Rifle cleaning procedure and barrel break-in

Equipment list

  • Cleaning rod. Use a good quality one. Avoid the ones that comes in 3 parts. They could break and scratch the inside of your barrel.
  • Gun cradle. You can do without it but even a cheap one will make your life a lot easier.  Make sure when you put the rifle in the cradle the muzzle points down.
  • Bore brush (brass and nylon).
  • Jags or patch pushers or pullers.
  • Bore guide. You can do without one but having one avoid spilling too much solvent inside the trigger or in the chamber.
  • MuzzleMate to catch all the residues of lead, carbon, solvent, and other chemical.
  • Patches.  I always keep some patches soaked in a small container of solvent (baby formula type of container) that way my patches are always ready and I do not do a mess soaking them.
  • Solvent and Oil.
  • Gloves.  There will be plenty of dangerous chemical around (carbon, lead, ammoniac, solvent, etc.).  Do not expose yourself to chemical if you can avoid it.  Also try to work in a well ventilated area.

 

Cleaning equipment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safety first

As usual use good judgment when handling a firearms and always remember the 4 rules of safety.

  • Treat all guns as if they were loaded.
  • Do not point the muzzle at something you do not intend to destroy.
  • Identify your target and what is behind it.
  • Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.

Cleaning procedure

Cleaning a rifle should not take more than 15 to 20 minutes on a used barrel (see below for the barrel break-in procedure). You should always clean your barrel at the end of a day on the field. If you use it, you clean it. This is the procedure I use:

  • Push 2 wet patches soaked with a powder solvent through the bore.
  • Wait few minutes to let the solvent work.
  • Push a brass brush through the bore back and forth. I usually push/pull the brush an amount of time equal to the number of rounds I fired up to a maximum of 20. For example if I have fired 5 rounds I push/pull the brush 5 times.
  • Push several dry patches until they come out dry. You will need 4 to 5 patches.
  • Push 2 wet patches soaked with a copper solvent.
  • Wait a couple of minutes to let the solvent work.
  • Push a nylon brush through the bore back and forth around 5 times. Note: use a nylon brush with the copper solvent. The copper solvent will attack your brass brush. Not a good thing.
  • Push 2 wet patches soaked with a powder solvent through the bore to neutralize the copper solvent
  • Push several dry patches until they come out dry. You will need 4 to 5 patches.
  • Push a patches with a little bit of oil on it.

You are done. This procedure is going to require around 15 patches.

Remember to push a dry patch to remove the excess of oil before firing the rifle.

Break-in procedure

Although there may be different schools of thought on barrel break-in, this is what Precision Shooting Magazine recommends

Step 1 (repeated 10 times)

  • Fire one round
  • Push wet patches soaked with a powder solvent through the bore
  • Push a brush through the bore (5 times in each direction)
  • Push dry patches through the bore (2 times)
  • Push wet patches soaked with a copper solvent through the bore
  • Push a brush through the bore (5 times in each direction)
  • Push dry patches through the bore (2 times)
  • Push a patch with 2 drops of oil through the bore


Step 2 (repeated 5 times)

  • Fire a 3 shot group
  • Repeat the cleaning procedure from Step 1 after each group


Step 3 (repeat 5 times)

  • Fire a 5 shot group
  • Repeat the cleaning procedure from Step 1

They recommend the use of a patch with 2 drops of oil after the cleaning so that you are not shooting with a dry bore. It is also advisable to use a powder solvent and copper solvent from the same manufacturer to be sure they are chemically compatible.

This is a good procedure that is not going to hurt your barrel but it is also a very long and tedious one. Others recommend to take your rifle and shoot. I do not know which procedure is the better one. An objective evaluation would require a double blind test. You take two random sets of similar rifles, shoot one set with the cleaning procedure described above and shoot the other set without any special care. After 100 rounds or so, check which set shoots best. I think we can all agree that you need to clean the rifle a bit more often at the beginning. After you fired 5 rounds through a new barrel you will certainly notice the barrel is very dirty. Clean it well and shoot another group of 5 to 10 rounds. Very quickly you will notice the barrel gets cleaner. At that point the barrel is ready for normal use.