What kind of cleaning kits do you guys use on your hunting rifles? I have a .243 that probably has never had the bore cleaned. After whitetail season is over I will use Q-Tips and clean the chamber out as best I can but I never have anything to get into the bore. When I look into the bore I can barely see the rifling because of the shit built up in there. Nonetheless, it has always shot perfectly for me (except for when I fell climbing into the bed of a pick-up and knocked the scope about a foot off zero at 100 yards and also put a nice big dent in the scope).

Is there any kind of .243 cleaning kit out there for cleaning the bore out?

I just use a normal rifle cleaning kit(Outers .22 rifle cleaning kit), with the appropriate jag and bronze phonsfer brush - I also like to use a bore guide... In your case, I'd probably hit it real good with the brush and some Sweets, or Butch's Bore Shine, to remove jacketing material, then a regular bore cleaner like Bore Scrubber... Then, after patching that out, I'd leave a light coat of CLP in the bore/chamber, 'til the next time you go to shoot it - make sure to patch it dry before shooting... After reading your description of the bore's current condition, maybe it's had moly coated bullets shot in it???


The .243 is one of my favorite calibers - fast, accurate, and light recoiling - and is a true dual purpose cartridge...



  - georgestrings

I like the bore snake. There is no chance of over-working the crown this way.

Hope you change underwear more frequently than you clean your guns!

is the stock wood...being in the woods can wreck havoc on wood stocks and you need to take care of that as wel depending on the finish...
if you can find brass brushes for the chamber and receiver area they won't scratch.  
Next year after you are done for the day, take five minues just to run some bore scrubber through the bore and chamber area to avoid possible pitting.  You can always do the thorough cleaning at home then.

Bore snake, wipe down what ya can and lightly oil it and you shouldn't ever have any problems.
Some rifles can go thousands of rounds with out a cleaning and still work great. a bolt action hunting rifle ought to be able to go many years without a serious cleaning and still be able to work fine.
BTW, I am assuming your rifle is like most other hunting rifles and only fires 20-40 rds a year tops.

Dewey rod, patcholder atttachement, bronze brush, bore guide, cloth to protect the stock...Hoppes #9