I have had good luck in big bore handguns using a tool called the Lewis Lead remover. They are caliber specific, I dont know if they go clear down to .22 caliber though. I have used a super tight patch to clean lead out of .22's before. It aint easy. Good luck.

 

I have 2 lever action Browning .22's that have never been cleaned in almost 30 years. They are very very accurate and still shoot like the day we got them on my 12th birthday.(My dad bought 1 as well so we could shoot them together.)

I clean the outside with Rem oil. We wipe them down spray a little Rem oil in the action every once a while and keep shooting them.

In my opinion they are the best shooting guns around! I have killed 100's of digger squirrels and shoot it at the range. We used to shoot the CCI bird shot at pigeons in an outside storage shed by the 1000's.

I ask why clean them if they are dead on??

I clean my shot guns and bolt actions rifles with a bore snake and run a patch with oil down the tube before I store them but not the 22's.

 

I vote for "lost cause". .22lr barrels "season" and get more accurate, i.e a clean bore is less accurate than a "seasoned" bore. Unless you use funky ammo, you really don't need to clean them.

 

Don't clean .22 rimfires. Never cleaned mine when I shot competitive smallbore.

The exception would be a hunting rifle that was allowed to get wet. Rimfires shoot more consistently on a fouled bore.

aw

 

Lost cause, leave it. Once a barrel is fouled smooth like that, you will do more harm than good. You would have to use an abrasive solvent, this will shorten the life of the barrel. If your friend has no problem with accuracy, and has no problem with it, I say leave it. He should start doing regular cleanings though. The barrel can still continue to collect lead from the bullets, this could cause a constriction of bore diameter and possibly have bad results.

 

I would clean the lead out, then enjoy shooting it till it got all leaded up again. Repeat.

 

I may have shared this before. This is from Dan Lilja of Lilja Barrels:

CLEANING RIMFIRE BARRELS Rimfire rifle barrels are different from centerfire barrels in that they require very little cleaning and essentially no break-in procedure. We have asked several of the top rimfire shooters and gunsmiths that use our barrels about their procedures and based on our own experience, have come up with our recommendation for cleaning.
In a match-grade stainless steel hand-lapped barrel, leading is an almost nonexistent problem. Powder fouling is minimal too. It is possible however to have an accumulation of fouling in the leade area in front of the chamber. A build up here is detrimental to top accuracy.
We suggest cleaning in the following manner. After approximately 100 rounds push a dry loose patch through the barrel from the breach end. This pushes out loose fouling. Then take a tighter dry patch and work it back and forth about 10 times in the leade area, pushing it out of the barrel at the muzzle end when finished.
Every 200-300 rounds a loose (worn out) 22 caliber bronze brush, wet with solvent, should be worked back and forth in the leade area with short strokes and withdrawn from the chamber end. If there is any evidence of lead in the barrel then brushing the full length of the barrel with solvent is suggested.
Match quality bullets have a wax coating on them that aids accuracy. It may take 10-50 shots to "lay" a good coating of it down in the barrel and using solvents will only remove this desirable wax coating.
Users of the 10/22-type semi-auto barrels may have to remove the accumulated powder fouling buildup that forms on the breach end of the barrel. Extraction problems may result eventually unless solvent is used on this type of fouling.





Dan has an excellent website that I would encourage you to peruse. You may find it at www.riflebarrels.com.

 

Don't know if there's any truth to this but shooting metal plated bullets may work out some of the lead.

 

The only reason I would like to possibly clean the gun is he has lost accuracy. At 50 yards it has gone from a 2" group to 6+" group. Were kicking around the idea cause we cant really make it shoot any worse.

Keep the ideas coming,

Nate

 

i'd say the bronze brush...

 

I think there's some misunderstanding in what you're seeing here as well as the semantics of what it's called.

"Leading" is something that's usually seen (and usually in revolvers and pistols and sometimes in rifles shooting Lead bullets). It usually occurs when UNDERSIZED bullets (that don't properly seal the gasses behind them) are shot in a bore and it allows the hot powder gases to pass around the outside of the bullet and MELT the lead onto the inside of the barrel.

This is more likely to happen with Hardcast bullets than softer Lead alloy bullets due to the fact that as Tin or Antimony is added to the alloy the melting temperature actually comes DOWN.

Lead "Streaking" (what I think you're seeing in your .22LR) is typically just some Lead flakes (and often Copper or Brass clad Lead .22 bullets will also show those metals) that have scraped off inside the barrel. It's somewhat self cleaning, but if it bothers you, passing a Bronze Bristle Brush down the bore will scrape most of it out.

But as others have mentioned, you're more likely to damage or wear you barrel unecessarily by doing this. :twocents:

:cheers: