Cleaning/lubricating 22 bullseye pistol

I am somewhat new to Bullseye and was just wondering how often, or when, you clean your 22 pistol that you use for bullseye. Also I wonder how often you lubricate it if you don't clean it after each outing.

Thanks

Well let's start off with what kink of 22 are you shooting / asking questions about.  That will help "tailor" answers more specific to your questions.  Just trying to help.

Good question and I too would like to know the answer.  Any gun that I shoot and plan to store for a while gets cleaned right away and put away regardless of what type of gun.  But again, if I'm shooting regularly 3 times a week how often does say a Pardini SP .22lr, S&W 52-2 and Colt 1911 get cleaned.  I generally clean at every use but I'm thinking with my schedule that once a week might suffice.

I practice with a Ruger Mark III twice a week, about 150 shots each time. I only clean it every other week, or about 500-600 shots. When shooting dirty ammo, I may pull the bolt after 3-400 shots, or if I notice problems, to summarily remove the accumulated crud and add a few drops of oil. I haven't noticed accuracy being affected, but reliability is. A dirty gun will give me lighter firing pin strikes and I may get a few failures to eject with standard velocity ammo.

I always clean it before a match or formal practice with turning targets. I don't want alibis!

For Ruger MK II, bore snake after each trip to the range; clean bolt & firing pin after 400-500 rounds; completely strip the frame and clean, about 3 times a year.

S&W Model 41, bore snake after each trip to the range; remove upper, clean firing pin, extractor, brush and patch bore after 100-150 rounds.

All cleaning and lube done with Gunzilla.

AllAces wrote:For Ruger MK II, bore snake after each trip to the range; clean bolt & firing pin after 400-500 rounds; completely strip the frame and clean, about 3 times a year.

That used to be my routine for my Mark III and 22/45 until that silly loaded chamber indicator blew out on my Mark III. Once it gets gunked up a little the LCI doesn't pivot completely out of the way, the round doesn't chamber properly preventing the bolt from going 100% forward, and yes the Mark III will fire even when the bolt isn't completely closed. Pieces of plastic flying, extra loud bang, it's almost a show worth seeing (emphasize almost). I don't worry much about keeping the barrel spotless until accuracy goes down but I sure clean everything else more than I used to...

All my others I do like other folks have already mentioned - if it's going in the safe for a while it's spotless, otherwise I don't get too picky.

Many never clean the bore of a 22, some of them after cleaning takes a box or two of ammo to get back to their best accuracy.

Some guns need to be cleaned more often than others. If it doesn't cause alibis, then I'd clean it every few hundred rounds. I never use a .22 bore snake on any bore, as a matter of fact, I don't use a bronze or brass bore brush on any of my .22 rimfires. Larry Carter says that the stiff bristles scratch the bore. I agree and believe that one can do more damage than good by cleaning a bore improperly.  I've never noticed any decrease in accuracy by not using brushes in the bores. I do use a .25 cal. or .243 caliber bore brush (bent 90 degrees) to just clean the chamber. I then use a pull through, made out of line trimmer and pull a patch from the muzzle to the chamber to keep from pulling all that crud back through the bore. I like to keep all my bullseye pistols wet with lube.

I had my S&W 41 barrel lined by Alex hamilton. If I remember correctly his instructions were to us a Q-Tip to clean the bore if I had to, never a brass brush or patch on a cleaning rod. I notice no loss of accuracy over the last 2 years I have shot that gun and have only put a Q-Tip down the bore once in that time. I will however detail clean my 41 once every year. I run my guns wet and never had a problem with either this 41 or my Hamden High Standard doing this. I also never oil the bore of my rimfires unless the gun is going in storage for an extended time.


Virgil

After shooting thousands and thousands of rounds through my pardini, and trying various cleaning regimens, monitoring accuracy, and I intend to record every alibi as soon as I have one, I have developed a very highly recommended cleaning regimen that works particularly well.

this highly developed, thoroughly researched procedure consists of:

Clean the darn thing before every match!

I use a pull through trimmer line cleaner with patches and ezzox only. I also use this method with my 22 caliber rifles and while I it takes a dozen or so shots to get my rifles back to top accuracy, I can see no loss of accuracy in my pardini from a clean bore.

After using the ezzox a number of times, I have noticed that successive cleanings are easier and quicker. Furthermore, the use of a brass brush is not necessary as demonstrated by the use of a bore scope.

Regards,
Cranky

I clean before a match depending on how many practice rounds I've shot.  I do use a BoreSnake with the brushes removed.  The only reason I do is to clean out the crude that may have gone down the barrel while cleaning the action.

How to remove BoreSnake brushes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX4M38qzTB8 

- Dave

Depending on the pistol, some need the magazines cleaned thoroughly, just as often (or more so) than the pistol.

+1 on clean those magazines.  Personally don't clean the bore on my 22s.  I routinely, and always prior to a match, use a bore brush on the chamber and make sure the barrel and bolt faces are clean.  With the barrel and slide off the gun I brush the trash  from the top of the frame.  Owned my primary M41 since '84 and have never done more that this to keep it running.

I can easily see where a 22 might have a rough bore and require more attention than a quality match barrel.

With my Hammerli X-Esse and CCI SV I get some failure to feeds, particularly on the 5 the round in the magazine. I see a lot of gunk in the magazines and the ramp as well as the bolt face and breech face. I clean those and the the chamber for best results. My plan is to use better ammo for matches but the CCI is somewhat available and reasonably priced so I use it for practice.

I strip and clean my model 41 before a match. I use a brass bore brush once in awhile. I don't want any lead in the rifling. Mags get cleaned with q tips. 

I bring q tips and even clean the chamber during  a match.

I hate alibis.

Yiogo

Doggone you CRay, you made me feel so guilty, I got out my Marvel and gave it a good cleaning and lube this afternoon. If this keeps up, I'll be cleaning my other .22 pistol. 

DavidR wrote:Many never clean the bore of a 22, some of them after cleaning takes a box or two of ammo to get back to their best accuracy.

I used to be one of them, no longer.


Personal experience here, so don't take it as a rule, just throwing this out there.  Three years ago I had rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder so my shooting suffered...A lot.  Had the surgery in November and by late Feb I was able to shoot some slow fire but my area of wobble was the entire paper at 50'.  I noticed my shot's weren't on call (called 6's wound up being 10's or 9's).  So I 2-handed benched it at 50'.  The pistol is a 5 1/2" MKII Ruger with a 1" Ultra Dot that has repeatedly grouped 1 1/2" @ 50 yards with CCI SV.  I bought it used so have no idea how many rounds were through it in 1999, but I've put in the area of another 80-100,000 (many different brands) through it without ever cleaning the bore.  The chamber and action are kept clean & well lubed, but never the bore (because I had also heard that 22 bore's don't need to be cleaned).


I've attached a link to two targets.  One is before scrubbing the bejabbers out of the bore, and one after.  Same shooter, same range, same box of CCISV, just before & after, both are 10 shot targets.


I now clean my bores.

Al



Before:
https://s838.photobucket.com/user/stork_BE/media/IMG_0564.jpg.html?sort=6&o=21

After:
https://s838.photobucket.com/user/stork_BE/media/IMG_0565.jpg.html?sort=6&o=19

I'm going to go with the obvious
Clean and lube them when they need it
You will discover when that is soon enough

For my MP95e, model 41, and model 17 it's a good thorough wipe down after every range visit.
For my MK ii's it's when they break and extractor, or when I just cant stand the filth anymore.