If only sciencing were that simple
First, determine the most accurate ammo in the rifle.
Then clean the bore, chamber, action thoroughly.
Then shoot some "control" groups, enough to show a consistent group size, after the bore settles from being cleaned. When I'm testing ammo this will be five to ten 5rd groups usually, with CCI Standard Velocity.
Then do a whole lot of shooting until you start seeing the groups opening up, even just a little, but consistently. You might shoot ten groups, and still have a couple on par or better than the controls you shot, but if the average is 25% bigger, or 50% bigger, note it in your log for the rifle. It might never get any worse than this, this might be the peak. It is likely still perfectly acceptable for the purpose, but it is not as good as it was.
Clean the bore thoroughly again and see if the groups are comparable to the controls you shot the week, month or year before. If not, perhaps a different issue has cropped up.
If the rifle groups 30mm at 50m after 2000rds, and that is all you need or want from it, then don't worry about cleaning it, many, many people are perfectly happy with that. If it groups 15mm for the first 500rds, before opening up, and you enjoy the finer accuracy, then spend the thirty minutes or so to clean it every 500rds, and reseason the barrel again if it needs to settle.
on_one_wheel wrote:OK... I couldn't wait shot 4 groups of 5
2 dirty and 2 clean.
I was hoping for a miracle group
Unfortunately all four groups were precisely the same
Outcomes
I guess I have definitely busted the
"cleaning a rimfire will ruin your group size until it settles in again" argument
The other lesson I learnt was that the stainless rod sux to clean my 452, the leading edge of the chamber is a perfect square edge that's sharp as a barbers razor, it catches the rod and shaves metal from the rod.
I switched to my plastic coated 2 piece with brass joints, that one was smooth as silk