Long winter, let's discuss...

[chris allen]

It may depend on the type of jag one uses .

I cheat on patches and use the heavy blue paper towels and tear them to what ever size I want .Down side is you cannot see any blue indicator of copper on the patch .

[Jingle]

" Turns out all that moly I shot through it combined with lack of cleaning has pitted the old girl."


Odd that you should mention "Moly" I picked up a few boxes of .172 moly coated HP at my local shop and didn't even realize it... I did a bit of research as I'm not up to par on moly coated bullets and was instantly turned off and returned them for some good ol copper...

I've been using Hopps #9 for years then a bit of du-lite

[SS427]

I've found patches of the same size can have different thickness. I bought a bunch of patches for a 6mmBR and they were way too tight with a 6mm jag, and way too loose with a .224 jag. I had several 6mm jags, so I chucked one up in my drill and using some fine sandpaper turned it down some. Used some JB Bore Brite to smooth the jag after the sand paper. It wasn't much I took off, but enough to get the patches to fit perfectly.

[georgeld]

all the 17 patches I've seen are 3/4" sq.

Bet you'll find that pitted bore still shoots.
I got an old '17Enfield that was a parade rifle in Mich.
Never cleaned, bore looked like a badly rusted out pipe.
Amazingly it made steady 2" groups at 200yds with most
anything we ran thru it whether jacketed or hard cast.
It was so bad the guy I got it from had cut 6" off the muzzle
end with a hacksaw & hadn't touched it up yet. I cleaned the
hole up a bit and left it that way. Two of us shot it in the
"Old Military" match three yrs and did well with it.

Good luck,

[albertacoyotecaller]

I am not over worried about that pitting. That barrel has seen probably 1000 rounds. The pitting isn't to bad but is there. It was under every little bit of moly that I left in the barrel years ago. I got to check out the barrel with the scope myself which was interesting. The last few years I have not paid attention to cleaning that much but this little lesson has taught me something.

Just thought we could discuss different approaches to keeping those irons going strong.

[Kiwishooter]

One thing I found when shooting moly bullets was I still cleaned as much as when I was shooting naked bullets....did barrels last longer??? I honestly don't know.

But the barrels using moly bullets needed cleaned as often as non moly barrels.

For 6PPC barrels, it's generally 1 to 2 wet patches soaked in Butches, then the bronze brush followed by another wet patch and left to soak while I reload then a dry patch.

This method does not work for factory barrels, some big bore barrels and some varmint rifles,, which is where the borescope comes in handy. I can tailor the cleaning method to the rifle and know when it's clean.

I have bought some rifles that didn't shoot very well until I cleaned them, probably why the owner sold it ......Kiwi

[Stevo]

I found this rifle in my Barn while cleaning out the loft. It was under a pile of plumbing fixtures and looked like it had been up there for many years. Rusted like one of the pipes it layed with. I decided to try to save it one day and to my surprise it cleaned up well. When I cleaned the barrel I expected a badly pitted barrel. To my surprise it came out shiny and clean as a whistle.

I was told rimfire .22's are coated with a lubricant and that is what saved the barrel. Any truth to that?

[Hog Patrol]

Nice job on the .22! Those old ones sure had "character".

[TinMan]

Sure, look at almost any lead bullet 22lr that has a wax or even a grease lube. That rifle looks like it could be a JC Higgins/Springfield.

[tuck2]

I m a 17 caliber fan and have air rifles and 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Hornet, 17 Fireball and 17 Rem cartridge rifles. I cut off q tips , the cut off ends screw into a 17 caliber cleaning rod with the cotton tip holding the cleaning liquid . Before using Q Tips I also and have used various cleaning rod tips and patches .=== Long Winter, its snowing and wind is doing about 25 MPH this morning . Got a 17 Hornet rifle last December which is still not sited in at 100 yards but one day I did shoot it four times at 50 Yds before it got winder.