I get asked this question a lot. Some of the angst over

by Hobie , Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Saturday, January 16, 2016, 08:26 (3237 days ago) @ rob

cleaning stems from a time of blackpowder and corrosive primers or cupro-nickel jackets. You HAD to clean the barrel then.

My old small-bore coach told us to NEVER clean the barrels of our .22 LR guns, only the chamber/action and only if the gun wouldn't function. I am not obsessive about my own guns but followed the Army line on cleaning when an armory and/or supervisor of weapons maintenance. They CLEAN. We used to see a lot of .17 HMRs come in for sale/trade because they "weren't accurate any more" but found that the barrels simply needed to be cleaned.

My personal opinion is that every barrel/bullet combination can be a different circumstance and that reason/logic needs to be applied but that one can over-clean as well as under-clean. I do not think that the barrel break-in "formulas" is all that it is made out to be by some. I think it does benefit the industry in sales...

--
Sincerely,

Hobie