Factory Rifle - Cleaning and accuracy

[higginsdj]

Just been watching a YouTube video featuring Stan Pate (Savage RifleTeam et al) where he stated that to get accuracy out of a factory rifle (the Savage I assume in this case) - don't clean the barrel so much. He stated that he didn't clean his factory Savage for 400-500 shots and then only after a championship event and then he immediately went out and fouled the barrel ready for his next shoot.

His rationale is that the 'fouling' fills in the imperfections in the barrel making it much smoother and tightening up your groups. Scrub the barrel and your groups will be much bigger. (He indicated that this was for factory barrels and not custom barrels).

Thoughts?

Cheers

David

[johnk]

David,

Was a time we didn't clean TR rifles all that much. I recall one guy who never touched his CM Omark barrel (or was it a MAB) & split it with a band saw after 3-4000 rounds to prove that it was fine still. Then again, compared to some of the factory tubes I've seen recently, those barrels were semi custom - and they were relatively inexpensive.

On the other hand, I've seen some wonderfully damaged bores as a consequence of layers of metal fouling being laminated between layers of powder fouling resulting in what appears to be galvanic pitting.

Irrespective of manufacture, I clean powder fouling out of my barrels at least every day, if not every break & eliminate any coppering at the end of a PM, if my experience of accuracy of a particular gun don't necessitate earlier intervention.

I don't want to be judgmental, but that sure sounds like Stan is apologising for Savage barrel quality in advance & I imagine that he gets first pick of the litter.

John

[Brad Y]

Dont clean my krieger 308 until its done about 120 shots. It shoots brilliantly up til about that time. Once its done about that many it gets a go with iosso paste and verified clean with a borescope. I plan to try the same method with my 6.5mm, will have to see how it goes.

[AlanF]

.... he stated that to get accuracy out of a factory rifle (the Savage I assume in this case) - don't clean the barrel so much. He stated that he didn't clean his factory Savage for 400-500 shots and then only after a championship event and then he immediately went out and fouled the barrel ready for his next shoot.

His rationale is that the 'fouling' fills in the imperfections in the barrel making it much smoother and tightening up your groups. Scrub the barrel and your groups will be much bigger. (He indicated that this was for factory barrels and not custom barrels)...

David,

If our club Savage 12F in 6BR is anything to go by, I tend to agree with him. It goes best when well fouled, and keeps going up to about 3-500 rounds.

With Savage 12F/TRs in 308, I suspect the same thing. We measured the bore diameter of one and its bigger than any match barrel. I think its definitely worth a try, and you might be rewarded for the um... lack of effort .

Alan