Your barrel clean or dirty??? Your best pattern???

[davisd9]

Nobody's barrel has a better pattern dirty, no one. Only lazy to clean and superstitious folks say and believe that. William at Sumtoy and his experience with shooting long barrel shotguns at high stakes turkey shoots taught me more than I ever knew about cleaning and polishing.  Now I do it after every single shot in the woods.  You can keep polishing and continue to get better patterns after you think your barrel is clean....it can be a lot cleaner than what we think is what I learned

This is a false statement. Many guns have patterns that improve as the barrel is fouled.

[Ranger]

I had always thought so and haven't patterned all my shotguns in a test to know for certain, but the guys that shoot competitively would say those barrels have never been really cleaned to their most polished condition.  Not just cleaned, polished. They clean their barrels each and every shot.  And when I patterned at Sumtoy each additional cleaning, which turned into eventual polishing brought more and more shot into the group each time.  Noticeable amounts from what previously looked like 'clean enough'.  Not a numbers and paper guy but I left with 502 pellets in a 20" circle and there was 327 in the 10" from a 24" barrel 20GA.

[Dtrkyman]

I like to know what shape my barrel is in,  pattern with a clean barrel and hunt it that way, my pattern is awesome so   wasting a bunch of shells and time at the pattern board is not necessary in my case.

My turkey guns have chrome barrels so a quick bore snake through there and they are nice and shiny, once per year I like to run a mop on a cordless drill and really get em clean, flitz or even chrome polish.

[Happy]

Don't know really. I make sure poa is on before every season. Hunt it and then give a good cleaning after season. Now if i hunted in some nasty weather I will give it a quick cleanup.

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[mcw3734]

In testing my SP-10, by far the best pattern was with a well-cleaned barrel. Even after a couple of shots without cleaning, the pattern starts to spread and I'll noticing a few more flier pellets. Still plenty to kill with, but... cleaner is better with that gun.

It's been my experience that even when a barrel looks clean and shiny, it's amazing how much crud comes out after using the right solvents and scrubs. But.... that's just my experience.

[ShootingABN!]

Thanks everyone...

keep the answers coming in...

[ShootingABN!]

So just for good measure.... I did a half way polish job on my Son's new 410. I will see if it helps at all.

On a side not I did order some Nitro 9x10TSS to see what they will do.

Good luck everyone.

[Kylongspur88]

Clean is best. The shot count isn't too far off but the pattern is more even and consistent through a clean barrel in my 870. I deep clean after the season, clean before the season, and give it a scrub after each shot.

[GobbleNut]

Interesting discussion going on here.  Admittedly, I have never been one to worry about whether my shotgun barrel was clean or dirty,...just that the pattern was centered and even.  From the chat here, I think I am going to clean 'er out "just because".   That way I will know that when I pull the trigger on a gobbler, he will be a little deader than he would have been otherwise!

[ShootingABN!]

Interesting discussion going on here.  Admittedly, I have never been one to worry about whether my shotgun barrel was clean or dirty,...just that the pattern was centered and even.  From the chat here, I think I am going to clean 'er out "just because".   That way I will know that when I pull the trigger on a gobbler, he will be a little deader than he would have been otherwise!

LOL not such thing is overkill... LOL

[WV Flopper]

 When I was shooting lead I would throw a couple down range every year before season to check POI/POA. Then I started shooting Heavy shot, I don't remember cleaning any more than I once did. NEVER.

Well, I started shooting TSS. Now all of us know that the TSS is a good bit more expensive than the two prior. I have noticed, and am a great believer in a clean bore to run the TSS down. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 shoots my pattern will start to open up to a point that it is noticeable on paper, without a count. The more I shoot, the worse it gets.

If you don't believe this try this one time. When you go out like most of us to check POI/POA, shine it up before you go that first time. Keep that target. At the end of season, with no cleaning in between, do it again. Compare those two targets. If you are fortunate to get a few shoots off you will see a difference and can go in the direction you want after that.  Hopefully you get to shoot several times during season!

Good luck to all.

[paboxcall]

Nobody's barrel has a better pattern dirty, no one. Only lazy to clean and superstitious folks say and believe that. William at Sumtoy and his experience with shooting long barrel shotguns at high stakes turkey shoots taught me more than I ever knew about cleaning and polishing.  Now I do it after every single shot in the woods.  You can keep polishing and continue to get better patterns after you think your barrel is clean....it can be a lot cleaner than what we think is what I learned

This is a false statement. Many guns have patterns that improve as the barrel is fouled.

My H&R single patterns better at a lasered 40 with Hevi-13 #7s after the barrel was fouled with one or two rounds. I would clean it pre-season, fire a field load, then hunt it. My current Mossy 500 20 gauge likes a squeaky clean barrel with TSS.

[bbcoach]

Thought I would throw this out there.  If you haven't tried the clean and polish on your in line muzzleloaders, give it a try.  Easier to load those sabots and easier to clean after shooting it.

[M2 mafia]

My m2 likes a kinda deep cleaned barrel, brass brush 50 strokes, cotton swab 50 strokes, then apply birchwood casey bore cleaner, stroke it a few let it set 15-20, then brass again 10 strokes and cotton swab 10 strokes. I typically get a (hard to believe) 60-70 pellet jump, with 9s hand loads (hals recipe), I would purposely rapid fire 20 cheap shells down range, fire a hand load get the results, clean the gun, fire a cold bore shot with a hand load and get the results, u would think 2 totally different guns.

[ShootingABN!]

Thanks for sharing.