how often

[tdoyka]

how often do you clean your gun with cast boolits?

i'm a newbie. i just got done cleaning my 45-70 handi rifle(brand new) and i'm going to shoot my first ever cast boolits out of it. a 405gr fn (moyers cast bullets) with a charge of 13.0gr of trail boss. i shot 20 remmy ammo, cleaned the barrel till it shined, (used gunslick spray foam and shooters choice),until the patches came out clean, and now i wait until monday till i get out and shoot it.

assuming it doesn't lead the barrel, how long do you clean it?

[waksupi]

I seem to remember cleaning the barrel of my main big game rifle maybe 3-4 years ago. That discounts running patches through and some oil during hunting season for moisture. Aside from that, if the accuracy is holding up, the less cleaning, the better.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Tdoyka,

I'm with Waksupi, and my answer is seldom.

Now, I live in an area with much lower humidity then some, so that is a factor, but can't remember the last time I cleaned a stainless handgun barrel, and for my 45/70, maybe ?? once a year or so providing I don't get soaked during hunting. Then I would clean and shoot a shot or so to re-season the barrel before again taping and hunting.

During hunting season, I tape up the muzzle of my rifle so seldom does it get water etc. down the bore.

Now, if I were to switch back and forth between jacketed bullets and cast, the cleaning would likely be MUCH more frequent due to the copper fouling.

BUT ------------- and this is important, good results and limited fouling from cast bullets depends of barrel condition and quality AND the very important proper bullet to bore fit as well as alloy and lube used.

Get a proper bullet to bore fit and a good lube and you should have no issues.

I did a bunch of testing and shooting with a 355gr - 45/70 cast bullet above 2000fps and as high as 2500fps with really minor streaking of lead fouling just behind the muzzle. Not an issue and nothing to be concerned about.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[country gent]

As long as there is no heavy deposits or heavy leading then cleaning is up to you. We learned to clean enough to get thru the next match in high power rifle. Cleaning to good can mean having to reseason the barrel to get back to accuracy levels expected.

[tdoyka]

thanks!!!

this 45-70 is going to be for cast boolits only!!!:)[smilie=s: i shot out the remmys over three days(grouped high and to the right) about 2 1/2-3" at 50 yards(20 remmys factory ammo). i'll get some good open sights(peep sight & front sight), some trail boss for plinkin and some rel7 or varget for deer and i'll be good to go.:Fire::guntootsmiley:

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

tdoyka,

If your looking for brass, buy Starline if possible. Great product at a cost of about 1/3 or more less then Rem. or Win.

I'm one that likes one load for one hunting rifle and seldom feel it is good to deal with multiple loads for one rifle.

My load which has proven it sell on a growing number of deer and a couple of elk is a 465gr Wide Flat Nose cast at a velocity of right at 1650fps.

Find yourself a good WFN bullet of 400gr or more and put it out the muzzle at 1400 - 1700fps and it will get er done in great style.

Everything I have read and now seen about the effectiveness of a WFN cast is true in spades.

CDOC

[tdoyka]

cdoc,

i have about 80+/- remmys and 20+/- federals, that mostly my little brothers. i'll have to try starline brass when i can.

[JWFilips]

I clean every shooting session: it is part of the "Ritual" of ....Cast , Size, Load, Shoot, Record results, clean! then...Start all over again!

[ballistim]

I always have my kids or grandkids out at a shoot when I'm able to, they get to clean the guns at the end of the day, part of their training. I fire a few fouling shots before opening day & don't clean until the end of the season-except muzzleloaders where I'll fire a cap each time I go out, use CO2 at the end of the day to clear the load, then I make sure I see the grass move from the cap being fired when barrel pointed at the ground before I load each day.

[GhostHawk]

General consensus is Handi Rifles prefer to be shot and and left dirty. With new loads I would run a clean dry patch regularly to check for leading.

Personally, I think it is easier to spot leading if you let it sit for a couple weeks, get some oxidation going on it.

If it is damp out I would end the day with a lightly oiled patch once through just to prevent rust.

The hard lession I learned from my Ruger 10/22 was mess with the bore as little as possible without allowing rust to take over.

It does NOT like being messed with. To the point that it would change POI every time until the barrel wore back in again.

[tdoyka]

General consensus is Handi Rifles prefer to be shot and and left dirty. With new loads I would run a clean dry patch regularly to check for leading.

Personally, I think it is easier to spot leading if you let it sit for a couple weeks, get some oxidation going on it.

If it is damp out I would end the day with a lightly oiled patch once through just to prevent rust.

The hard lession I learned from my Ruger 10/22 was mess with the bore as little as possible without allowing rust to take over.

It does NOT like being messed with. To the point that it would change POI every time until the barrel wore back in again.

i think you right. i got an old marlin m25 in 22rf, i would clean it until the shell got stuck in the barrel. i'd clean her up (shooters choice), leave a light coat of oil on her and then shoot 75 to 100 rounds out of her(put the lead back into the barrel). it always shot 1/2" groups at 50 yards(7 shots), still does!!!

[Frank46]

When I first started with a 1935 Finn moisin I was really anal about keeping the barrel clean. But in truth was more concerned with any leading that I might get since it was my first attempt with cast in that rifle. Outside of dirty patches at the start of cleaning and no leading I've pretty much limited cleaning to a few patches with hoppe's. Course if I have a rifle that I know that has been shot with jacketed bullets then it gets a bit more complicated. Frank

[rollmyown]

I mostly just dry patch to remove the powder residue. Long term gets Ed's red

[fouronesix]

I clean after I get back from shooting. If everything is working right- no leading- simply two jagged patches with Hoppes 9, followed by two dry patches, followed by one patch with oil.

A cast bullet shooter that is working right, is much easier to clean and maintain than a jacketed bullet shooter.

Blackpowder shooting is a different routine.

[Bigslug]

I was raised in the "My Daddy would whip my ***" school of firearm maintenance, so unless I know it's getting shot in the next few days, it pretty much gets cleaned before it gets put away.

The blued ones need wiping down anyway - the barrel isn't much more work. It may be just a bore snake, but it gets something.

Some of this stuff can be corrosive. Cheap insurance to treat it ALL that way, even when you know for a fact that it isn't.

Aside from the barrel, some of these lubes spray a bunch of goo around the rest of the gun. Eventually, it could get to be a function problem, so the semis and revolvers get attention for that as well.

The argument against "unnecessary" barrel cleaning is that you lose some of the consistency of first-shot placement that you may have from leaving the consistent shot-to-shot layer of crud that the gun was probably zeroed with. This is going to be on a gun-to-gun basis, but if cleaning a rifle merely degrades it from shooting cloverleafs to a little bit of spread that will still kill a deer at 200 yards, I'd rather put it away clean. I'll bend that rule a little with a pre-season fouling shot through my stainless hunting rifle, but I fear rust - it's the one non-reversible firearm ailment.

[hp246]

Shoot Cowboy Action with smokeless powder. Clean those guns thoroughly ever second match. I have a .45-70 that I shoot black powder cartridge. I clean thoroughly after ever time I shoot it. Usually 5-10 rounds.