22 lr. Question

[ChampCarStar]

Those of us that were actively shooting with USA Shooting and trying to make the U.S. Olympic Rifle Team would shoot tens of thousands of rounds a year.

No issues whatsoever to the bore of the barrel. The only times I have seen barrels replaced on our smallbore rifles are when they reached almost 300,000 rounds.

Each year the team would drive all their rifles down to Eley in Winters, TX to get tested with multiple lots of Eley .22 to get the best grouping lot of ammo available. A lot of the time, the best grouping rifles would be the ones with the oldest barrels.

[sigstroker]

The bore snakes, i recall have a copper brush, I thought using copper brushes on stainless steel barrels can be bad. Especially in target barrels?

Bullet jackets are copper.

[slamfire1]

Those of us that were actively shooting with USA Shooting and trying to make the U.S. Olympic Rifle Team would shoot tens of thousands of rounds a year.

No issues whatsoever to the bore of the barrel. The only times I have seen barrels replaced on our smallbore rifles are when they reached almost 300,000 rounds.

Each year the team would drive all their rifles down to Eley in Winters, TX to get tested with multiple lots of Eley .22 to get the best grouping lot of ammo available. A lot of the time, the best grouping rifles would be the ones with the oldest barrels.

Barrel life on competition 22lr's varies with the customer's experience. A bud of mine, he replaced his Anschutz barrel at 60,000 rounds when he would experience the odd flung shot. After that, his groups were tighter. I did ask a couple of English shooters, they were replacing their barrels around 60,000 rounds.

One guy, I sat across from at Camp Perry in the shooter's mess, he claimed he had over 600,000 rounds through his barrel, he had been shooting the thing regularly in competition since the 1970's.

One thing about old guns is how mechanically tight they are. That was something I found when having my Anschutz tested at Lapua in Mesa AZ. The tester had seen a lot of high mileage rimfire rifles that had loosened up with age, the loose guns did not shoot well.

Older rimfire shooters talked about "Eley rings" in their barrels. I have a BSA MKIII that has a ring ahead of the chamber from the older Eley ammunition. The owner, a guy in his 80's, had been shooting smallbore prone since the 1950's, and he said he fired less than 700 rounds through the barrel. And I have a 1970's Anschutz stripped action from the CMP, the barrel clearly shows a 360 degree ring in front of the chamber.

These rings were due to the frictionator used in the primer cake.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379073818309617

The majority of 0.22 calibre rimfire ammunition available in Australia, and overseas, tends to use glass powder rather than antimony sulfide frictionator in the primer. This glass can be the nucleus of a GSR particle, with other primer components condensing around and onto the glass structure. As the composition of glass frictionator remains largely unaltered during ammunition discharge

erosion due to glass created the rings in front of the chambers.

Larry Moore wrote an article in the American Rifleman about rechambering his high mileage 22lr rifles. He cut maybe a tenth of an inch from the back of the barrel and stuck a chambering reamer to cut the chamber back. In every instance accuracy was improved/restored. But that was back in the days of Eley rings.

For anyone shooting non match ammunition, it is unlikely they will ever notice any inaccuracy due to wear, as the ammunition is so inaccurate to start with. It is reasonable to assume that a barrel on a plinking rifle will last hundreds of thousands of rounds without any noticeable wear. Unless damaged from a cleaning rod. A Smallbore Prone National Champ I talked to, when he had his Anschutz rebarreled, the smith looked down the tube and found damage from a cleaning rod. The Champ had that rifle as a teenager and probably was hasty in cleaning, that was about the best explanation he could give.

I use bore guides whenever I clean my match 22lr's. I don't know any competitive shooter that does not use a bore guide. Barrels are very soft, as they have to be drilled and cut for rifling, so they can be damaged with a cleaning rod.

[hermosabeach]

articles?????????

The bore snakes, i recall have a copper brush, I thought using copper brushes on stainless steel barrels can be bad. Especially in target barrels?

I have never hear of a chemical reaction between stainless and copper or bronze...

As stainless is harder, copper can't scratch it.


If you can find am article on the problem, I would love to read it


In general- toss all stainless brushes as they can be harder than the barrel

https://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/barrel-cleaning-debate/

[RandyD]

I competed in smallbore for about 40 years, and I will second what several others said above, clean your bore with a bore guide and a quality single piece cleaning rod. Pay close attention to the brush exiting the crown. Use brass brushes, and do not use stainless steel brushes. I have never seen a smallbore competitor use a bore snake. The softness of lead and the low chamber pressure of a .22 should not wear out a steel barrel.

[alpha_romeo_XV]

I thought i saw a worn out 22LR barrel once when a friend had me go over an old Winchester he inherited. It turned out it was a smooth bore for shooting 22 bird shot cartridges. I think Henry still makes one. Not sure why anyone would want one of those.

[Donny1]

Maybe I'm one of those who cleaned too much.

I have a Marlin 795 made by Remington. The gun is a POS from one end to the other. The receiver is so canted you cannot put an optic or sites on the receiver. The trigger guard has broken twice, a known issue. The front site fell off. The barrels rifling never looked right and seems to never come as clean as any of my other 22's including 2 old Marlin 60's (same gun). It looks shot out. I have not treated any of my other guns any differently and they are perfect.

With all that it shoots perfectly fine and groups great and I attribute all the issues to the lower quality of Remington, or lack of vs the way Marlin made them. Still I have shot tens of thousands of rounds through a $100 gun. It never gets used now and just sits but I wouldn't sell it with all the issues but maybe I'll donate it to my friends son when he gets a little older.

[1911man]

I seem to remember, reading about how copper brushes will scratch a SS bore. Possibly causing the barrel to lose accuracy.

[beerman]

Decades ago at the old Pomona show I came across a guy selling old Gallery guns ( as in used at turn of the century carnival shooting galleries) almost all had no rifling left. All were Rem or Winnie pumps in 22 short. Still shoulda bought one.

[cannon]

Way back in the 70's we'd make our own tracers. (Hypothetically)

Lead bullets on the rounds. Pack them bullet downward in a can and pour in just enough motor oil to cover the projectile. Let soak overnight and Viola. (Hypothetically)

A brown streak showed you where the bullet went. (Hypothetically)

[divingin]

I competed in smallbore for about 40 years, and I will second what several others said above, clean your bore with a bore guide and a quality single piece cleaning rod. Pay close attention to the brush exiting the crown.

Also pay close attention to the rod while pushing the patch/brush into the rifling. I've seen a lot of people bend the crap out of the rod getting the end to start going in, and then continue pushing with the rod looking like a marlin was pulling on it. That bend will cause the rod to drag against the bore.

[Dan_Eastvale]

My CZ Farmer has a nore too tight for a .22 rod and attachments. Have to use a .177 setup.
Wonder if the other CZs (452, etc) are like that.

[gorn5150]

I have my Grandfathers Remington 12 that he bought around 1910. It fed the family through the depression and was used a lot until the family moved from Montana to California in 1943. I can't even guess how many rounds I have put through it. The barrel is fine and it still is a tack driver.

[joepamjohn]

I have a well worn Winchester 1890 with a burned out bore due to old corrosive ammo, but never seen a “shot out” one.