gun fowling question
 

Just a question for you guys, I cleaned my 270 extremely well including brushing before i went hunting this spring, used wipe out several times as well. I took a total of six shots including the site in rounds. I just cleaned it again using wipe out and a light brushing and the patches were black and when i poured wipe out out of the barrel it was actually blue. It took a lot of cleaning to get it back to where i was happy with it again.

My question is, is this a normal amount of fowling or am i perhaps still getting old residue from before? I was shooting a premium ammo, Winchester ballistic tips in 130 gr. It seems a little too dirty to me considering it was only 6 rounds

Seemed like a lot of lead residue on the patches to me, and I had to run a lot of patches.

Definitely not lead. It is powder fouling. One shot will also, in many rifles, copper the bore to varying degrees and that will produce blue colour. Six shots can definitely do it.

The amount of fouling is not so much the issue, as if the fouling present affects your accuracy.:)
I had a friend who had a 270 Parker Hale that used to foul really bad after three shots, but it never affected the accuracy of that rifle until he shot it about 20 times.
Being a hunting rifle, he didn't worry about it, as he was a match shooter and had rifles he used to practice and compete with .
if you are shooting it at the range and see the accuracy drop off, just clean it there and keep shooting after 5 shots.:)
Cat

Clean that thing to the bare metal and go shoot a 5 shot group, then another and another, letting it cool but don't clean. I bet the third target will be the best. After doing a few of these little experiments with my own guns they now only get the wipe out treatment every 2-300 rounds, only kroil and a good carbon remover. My cold clean bore zero is almost 10cm different than my cold fouled bore zero at 100m, that equates to a half a meter miss at a 600 meter target. Something to keep an eye on or at least consider. All this copper removal hype is just hype:)

I have never witnessed that much variation, in any rifle that I have owned. If I ran into that situation, I likely wouldn't own the rifle very long.

Elk I agree with you completely. On top of that, there seems to be something big wrong with the posters math. 10 CM, or 4 inches at 100 yards is 24 inches at 600 yards on straight extrapolation, so more than half a meter. It doesn't seem remotely possible to me for the cold bore clean barrel shot to be that far off. There has to be more wrong with the gun than the clean barrel. If I couldn't figure it out that gun or barrel would get skidded in a hurry.

Yup, I'm talking JB borepaste clean, not just wipeout clean and checked with a scope until not a trace of anything. Won't do that again. The rifle seems to like about 10-15 shots. If I leave some copper it is very accurate shot to shot.

I may have exaggerated slightly, I am not the only guy saying leave the copper. I used to be anal about copper, not so much anymore. Not sure about your math problem, I was talking metric there 10cm at 100m is one MRAD, one mil at 600m is 60cm or +/- 24'' like you said. Nowhere did I mention "yard"

Sorry, wasn't trying to get on your case, metric of standard it is just one hell of a big outage. ( I converted to standard because for a lot of us that still makes a better visual than the metric measurements.) That was what I meant by I hope there is something wrong with your math.

My main point wasn't metric or standard it was; if I was seeing the kind of difference you are I would get rid of the gun. I do agree that spotlessly clean barrels in a hunting gun are seriously over rated and if that was your actual point then I fully agree with you.

Yup, that was my point exactly, just sayin pay attention to your cold bore shot after a thorough cleaning, you may be quite surprised. Multiply mil by 3.43775 to get MOA :) Once you get used to mils it is a beautiful system!

Does JB bore paste contain "grit"?

On my hunting rifles they NEVER get the copper cleaned out of them for several seasons, but I run a patch through them every time I go out, after they are warmed to room temp just to control the moisture a bit.
On my own match rifles I could care less of they go thirty, forty , or even two hundred rounds if the accuracy is not affected, but I know many shooters who prefer to shoot from a clean rifle every time- never could figure it out myself .:confused:
That is why I said if one feels their accuracy is going, clean the danged rifle sooner.
I've been told many times that I am wrong however.......
Cat

Find out what your rifle likes and stick to it.
Some may prefer squeaky clean.
Others may shoot best after 20 or 200 fouling rounds.

It is incumbent upon the end user to determine what their individual firearm will perform best with.

Yes.

My tikka
 

My tikka 7 mm rem mag is a hunting rifle and serves me well. After a good cleaning my cold bore shot will be 2" high and 1 1/2" right at 100 yards, let barrel cool and second shot is back on my point of aim, let barrel cool and shoot , cool and shoot, cool and shoot all day and she stays on with about 1" to 1 1/4" groups . But that first fouling shot is not my favorite. After a range session I like to clean it, then fire 2 shots, followed by a dry patch. Seems to help. Anyone have suggestions on a way to have a sort of fouled barrel that won't hurt my gun over time? And I don't plan on selling it ....but a new barrel is a possibility in the next 4 or 5 years.

How are you cleaning the barrel? Do you dry swab the barrel before shooting the rifle? I have never had that much difference between a clean barrel, and a fouled barrel.