A simple guideline
I know this may sound so obvious as to be stupid, but shooting your rifle less makes it easier to clean. What I mean by this is that the cleaning chore is made even more frustrating if you shoot the rifle, especially a big bore, too many times before cleaning it. Kenny Jarrett says anything over a .300 should be cleaned after every three shots! For some of us that would mean taking a cleaning rod to the range. But when I see where someone has shot his .416 Rigby twenty-five times in a single session, you can be sure that cleaning that rifle is going to be a chore. If you run a soaked patch through the rifle after five rounds, then brush a few strokes and then two clean patches through it, it only takes a minute or two and it seriously reduces those big fouling removal chores. Taking a cleaning rod and a few patches to the range is no big deal.
26 April 2006, 04:53
ColtchrisSeems to me that shooting a 416 Rigby (25) times in a session would cause a helluva lot more problems than cleaning!!!!!
26 April 2006, 07:46
7mm mashburnI found that a bore snake will help at the range to pull the heavy stuff out while trying loads then when i get home clean it good
26 April 2006, 09:03
craigster"Kenny Jarrett says any thing over a .300 should be cleaned after every three shoots"
IMO, that statement is a very large crock of shit. If Jarrett was tryin' to sell me one of his rifles and he told me that I needed to clean it every third shot, you can bet I'd be goin' elsewhere. But that's irrelevant, I'd never buy a Jarrett rifle in the first place.
28 April 2006, 10:00
Reloader2I make an effort to clean my rifles at least after firing 20 rounds. Nothing I have is very fancy but I have not noticed any difference in accuracy except some seem to settle down after 2 or three shots have been fired after cleaning. I'm not shooting bench rest rifles, just off the shelf hunting rifles so if I can put three shots into an inch center to center at 100 yards, I'll gladly live with it. I haven't found cleaning to be much of a chore with this routine. They all get the bore swabbed out after a day in the Oregon rain no matter how many shots have been fired since the last cleaning.
Who is Kenny Jarrett?
But tell me why larger cals would need more cleaning?
I was in the school Army Cadets for 2 years and the .303 SMLE s were only ever just "oiled" with Burrs .303 oil or maybe Youngs oil. Never a solvent. I remember the copper streaks showing at the muzzles. Didn't seem to matter.
These days I attack copper like a demented house proud biddy. When I have a big load testing session I'll clean after every group. They reckon Sweets works best with the barrel hot, and it's a good way to let the barrel cool down. . . As well as using another rifle.

So it's better to compare groups with all starting from a clean cold barrel.
But with my range rifles I'd go forty odd shots in one day without any apparent loss of accuracy. Then we have a week to soak and patch anyway.