gun fowling question

[Roughneck Country]

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.

[Pathfinder76]

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.

[catnthehat]

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

[SkytopBrewster]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

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

[elkhunter11]

My cold clean bore zero is almost 10cm different than my cold fouled bore zero at 100m,

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.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

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.

[SkytopBrewster]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

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.

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.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by SkytopBrewster

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

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 .
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

[Dick284]

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.