cleaning between different ammo

[montveil]

I am about to test about 20 brands and velocities of 22 lr ammo in my Nylon 22. Initially 5 shot groups to throw out the fliers. In the second stage, i will take the best of the initial and repeat and again select the best after which I hope to have narrowed the selection to three. I will then fire 10 shot groups fo the final selection.

I don't wish to comprimise the results so I was thinking to foul the barrel with 5 shots.

MY QUESTIONS ARE :

Does my protocol seem reasonable?

How should I clean the bore between brands short of a full cleaning?

 

[KN]

If it were me I would run a bronze brush, or a bore snake down the barrel between ammo changes, and follow with a couple of patches. Fire a few "fouling shots and proceed.    KN

[Hafast]

I am a big fan of the Patchworm system. When testing ammo for my benchrest rifles, I run a wet (Hoppes #9) patch through the bore followed by 2 dry patches. Then fire 5 fouling rounds, then fire for group. Repeat when changing brand / lot# of ammo.

[iowa]

MontV:  If it is important enough to you to test 20 brands for accuracy, then it should be important enough to take the time and definitely clean between brands.  The wax ,lube if you will, will have an impact on accuracy  Even firing a few sighters without cleaning will not set the barrel up properly for the next brand.  You definitely need to clean between brands, and use the  same prtocol each time.....best of luck  Iowa

[Graybeard]

Honestly no it is NOT reasonable from my experience. It often takes as many as 20 to even 50 shots with a different ammo before the barrel settles down with it and begins shooting its best it's going to with that load. My shooting partner and I went thru this many years ago and we decided that cleaning or not it still is going to take you a mimimum of 20 shots before you'll begin getting best accuracy with the new load.

If you wish to test this yourself clean the barrel good and then begin shooting whatever you have the most of. Shoot in five shot groups and keep careful records of group size and order shot and see when groups settle down with that load and when the turn is made that better groups begin.

We went thru that process with lots of different ammo types firing many thousands of rounds in the process.

[oldandslow]

I agree with Greybeard.

[Ladobe]

Wise words from Bill, and spot on.   

More rimfire barrels are damaged/ruined from over cleaning than any other cause.   I'm from the old school that 22 rimfires are for shooting, not for cleaning.   Took me ten's of thousands of rounds and 45+ years to finally wear out the 1890 and 1906 Winchesters (plus whatever use they had before I got them used in the early 50's).    They still shot as good as ever - it was the actions that wore out.   Doubt my most used 22LR bolt rifle has had a full cleaning job more than 2 or 3 times since I got it new in 1984, and won't be again until accuracy does start to fall off with it.    It gets a patch once in a while with a very little lube and a quick action brush and lube, that's all.   To be fair, it hasn't seen much use since the 17 rimfires came out and 6 of them followed me home.    But it did shoot many thousands of rounds before they did.

YMMV

L.