Prairie Dog and Ground Hog Gun Maintenence Question

[onelastshot]

Fine tuning a 17 Cal. rifle for short range Prairie Dog and Ground Hog shooting. Just curious how many rounds you typically shoot before cleaning; I'm using a variety of bullets and wonder what others consider the optimum time to clean before it affects accuracy. As I indicated, I'm not punching paper in a contest just playing with the critters but, I don't want to overdue it with the cleaning process. Thanks.

 

[Travelor]

Which 17 caliber round?
It makes a difference..........

HM2
HMR
17Hornet
???????

 

[Ohio Varmint Shooter]

For my 17hmr, (my short range groundhog gun) even if I fire just one round, I always run a dry patch to get the burnt powder out, then a few oil patches...then one final dry patch.

But I keep a mental tab, and after 25 rounds or so, I'll use the wire brush with Hoppes #9, then a few dry patches. I do this after the 1st dry patch but before the oil patches.

But I am far from an 'expert'.

 

[onelastshot]

Which 17 caliber round?
It makes a difference..........

HM2
HMR
17Hornet
???????

Thank you. The rifle is a 17 HMR

 

[snert]

100 rounds, run a brush and then follow with a good copper remover on patch or nylon brush, then patch till you no longer have 'blue". use a bore guide.

Works for my 17HMR

Oh, and get a good rod, not one of those cheapie things.

 

[5spd]

I don't have time to worry about cleaning my rig when out p-dogging.
Ill shoot all day then maybe run a wet jag through the barrel when Im home.
Course my main p-dog rigs are not 17 cal. The 1 17hmr I do have don't get cleaned until Im home as well.

 

[DogBuster]

My only 17 I use on p/dogs is the mighty M2.....

Close range dogs out to 125-140 or so.....no wind.....

Clean it later...in the shade in my loading room.....

 

[Rick in Oregon]

I just got back from a full week of fun with Skippy and his pals. As the little ones are out right now, there was a lot of 17HMR action using my Anschutz 1517 and Hornady 17gr V-Max.

Some days I fired over 300 rounds without cleaning, and I was still launching rats past 200 yards with no discernible loss of accuracy. I normally don't go more than 100 rounds without cleaning, but when the sun is shining, rats are running about everywhere, it's hard to stop to properly clean, but before leaving the field, I always give it a 'bare metal' cleaning.

A recent rock chuck outing with "Annie", one of my 17HMR's:



The 17HMR is pretty forgiving in a good barrel. If you clean after every 100 rounds in the rat patch, you should be in good shape. This does NOT apply to something like my 17 Mach IV though or 17 Ackley Hornet.....that's an entirely different issue altogether.

 

[snert]

I just got back from a full week of fun with Skippy and his pals. As the little ones are out right now, there was a lot of 17HMR action using my Anschutz 1517 and Hornady 17gr V-Max.

Some days I fired over 300 rounds without cleaning, and I was still launching rats past 200 yards with no discernible loss of accuracy. I normally don't go more than 100 rounds without cleaning, but when the sun is shining, rats are running about everywhere, it's hard to stop to properly clean, but before leaving the field, I always give it a 'bare metal' cleaning.

A recent rock chuck outing with "Annie", one of my 17HMR's:



The 17HMR is pretty forgiving in a good barrel. If you clean after every 100 rounds in the rat patch, you should be in good shape. This does NOT apply to something like my 17 Mach IV though or my 17 Ackley Hornet.....that's an entirely different issue altogether.

Plus one on that!!!

 

[onelastshot]

Thanks for the replies; I actually have the same Anschutz 1517 that Rick posted a picture of. From the replies it sounds as though cleaning with a good copper cleaner every 50-100 rounds should keep me safe.

Now all I have to do is find enough critters to keep me busy.

Thanks again

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Every barrel is gonna be different and the type of bullet/powder you use matters as well. Of course you don't have much choice with a 17 HMR as there are only factory ammo options. My advice would be to just keep shooting until you notice a degradation in accuracy. Then plan to clean about 50 rounds prior to that point.

But keep in mind that it could all change as the barrel wears in and the bore smooths out.

The Savage 17 HMR I had years ago would shoot an entire case of Federal Premium ammo with the TNT bullets (500 rounds) and still maintain very good accuracy. If it was losing any accuracy at that point, it wasn't enough for me to care. So I just cleaned it at the end of the day regardless of how many rounds were through it.

 

[Webster]

A good article on evaluating bore cleaners for copper removal. I don't trust comparisons people have reported with patch color.

http://www.laniganperformance.com/kg12testresults.html

Many of the bore cleaners are not carried by sporting good stores. I use "Sweets" bore cleaner for copper. It has so much ammonia in it it will gag you.

If I pull the bolt out of my 6BR I could see carbon build up on the lands in front of chamber after many cleanings. "Butches Bore Shine" quickly removed it. Several other cleaners didn't remove carbon well. Hoppes solvents are the worst in my opinion. I don't have any trustworthy evaluation on carbon removal test.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

A good article on evaluating bore cleaners for copper removal. I don't trust comparisons people have reported with patch color.

http://www.laniganperformance.com/kg12testresults.html

Many of the bore cleaners are not carried by sporting good stores. I use "Sweets" bore cleaner for copper. It has so much ammonia in it it will gag you.

If I pull the bolt out of my 6BR I could see carbon build up on the lands in front of chamber after many cleanings. "Butches Bore Shine" quickly removed it. Several other cleaners didn't remove carbon well. Hoppes solvents are the worst in my opinion. I don't have any trustworthy evaluation on carbon removal test.

Pro Shot Copper Solvent will remove copper better than Sweets and it doesn't have any ammonia. Doesn't really have much of an odor at all.

I used to use Butch's for a long time. Switched to Remington 40X. Removes carbon much better, and again, does not have an odor due to no ammonia.

 

[searcher]

With your bolt gun - easy to keep it running somewhat clean. Just run about 4 wet patches, then a half dozen brush strokes, two more wet, three more dry - than start shooting again. I do this on mine every 150 rounds or so. I'll do the full-detail cleaning when back home. I always run a few wet patches into the bore just before putting the rifle up for the day to simplify cleaning when I get home. I find thaqt my rifle starts to lose "long range" accuracy after about 100 shots without a minor cleaning.

 

[wvlongshot]

Shoot em like you stole em. Life is too short to be cleaning a rifle in a target rich environment. Like couple of others said, clean it at home.

 

[Ohio Varmint Shooter]

Shoot em like you stole em. Life is too short to be cleaning a rifle in a target rich environment. Like couple of others said, clean it at home.

Exactly....

My comments about HOW to clean, were for cleaning it at home. Who cleans their gun in the field? Seems like a waste of time for most. How many groundhogs can you shoot in a day? Far less than needed to have a gun require cleaning.