Think I'll be cleaning my .22 from my on

[Lorgar]

Everyone knows the 'should you ever clean your .22' debate and people complaining about accuracy drop off after cleaning their 22. and needing to put a dozen rounds through it before consistent accuracy returns.

According to the Anschütz manual for my 1416 I should clean it once after the first 1,000 rounds, then one every 5,000 rounds. For all intents and purposes every 5,000 rounds might as well be never cleaning it for most people...

Straight from the horses mouth but I don't seem to be seeing the results expected.

On the debate of cleaning or not, for the last 8 visits to the range I did 4 visits shooting with a clean barrel, followed by 4 shoots with a dirty barrel.

All shooting with the same ammo, doing 75 - 150 round per trip to the range and the clean barrel is consistently working better for me.

Dirty barrel, I'm getting decent groups with varying spread from the start, all the way through the day without any change. Groups size tends to be due to shots stringing out

Clean and cold bore, I'm getting my best groups straight off the bat. Average groups shot fresh are consistently a few mm smaller than average dirty barrel groups and group shape is round instead of shots stringing out.

Won't be the same for everyone, but just sharing the experience for anyone interested in whether or not to clean their .22. Might be worth you're time trying yourself rather than rely on popular opinion.

[Elek]

I saw your groups in the range report you posted for your Anschutz.

Definitely can't complain with the clean results, regardless of what your book says...

[Westy]

I've got a 1712 and it sure shoots much better when it's clean.

As to my 1416, I clean them every time after I shoot 'em! Just can't bring myself to put a dirty rifle back in the safe?

LOL

[Aster]

Just can't bring myself to put a dirty rifle back in the safe?

I'm the same.

I know the 'why' for not cleaning them, but it grates on my nerves to leave them dirty

[Antie]

Definitely can't complain with the clean results, regardless of what your book says...

Who cares what it says if it shoots better going against it

[jennageit]

I watched my dad clean both of his guns every time he was going to put them away. He would shoot just about every weekend.

He'd come home, put the bunnies in the freezer, tack the fox pelts to the big gum tree out front and then sit down to clean his guns. Without fail, he'd do this and then lock them up. Next time he'd go shooting, he'd just take them out and off he'd go, never cleaning them beforehand. He reckoned you could over clean them which would cause damage.

Me, I think i'll probably clean mine when I bring it home from the shop, if nothing else but to learn a little more about it, and i'll clean it before and after. I'm still learning about all of this, so I have no idea what will seem appropriate or correct when the time comes.

[Baldrick314]

Me, I think i'll probably clean mine when I bring it home from the shop, if nothing else but to learn a little more about it, and i'll clean it before and after. I'm still learning about all of this, so I have no idea what will seem appropriate or correct when the time comes.

Cleaning it when you first get it is a good idea. They generally come out of the shop packed full of grease to preserve them and you want that gone before you shoot

[harlow]

I think i'll probably clean mine when I bring it home from the shop, if nothing else but to learn a little more about it,

Cleaning it when you first get it is a good idea. They generally come out of the shop packed full of grease to preserve them and you want that gone before you shoot

Definitely clean it before shooting it for the first time.

Like Baldrick says... out of the box they don't have a fine layer of oil like you ran a cleaning patch through it. They look like someone blurted grease in with a caulking gun.

You need to clean that out or you can bulge your barrel.

[Lorgar]

and i'll clean it before and after

I've stuck to cleaning mine after each shoot and it's still shooting better for it.

[jennageit]

That's what I'll be doing.

[Lorgar]

Got that license application in yet, Jenna?

[jennageit]

Not yet.

My back took a turn for the worse so I've been stuck in bed for the last week. I can manage to get out of bed for about 20 minutes a day at the moment. Next week (all going well), i'll submit it then, and then i'll be on my way!

Look out foxes!

Jenna

[Lorgar]

Bugger.

Oh well, soon enough I suppose