to clean, especially around the trigger mechanism which was difficult to access and soon filled some kind of oil/carbon gunk.

 

[Stalker62]

There are some fastidious people here apparently.

When I started out, I asked the Stalker for his cleaning regime.

"I shoot it clean".

Fair enough.

Different ball game with Black Powder...

 

[west_meon]

There are some fastidious people here apparently.

JMTCW, but when it comes to cleaning firearms, it should be done sparingly. And "cleaning" should be separated into two categories: cleaning the bore, and cleaning everything but the bore. You should always clean the outside of the rifle after an outing. But for the bores:

Centerfire rifles: Clean when the accuracy begins to fall off (usually 300 or so rounds, unless it's a really rough barrel, which will require copper removal much sooner).

As to consistency, for most rifles, a clean, cold bore shot is almost never where the POI is when fouled. If you must clean your rifle's bore, at least note what the CCB shift is, so that the first shot goes where you want it.

Further to MPMI's comment above, cleaning the bore can be separated into two categories as well - cleaning out the powder residue and crud built up after each shot (easily done with a couple of clean patches and a dose of 009), and cleaning out the copper build-up.

I always clean out the powder residue, and it take 10 minutes, if that, after each outing. The copper I clean out about once a year. The big difference is that the copper build-up is microns thick, and slow to increase, but the powder residue is a rapid build-up, and heavily clogging. It is also the bit that is corrosive.The problem with 'clean it when it causes an issue' is you don't know when that will be.

I have also been puzzled by a mate who loads his own ammo and is always fiddling about with miniscule alterations and 'load development'. When testing a new load for accuracy and grouping, he always fires each shot with a cold barrel, and pushes a clean patch through after every shot. This is to achieve consistent testing conditions, apparently. However, once he has finished his testing and uses the ammo for real, he rarely cleans the bore - presumably consistency is no longer necessary after load development is finished?

 

[MAH]

Lot of different advice so I’m again coming to the directory to try and get a wider view of opinions.

No surprise that there is a lot of different advice (opinions) on here too.
My advice, read what the manufacturer advises for your rifle.
They built it, they should know.
M

 

[old keeper]

I give my CF rifles a quick run-through with a couple of dry patches followed by a bit of oil after use.

The reason for doing this as opposed to not cleaning after use is that you will get the occasional barrel that is very prone to rust, especially in areas like mine near the coast.

I once had a barrel really badly rusted after not cleaning and oiling it after it had been used, never again!

 

[Ratsbadboy]

No surprise that there is a lot of different advice (opinions) on here too.
My advice, read what the manufacturer advises for your rifle.
They built it, they should know.
M

Exactly. This is from my Tikka .243 book: