Monday, December 03, 2012

Clean Barrel Syndrome

No, it's not catching, but it can be a problem.  Some rifles, the first shot out of a clean barrel can hit way off from the aiming point.  Example:

This was shot with a Savage .308 bolt rifle at 100 yards.  The first shot is that one two inches above and one inch left of the aiming point.  Enough time was taken between shots that the barrel didn't warm up(this was a hunting load being tested).  That's quite a difference in POI; enough to cause a miss at longer ranges, or (worse)to make a hit outside the vitals.

If you haven't before, something to check on with your rifles.

4 comments:

Sigivald said...

Goes back to "we all clean our guns too much".

In these days of jacketed bullets and non-corrosive primers, it's okay to just let it be.

But we all (for the most part) religiously clean our guns after every session...

Alien said...

No surprise here. It's been 30 years since I shot a benchrest rifle match (seems NBRSA is still in existence, so others are carrying the torch), but IIRC the rules allow a single "sighting shot" to foul a clean(ed) barrel.

I'm of the opinion that a fouling shot, or two, is the best way to prepare a barrel for the remainder of the string, but I've seen good results with swabbing a barrel with an evaporative solvent patch (alcohol, acetone, etc.) followed by a clean dry patch or three.

Windy Wilson said...

Alien, so you gotta know your rifle, then?

Firehand, that is amazing to see so graphically.

Firehand said...

It caught my attention, and I made sure to save that target