Dirty rifles shoot best?

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Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by disko » 07 Aug 2013, 4:33 pm

Hi all,

I've recently been introduced to shooting by a mate who's only pretty new himself, so between us we're reliant on you experts for advice :D

To the question...

We were at the shooting range today and obviously there were plenty of others there shooting. The guy next to us was obviously frustrated with his groups, and a parting comment to one of his mates was that he was pissed he'd cleaned the rifle and regretted doing it.

We'd have asked at the shooting range but he left in a bit of a huff, lol.

Knowing nothing about such things I assumed a clean rifle would shoot best, but obviously I'm wrong...

Further explanation of this would be great.

Thanks.
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Re: Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by Rebel Action » 08 Aug 2013, 7:22 pm

Well after shooting large amounts of rounds you get a copper build up in the rifling of the barrel and this increases the bearing surface of the rifling meaning more pressure on the projectile = velocity.

Cleaning doesn't lead to accuracy it comes from the shooters skills and time tuning loads to the sin wave, harmonic vibration of the barrel. Also there can be residual cleaning fluids still in the barrel and as it gets burnt out it will lead to different pressure's. A nylon brush and a good cleaner is good to get the carbon out as that's is what starts pitting the barrel and shortens the life of it.

Remember a barrel works on very high pressure and any slight changes to it will change point of impact so consistency is accuracy you clean it you temporarily change the surface of it. Hope this helps a bit.
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Re: Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by Blackened » 09 Aug 2013, 9:36 am

Rebel more or less has it.

A 'dirty' barrel isn't most accurate, it's a 'consistent' barrel that does the job. What's best for you though depends on your shooting.

If you're doing 100 rounds of target shooting from a freshly cleaned rifle, shots 1-10 through the clean barrel will likely be different to shots 11-100 which are then going through a 'dirty' barrel.

As fouling/residue builds up on the clean barrel, the result will change slightly until the buildup has leveled out and is consistent for all shots.

If you were a hunter though, who only shoots a couple of rounds a year and go weeks or months between shots, what your rifle does after a hundred rounds wont mean anything.

If you're going out to bag one deer, and will only fire a shot if you see one, that first shot out of a clean barrel is all that matters.
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Re: Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by Vati » 09 Aug 2013, 9:41 am

Any idea what he was shooting? .22 by any chance?

.22 rounds usually have a wax (or some kind of lubricant) coating which coats the barrel. .22 shooters are always complaining about their accuracy after they've given their rifle a good clean because they took out the wax coating and have to shoot enough to build it up again so their shooting results return to "normal".
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Re: Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by Herdsman » 09 Aug 2013, 4:29 pm

Short of the single shot hunting example Blackened provided, a bit of fouling in your barrel is going to be for consistency if your spending a day at the range or in the field where you'll be sending out plenty of shots.

If I'm shooting with a clean gun, I usually shoot a practice 5 shot group to break everything in before I start shooting "properly".
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Re: Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by Norton » 12 Aug 2013, 2:34 pm

Herdsman wrote:If I'm shooting with a clean gun, I usually shoot a practice 5 shot group to break everything in before I start shooting "properly".


I'm the same. Always send a few plinkers down range to get things started before a shoot.
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Re: Dirty rifles shoot best?

Post by disko » 12 Aug 2013, 4:37 pm

Vati wrote:Any idea what he was shooting? .22 by any chance?


I don't know to be honest.

It was only a small rifle and was pretty quiet so it could have been.

I get the idea though. Cheers.
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