Hi guys,

So, you'll have to pardon my ignorance here, but about all this talk of cleaning with coated Dewey rods and Hoppes #9 et all, exactly how clean does a barrel need to be?

I am not a precision shooter by any means; my notion of proper AR-15 use in my world is being able to hit the A Zone on an IPSC target out to 150 yards. I am not worried about shooting tight little groups or anything.

That being said, I usually run a boar snake down the chamber 3-4 times and call my barrel cleaning done. For my purposes, is this good enough or do I need to run out and purchase the above stated Dewey rod, patches, Hoppes #9, cleaning rod guide, etc...

Thanks!

Greg

Dude you are shooting an ar15.  For your purposes that is adequate.  

All I do is run about 2 patches wet with CLP and then 2 dry patches and then repeat about 4 times or so and call it good.  

I stopped using CLP as a bore solvent long ago.  It just never seemed to come clean.

I have used Hoppes #9 in the past and like it well enough.  Right now I'm using Shooter's Choice and I think it's a little better, but more expensive.

For my blasting guns that I expect to get 3" group out of at 100 yards, I clean the bore until all I see ia green copper residue left.  I usually don't bother to clean out the copper.  I call it clean when the dark powder/lead/crap is gone from the patches that come out.

I only use a bore snake in a pinch, like when I'm in the field and need a quick cleaning with CLP.

For my more accurate guns, I will use copper solvent and work until most of the copper is gone, but I'm not too picky about it.

I like to use CLP to lube my guns and clean the non-bore parts of them.

what you are doing is fine.  A lot more guns are damaged by cleaning than by shooting.  If its a chromed BBL copper fouling isn't a problem, till you get up over 10K rds.  I use sweets 7.62 till its just a lite blue twinge.  Or soak in Hoppes #9 over a few days.  Swab with wet patches till most of the blue color is gone.  You really don't need to be fancy, its the black crud that needs to go.