I know you are supposed to clean your barrel from the chamber out but considering most of my shooting has been with gas guns inside 200 yards I never really cared, I always kind of just went both ways a few times (in and out) then switched patches and did it again until clear

My HMR says it will “greatly affect accuracy” if you clean down the barrel, so do you run a patch through and remove the patch before bringing the rod back through? Seems like a pain in the ass lol

I’m curious if this is protocol for any barrel? I get the “going with the rifling” concept, but a patch doesn’t seem like it’s going to matter, maybe just the brush? Even a copper brush still doesn’t seem like it would have any effect, just curious what people do

The cleaning rod rubbing on the edge of the barrel crown is the primary cause of damage from improper cleaning.  A .17 cal rifle barrel is so narrow that it is really difficult to avoid rubbing against the crown if you clean from the muzzle.

I’m a huge champion of laziness.  I almost never “clean clean” a barrel... if I clean them at all.  Chrome and nitride bores are awesome.

I mostly run about 4 patches through alternating hoppes and boretech and then a dry patch or two.  I almost never clean to “bare metal” (some guys get obsessive and start looking for coppering with a borescope and run dozens of patches until they come out *spotless*).  Waste of time. Then these dude will take a couple fouling shots until groups tighten back down... lol, just don’t go balls out cleaning and you’ll probably need no fouling shots to get back to tight groups.

But there are a few basics to be observed:

1) Don’t change directions mid-bore with a brush. Especially a bronze brush on uncoated/untreated bores.  It can and will peen the inside surface of the barrel even doing it once or twice.  Brushes are kind of a waste of time to begin with unless you’re really getting some serious funk out like cleaning up after hard cast or shotshells.

2) Only clean with patches in one direction simply because less chance to damage the crown of the gun. The shoulder and leade does a good job of smooshing down the patch on the jag concentrically for even groove impression of the patch (just like the leade does when it swages the fired bullet to the bore) and the receiver length helps you keep the rod aligned easily so you’re not dragging the rod down/against any part the bore that matters... like the lip of the crown.  Odds are that if you have a nice tight fitting jag/patch your rod is going to flex and rub the bore somewhere as you push it. I’d rather it rub somewhere near the chamber end of the tube rather than literally the edge of the crown.

3) Excessively cleaning to bare metal can accelerate wear.  It’s not the cleaning itself that wears the barrel assuming you’re just using patches and mild solvents.  They’re just patches after all. When you take it down to bare metal over and over again, those first couple shots that are true metal-on-metal transfer conditions (until it gets a little bit of carbon and guilding metal built up on the molecular level with a couple fouling shots) are what leads to premature wear.  You’ll see when a dirty barrel opens up your groups and know when it’s time to clean... could be every 50 shots or it could shoot tight for 250+ shots (every barrel is different).  You just need to get like 95% of that shite out of there and/or a layer of corrosion protection before putting it away.  There’s no reason to detail clean a nicely broken in barrel to bare metal unless you notice a regular cleaning isn’t bringing tight groups back for as many shots as it should.

Yup.

I only clean from the chamber end using a bore guide, OP you can get o-ring jags that make it easy to clean with patches.......its all I use...The rubber holds the patch tight to the bore and when you pull the bare jag back thru the barrel, the rubber o-rings protect the barrel....



Attached File


https://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning-chemicals/cleaning-rods-amp-accessories/cleaning-rod-jags/o-ring-cleaning-jags-prod24842.aspx

Your procedure is almost identical to mine. I am learning that I don’t need to do the whole copper cleaning and much as I used to. This new barrel just doesn’t accumulate much copper. So I use the same procedure as you with a good cleaner and then switch to Barnes copper cleaner if needed on the second step.

OP, if tiny groups are not you focus shoot till accuracy falls off then clean. Make it what you want.

Get you a bore snake. 2 or 3 passes and you're good to go for a long while.