Directional cleaning

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Thanks. I was more referring to rifle cleaning and keeping the actions clean.

Same answer, just ignore the small revolver part.

 

[cigars]

I don't know WTF they are using these days to clean military rifle bores. Unicorn snot, earthworm ropes, etc, who knows. But with sectional cleaning rods and bore/chamber brushes it's always best to leave some slack in the threads so that the bore brush can spiral freely through the barrel and be twisted freely by the lands/riflings.

 

[ron]

Many M1 rifle's accuracy were destroyed by using GI sectional cleaning rods. Korean import M1s are notorious for ruined
barrels from over use of steel GI rods. Not many rounds fired but muzzles funneled out from cleaning. I have seen M1s like
this that couldn't hold a 2 foot circle at 100 yards!
You should use a good quality straight cleaning rod with a freely rotating handle and a rod guide that fits both your receiver raceway and the rod snugly. How straight and how snug? The object is to make sure the rod cannot touch the bore. With M1 or M1A rifle barrels a good rod and guide set-up is especially important as all the cleaning must be done from the muzzle and even slight damage to the barrel crown is extremely detrimental to accuracy..
I use a coated one piece Dewey rod. Always clean from the receiver end. Avoid dragging anything across the muzzle. Interesting article on Krieger
barrel cleaning and break in.

KRIEGER BARREL BREAK-IN CLEANING

With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped such as your Krieger Barrel, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal compared to a barrel with internal tooling marks. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of...

www.accuracysystemsinc.com

A good barrel should shoot accurately for a long time without cleaning?? Interesting article below.

Cleaning A Long Range Precision Rifle

When the topic of cleaning a long range precision rifle comes up, heated debate often follows. One school of thought is to clean the rifle’s barrel after a predetermined number of shots, the other …

panhandleprecision.com

 

[Pepe-lepew]

Even if brushes and patches are softer than the steel barrel, the crown will still wear from cleaning from the muzzle. For most rifles, the wear will not show any discernible decrease in accuracy. For sharp crowned rifles capable of sub MOA, wear on the crown will have an impact to accuracy.

I clean any rifle I can from receiver to muzzle. Even my M1's. I use one piece coated rods with the proper diameter to match the bore, bore guides, proper size patches and solvent squirt bottles. Having the proper tools makes the chore of cleaning go easier and faster.

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

The rods are supposed to be rotational anyway (re leaving them slightly unscrewed) but it's just really poor quality, the GI rods are just the cheapest, crappiest option availble.

Take a decent one-piece rod, carbon if you like, they have actual ballbearings in the handles and allow perfect rotation of the brush under pressure, helping take time off the cleaning process.

 

[Koda]

If you care about your muzzle crown you will clean from the breech end only.

Its really difficult to not touch the crown from the muzzle end, the difficulty is magnified with cheap bent or sectional rods that have steps at each section. And the brush or swab itself is technically rounding the crown edge over time.

 

[Grizzly_A]

Depends on the gun and skill level of the cleaner. As what has been mentioned, give some young GI recruits steel rods and they'll damage the crown/muzzle. I wouldn't let my kids near the bore with a steel rod, but would let them clean with a Patchworm, Otis, BoreSnake, etc.

I don't push cleaning solvent and the fouling back down into the chamber and action. That's just dumb. Some actions make this even worse. Some solvents, it can damage the stock finish, remove grease/oil from moving parts, etc.

The general wisdom is clean from the breech to the muzzle. (unless you're a muzzle loader)

Find what works for you. Some folks don't clean their guns until the lead/copper fouling is so bad it's a smooth bore. Other folks keep it squeaky clean. There's moderation somewhere in the middle.