Quote from: barry on February 08, 2014, 12:44:31 PM
How often do you guys give your shotgun barrel a really good cleaning?
What's your preferred method of cleaning?
I will only deep clean one time prior to a season, hunting, clays or still target.
For hunting guns, I will clean it in different ways depending upon weather and use. If it's wet or shot several times, I'll use a dry brush, a patch dampened with Hoppe's #9 and then a dry patch or two.
For still target shooting, it really depends upon the gun. Some respond better to a dry brushing, some to a bore snake, some to a brush and then damp patch followed by a dry patch and some like to be shot dirty "X" number of times before I do anything. That's pretty much true for every shooter on the circuit. It's really all just spending some time with your guns.
The real importance of deep cleaning is to get the gunk out of your gun so that you can then see how it shoots best. It also allows you to see the condition of the bore very easily. After I deep clean a gun for the first time, I shoot it without any type of cleaning until patterns start to degrade. That way I know if it likes to be shot clean, after "X" number of shots or really dirty. They can all be little different.
Lastly, the gun that seems to benefit more from this process than any other is the Mossberg 835, especially those with short barrels.
Thanks,
Clark