Deep cleaned barrel, myth?

[batsonbe]

Sighted in and patterned my burris fastfire 3 on my A391. Found it very interesting that my 1st and second shot out of my deep cleaned barrel was a 8" wide pattern at 15yrds. On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th shots at 15 yards the pattern was about the size of a silver dollar and it was knocking holes out of my target. Deep cleaned my barrel again ran patches down the barrel till the patches were clean and moved back to 40yrds with turkey ammo. 1st shot with a clean barrel put up 238, 2nd shot 269, 3rd shot was 248. Aparently my gun doesnt like a clean barrel. I now will just run a brass bore brush down my barrel and push patches till they are clean. What are you guys experiences?

[Chuck1443]

My 870 21" 20gauge likes a fouled barrel better as well

[Tom Foolery]

Mine are polished, I get a more consistent run of patterns if I clean it down, shoot it, dry brush and dry patch.  I figure it's like my rifles and fouled bores.  When I clean them they are always off until I get a round or two down the barrel and then they settle in.  That's why I rarely clean a rifle, I don't touch them until accuracy falls off.

[batsonbe]

My father told me shotguns are like rifles. They shoot better with a slightly dirty barrel. He was right.

[WisTurk]

My Mossberg prefers a slightly dirty barrel, but there is a point of diminished patterns when it gets too dirty.  Then a quick run or two of the bore snake and it's as good as it was.

[DirtNap647]

My barrels always shoot better dirty

[batsonbe]

Everyones results are so interesting! Seems like a lot of people on here push the deep clean and polish to improve patterns and myself and everyone else that has posted in here has not shared the same experience where a deep clean helps improve patterns.

[Oconeeguy]

My BPS shoots Fed. #7 heavywt. Best with a squeaky clean bore. My 11-87 patterns best slightly dirty

[batsonbe]

Oconeeguy, do you think if you shot a different load through your bps that it too would prefer a clean barrel, or do you feel it is load specific

[Tom Foolery]

Everyones results are so interesting! Seems like a lot of people on here push the deep clean and polish to improve patterns and myself and everyone else that has posted in here has not shared the same experience where a deep clean helps improve patterns.

My patterns and pattern numbers improved after a deep clean and polish.  My old 835 would typically be 110-120 with 3.5" HV #6 Winchesters on a fired/brushed/patched barrel when I got it.  After a deep clean and polish it would be 140-150 on a fired/brushed/patched barrel.

[batsonbe]

Would you deep clean after each shot

[Tom Foolery]

No dry brush and dry patch after each shot.  Both 870's are the same way

[batsonbe]

Thats exactly what mine prefers. I thought most people deep cleaned or were saying a mirror clean barrel patterned the best for them.

[Tom Foolery]

With my 870 on a squeaky clean barrel I may shoot 270 with hevi13 3" 7's and then clean it down to the metal again and shoot 220.  If I clean it to the metal, shoot it, then brush/patch I'll be 240-250 consistently. 


Shotguns are the women of the gun world; no one knows what they want, how they want to do things, or when they will do things, no 2 that look just alike will like the same combos.  And like we do with women we try to figure them out and throw money at them to see what they prefer.   

[Oconeeguy]

I plan on finding out if my experience is shell specific or not. The only way is to start out with a deep cleaned barrel, and shoot several rounds of the same load (same box/lot number as well), sequentially, letting the barrel cool a bit between each shot.