How many rounds would you expect to be able to fire before accuracy starts to degrade.
This will vary by caliber, powder, charge, bullet etc so it may be impossible to answer.
But I’ll ask it anyway. If you ran a destructive test on a proven rifle/load combination where would you expect the groups to start shotgunning? Thanks, Bill.
A “Measured Response” is as effective as tongue lashing a stuck door.
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How many rounds would you expect to be able to fire before accuracy starts to degrade.
This will vary by caliber, powder, charge, bullet etc so it may be impossible to answer.
But I’ll ask it anyway. If you ran a destructive test on a proven rifle/load combination where would you expect the groups to start shotgunning? Thanks, Bill.
Bill, I have an AR10 in 7.62 Nato, not 308 Winchester. It's very accurate with cast and jacketed. I once put a little over 600 rounds of cast through it to see how far I could go shooting it before problems arose. I gave in and tore it down for a good cleaning, but not because the accuracy was deteorating, but because it was not. It was just plum awful dirty. I have to agree with what Pat I posted here about giving the rifle a little maintenance. The bore was the cleanest part of the rifle! I have good bullets, alloy, and apparently very good lube. The bore was pretty shiney and free of lead even looking at it with a borescope.
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One of the top cast bullet shooters thirty years ago cleaned his rifle after every relay. He said he wasn't sure if it was required, but at least his bore condition was the same for every target.
"if it was easy we'd let women do it" don't tell my wife I said that!
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Recently I’ve had a brush with unexplained patterns while shooting groups. After 30+ shots things may be getting progressively worse. In the recent past this may have been camouflaged by trying different bullets in the same range session through a barrel that needed cleaning.
I think shotgunning can be caused by excessive pressure, the wrong powder or a poor bullet to throat fit.
Looking back over my notes I’ve found unexplained big groups that were recorded from time to time. That started me to question the cleaning frequency. I’ve never tracked groups to the cleaning cycle before. Often shooting 40 to 50+ shots between cleaning. Next trip out should add more information.
On the other end of the spectrum I think that I only need two fouling shots before going for record. The next trip will confirm that as well.
With this barrel, this powder, this charge and this bullet I have proven to myself that a clean barrel will not adversely affect group size. Like Pat said, there’s too many variables to declare a best method.
I’m going to fall back to my traditional jacketed bullet frequency of cleaning which is every 15 to 20 shots and see how things shake out. Thanks, Bill.
A “Measured Response” is as effective as tongue lashing a stuck door.
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Back in the 1980s I had a rifle, bullet, powder, fit combination that didn't seems to benefit from bore cleaning. For two and I believe three competitive seasons I didn't clean at all (approximately 2,000 round per season. At the end of the season I gave the bore a good cleaning and shot a few groups -- no improvement. In my ignorance, I wrote an article for the FS at least implying that other shooters were foolish for cleaning during a match. The Cast Bullet Gods have been punishing me for my arrogance ever since. Sometime I have a load that never seems to degrade other times I definitely can shoot better if I clean every relay. I suspect it has to do with the type of fouling or slight leading that does or doesn't happen but don't claim to know.
One factor is that shooters are experts at seeing things that aren't really there. in a string of groups the natural variation is much much greater than most shooters will admit even if every cartridge and shot is exactly the same. That "bad" group or even a couple may mean nothing but the natural variation in group size is doing it's thing and the next group may be unusually small. See my articles on the phantom "tuning" that Jb benchresters deceive themselves with.
John
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"One factor is that shooters are experts at seeing things that aren't really there"
I'm saving that one!
"if it was easy we'd let women do it" don't tell my wife I said that!
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Aaron
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linoww
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John Alexander
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John Carlson
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Wm Cook
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RicinYakima
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beagle6
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fc60
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Wilderness
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delmarskid
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