I just got a Cooper 'Jackson Squirrel' rifle in 17 HMR. Pretty excited about going after some Fox Squirrels down at the hunting camp soon.

How many rounds do ya'll see before cleaning is needed in this caliber. I'm starting the fun with the Winchester ammo.

Thanks for any insight.

I am not a big fan of the 17 HMR due to the cost of the ammo never dropped as anticipated..

however I do own several ( Marlin, Ruger and New England)...

the small bore is a real pain to try and clean..

I only cleaned the barrel on my Ruger, ONCE.. accuracy declined dramatically until I let the bore foul itself up a little again.. and it was back to being a tack driver..

So I have been under the school of thought, just like a 22 LR, cleaning them actually seems to make them shoot worse, so I don't advocate it...

I don't shoot the 17 HMRs as much as I do 22 LR and 22 Win Mag.. but I don't clean those either and the accuracy stays.. when they are cleaned it declines until the bore is fouled some again..

Drives me nuts, but that is what works..so I leave them be...

quote:

Originally posted by seafire2:
I am not a big fan of the 17 HMR due to the cost of the ammo never dropped as anticipated..

however I do own several ( Marlin, Ruger and New England)...

the small bore is a real pain to try and clean..

I only cleaned the barrel on my Ruger, ONCE.. accuracy declined dramatically until I let the bore foul itself up a little again.. and it was back to being a tack driver..

So I have been under the school of thought, just like a 22 LR, cleaning them actually seems to make them shoot worse, so I don't advocate it...

I don't shoot the 17 HMRs as much as I do 22 LR and 22 Win Mag.. but I don't clean those either and the accuracy stays.. when they are cleaned it declines until the bore is fouled some again..

Drives me nuts, but that is what works..so I leave them be...

Interesting!
Just last night I was out shooting possum at fair distance and missed the first few shots! (With no reasonable excuse). Thereafter the critters never stood a chance!

I don't normally clean my hornet bore but recently had. Now I wonder? I load using bullet lube in the case neck (with wad and paper patch) so have no need to clean - no copper fouling and no rust!

Marlins and Savages have a little line in their owner’s manuals that state under normal circumstances, the bore will probably never have to be cleaned.

????

I had a contender 23" bbl it fowled VERY badly after less than 50 rounds, I broke 2 cleaning rods trying to clean it so I moved it on to the next sucker.

I just looked at my Savage manual and it's a generic manual for all their rimfires and I can find no entry for anything pertaing to bore cleaning except to clean from the rear. I do clean my 17's (I have a Kimber 17Mach2 Classic Varmint and a Savage 93R17 BTV in 17HMR) but have not noticed any loss of accurracy. I just run a wet brush thru and a couple of patches on a Dewey rod. Only problem is cutting the patches small enough to go around the jag. I've shot 17's since 1953 and the real bitch is loading the centerfires. I actually preferred the 17Hornet I started with because it took less powder than the 17Rem I last had in the centerfire. The rimfires are really great as they shoot super accurrately and you just eject the case and forget it. The Kimber is so accurrate it's frightening. The Savage isn't far behind it either. They are truly fun guns.