A couple weeks ago I won a match on X count. I lamented about flyers at 10 and 4 o'clock, pairs of them, that had never shown up before. Offline Felix and I had a conversation or three which he may or may not want to expound upon here. Short of it is that there's really not much wrong with not cleaning...., up to a point. This bbl has thousands of rounds throught it, 03A3 from CMP. All cast. All with Felix lube.
Well, first patch through didn't want to go through. At all. Hung up in the neck so I let it soak a little then with some force pulled it back out. Next on just barely went. Felix, your hunch was purdy good. Soooo, the gun is set up, as we speak, in the gun vice.
Now, here's the thing. This gun get no more than about 65 rounds per month now. It just kept getting better and better and better (as good as a 297/300 not long ago), and then the flyers. So, if anyone cares to cuss and discuss cleaning and accuracy, this is the place.
The other part of this now is that there is another match in two weeks. The bore will need fouled, and I'm fairly confident that POI is now changed - might not even like the boolit anymore.... Only way to tell will be to put it on paper. It may or may not come back to where it was. That's okay as long as the flyers go away.
Here's another thing. As I began the cleaning process that Felix and I discussed, the bore had tight (really tight in the throat) and lose spots. Now that alot of the fouling is removed it is becoming a little more consistent, as much as a war time (WWII) production bbl can be.
If Felix will pipe in you might be as suprised as me when he comments on how it came to this. btw, before he says anything, I'm not planning on changing a thing. sundog