Bud Hyett
posted this
19 April 2019
Interesting discussion with many points offered. In my experience, there are too many factors to have an absolute answer. The degree of cleaning is dictated by the individual rifle and the individual bore, same as the loads.
With .22 LR target grade barrels, I only clean when switching ammunition. Even with Eley brand, I found this to be true switching from Benchrest to Ten-X. Brush with Ed's Red, patch until the patch comes clean, five shots for conditioning the bore and then shoot for record.
With cast bullets, I only clean after each match stage going from 100 to 200 yards and after the 200 yard match with my current traditional benchrest rifles. The military rifles show the same cleaning regimen with rifles that have been shot a lot. Rifles with newer barrels require more frequent cleaning. I have two issue Springfields that have been rebarreled and thus I know their history.
As to the question of "ease of cleaning'', I do not believe there is an exact answer. My experience has taught me the sooner you clean, the easier to clean. Experience has also shown some lubes to be harder to extract and clean, TAURAX being my worst example. Certain brands of NRA/ALOX also seem to stick more effectively to the barrel and need more patches to have a shining bore. Ed's Red does an excellent job. I apply Kroil as a preservative when clean.
These days, I only shoot jacketed for prairie dogs. Fifteen to twenty shots, clean while the barrel is hot. Too many prairie dogs, switch to another rifle and clean both. I may be wearing the barrels out by excessive cleaning,
Theoretically, barrel temperature can be an influence. Every ten degree increase increase in temperature doubles the rate of reaction within a compound and this influences reactivity. Immediately after firing, the barrel is hot and the cleaning compound reacts more effectively. This is an attribute that is subjective and hard to quantify to have an objective analysis.
Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest