How long should it take for a barrel to foul?

[DennisPA]

My wife and I compete in long rang silhouette match ranging from 850 to 1000 yards. I cleaned our rifles before the match and it took my rifle about 3 shots to be right on target. Hers however took over 20 rounds before it was shooting well. Both barrels are made by the same manufacture, similar round count but different calibers. Any idea why it would take hers so long to foul?

 

[dragman]

Most of mine take between 1 and 5 shots to be fouled. 20 is defiantly a little weird? With Ridgway I would say that there was probably some extra factors that had to do with it besides fouling. rough morning, strange condition, possibly the temp wasn't up high enough for that load to shoot as well as your used too.
You really need to get it on paper starting with a clean barrel to see what your dealing with.

 

[LHSmith]

Possibly over-cleaning, shooting first shot with a dry bore, conditioning bore with something other than a very light coat of high pressure oil ( NOT containing Teflon) -or a light coat of bore solvent. Lock-ease, kroil, Rem-oil and other "bore conditioners" have been known to delay the fouling process.

 

[DennisPA]

Both were cleaned the same way two passes with a wet mop of Hoppe's 9. Then 5 passes with a nylon bore brush and then patches until they came out clean. So the bore was dry and it was over 24 hours before the match.

 

[LHSmith]

Not long ago, 2-3 years, there was a trend to switching from bronze brushes to nylon. Today, most who have gone that route have switched back to either bronze brushes or to using Wipe Out bore cleaner.

 

[barefooter56]

DennisPA,
It really depends on the rifle. Like seating depth and velocity fouling round amount s are particular to THAT rifle. When I shot Palma I always shot a practice "match" at a 300 yard range close to home before heading to Perry. Never cleaned the rifle all through the Long-Range competition. That rifle took 20 rounds to settle down too. So suggestion is to take some practice targets to the range and see how many rounds it takes before the rounds stop rising and begin to cluster. Keep it in your notes with the rifle until you change out the barrel. Found the same difference in round counts doing barrel break in too. Least I ever experienced was 19 rounds. Most was up around 75...so far.

 

[Joe Salt]

DennisPA I shoot 1000 Benchrest and my barrels seem to settle in after five or six shots, been trying different things. But if you foul the barrel ahead of time you will be better off. I Shot with a clean barrel this weekend in H.G. and it didn't cluster like it does when dirty. Hope this helps. my buddy didn't clean his and in the shoot off, he had 9 shots under 4"!

Joe Salt

 

[DennisPA]

Thanks to everyone for the quick and helpful replies. I'll get the rifle on paper and see how it does before and after cleaning. Next related question how about the other end of the fouling when the accuracy starts to fall off? Have you seen a gradual decrease in accuracy or does change in the 20 rounds like when going from clean to fouled? The reason I as is we have a 2 day match coming up in September and I expect to shoot about 150 over the two days. I've never went that long without cleaning. But I'm leery about cleaning between matches.

 

[dragman]

Thanks to everyone for the quick and helpful replies. I'll get the rifle on paper and see how it does before and after cleaning. Next related question how about the other end of the fouling when the accuracy starts to fall off? Have you seen a gradual decrease in accuracy or does change in the 20 rounds like when going from clean to fouled? The reason I as is we have a 2 day match coming up in September and I expect to shoot about 150 over the two days. I've never went that long without cleaning. But I'm leery about cleaning between matches.

For the 2 day I always cleaned between just like it was between matches a month apart. with the morning time or even the evening after the first match you can clean and get it back to shooting pretty easy. With all the prizes on the line don't try something not proven and regret it later.

 

[barefooter56]

DennisPA,
Again, it depends on the rifle. You will have to test to know. Every rifle is different. Smaller centerfire calibers like .17, .204 seem to have accuracy fall off after just a few rounds in some cases. Powder, efficiency of the cartridge case, bore diameter seem to all have an effect on when the accuracy starts to fall off.

 

[Steve Ladino]

Could it have been caused by some liquid contamination IE: bolt lube etc. ? on the bullets.

 

[snakepit]

Not long ago, 2-3 years, there was a trend to switching from bronze brushes to nylon. Today, most who have gone that route have switched back to either bronze brushes or to using Wipe Out bore cleaner.

That is a pretty broad statement that encompasses a lot of shooters, where did you get your statistics from?