bore question

[gunnut14]

Now I was once told by a wise man that the only dumb question was the unasked one so here goes.
At the range the other day I saw a man swabbing his bore with a mixture of beeswax and olive oil.
Same thing I use for lube.
Said he was seasoning the barrel prior to shooting.

Never heard of it so kept my mouth shut.
Decided to ask here.
Why do you need to season your barrel prior to shooting Black Powder?
Should you do it prior to shooting smokeless as well?

inquireing mind wants to know.


gunnut14

[felix]

Won't hurt, but keep the solution on the thin side and DO run a dry patch before shooting. ... felix

[Chicken Thief]

A theory about coating the barrel with boolit grease before BP fouling is applied.
If it had any real merit the best BPCR shooters would do it, they don't sooooo!

[bubba.50]

on the muzzleloading forum you can read about why they don't season barrels. has somethin' to do with bein' basically pointless as barrels don't get hot enough or stay hot long enough to season like a fryin' pan. for what it's worth, bubba.

[gunnut14]

Kinda what I thought but not my place to say anything to him so didn't.
Thanks for the info, it is something else to add to my data book.

gunnut14

[oldracer]

Pre-lubing was one of the things I either read about or was told about when I started a while back. It was on my list (long!) of things to try and I got to it last winter and it seemed to make no difference in the size of the groups.

BUT, it could be one of those psychological things that make you feel better so you do better and it that case it is worth while?! It could also be one of those psych-out things that play on other shooters heads such as "wad color" or something similar so in that case it would hurt them and help you?!

[RMulhern]

Bullschitt galore!!

[Lead pot]

The thinking behind doing what he was doing is pre lubing a barrel that has a tendency to pull lead.
I do this with one .40 caliber rifle I have that really smears the dry bore on the first shot and it makes clean up a lot easier

[Don McDowell]

Seasoning or prelubing the barrel is something that can be helpful with cutting down on leading like Leadpot said, it can also help sometimes keeping the fouling from getting to out of hand on hot dry days.
It's something to try, it may or may not work for you.
The best thing to of done would of been to ask the guy you saw doing it , why and what benefit he thought he got from it.

[wgr]

seasoning a modern barrel is a waste of time. the old timers seasoned their rifles but the barrels were made of iron like the cook wear. a steal barrel is already smooth. and if you clean your rifle with anything but plain water it will take the seasoning out

[bigted]

experience will be your best teacher. it is like why and how to do a proper barrel break in. thing is is that every body that has a brain has the ability to reason stuff out and to then do or try what makes sense to them at the time. that is how we get new people to filter to the top in competition matches...they tried a new thing or did something with an old idea that hadn't been done in exactly that way.......news flash to some.......when a shooter does find something new to try or is doing something a bit different with an old idea and it makes a difference in their score.......all follow them with their "NEW" idea rite??? so as don mentioned....why not ask the question and ponder the answer for ones self to come up with what seems rite for ourselves?

i sometimes feel tired when someone posts a senseless smarty answer to a good question when usually these people are the followers to begin with it seems.

thanks for your question and it gives this shooter at least another thing to ponder and play with on those precious times when i get to set and do nothing in the quiet but ponder stuff i hear from time to time.

[littlejack]

There you go again Rick, beating around the bush.

[TXGunNut]

Gotta think it worked for this guy. A few follow-up questions may have helped clear things up a bit.