Aight guys ....I have about 15 different lead shells mostly Fed 5s/6s and few Fed HW6s through my NEF 10 and Kicks GT695, I have FED HW7s on way....should I clean gun smooth bore or leave it dirty with dirty choke....when shooting the HW7s?
You want to most definitely REALLY CLEAN THE BORE!!! I follow Clark Bush's deep cleaning method in which you can find on his site allaboutshooting.com. The Fed HW is a great shell but very picky!! I have more of these rounds fired from a 10 gauge than I want to admit, and spent a lot of money doing so!!! The flight control wad in this shell is VERY STIFF HARD PLASTIC which fouls the barrel in one shot. If you want to get the most out of this set up I highly recommend that you clean the bore after every shot. When shooting these shells I found that between 2 shots without cleaning has made a difference in 30-40 pellets. When you go to the range take your cleaning items and a good brush and clean every shot, and most important make sure you take the oil out of the bore before shooting. I have found that denatured alcohol works great and dries super fast. I hope this helps. GOOD LUCK!
I have that gun and shoot that shell. My experience is that you do need to clean the barrel frequently, but not an all out scrub.
Thanks Guys Much appreciated!
After you guys clean, which I did last night looks great btw, anyway, I did not OIL the bore, not even a patch after cleaning it with the Hoppes #9. Now, I didn't not polish the bore or REALLY REALLY DEEP clean, I gave it a good solid cleaning though.
Should I run one light oil patch in the barrel or not? Does it matter. Just to protect? It will blow out the first shot anyway right?
You want a completely dry and oil free bore to get the best patterns. If you aren't going to shoot for awhile you can run an oiled patch thru the bore to protect it, then just run some alcohol patches down it to remove all the oil before patterning. Believe it or not there is usually quite a bit of difference in patterns between a dry bore and one that is oily. Post up some pattern pictures when you can!
Ok...I will post some pics soon, are you just talking about some regular old rubbing alcohol down it? or certain percentage?
I usually just use plain old 91% rubbing alcohol that you can get anywhere. Works good. There is some other stuff like brake clean and denatured alcohol that works well too.
Nice ok got the alcohol check......Will post some pics of the setup and patterns soon....Remember...I'm from PA our season doesn't start until May 2! So I have time!!!! some of yinz have already shot birds down south. Heck I had frost and 22 degrees this morning!
I hear ya on the weather! I'm from N.E. Ohio.I might try to pop a few rounds off today before work. Been itching to get some shooting in!