cleaning

[ENCORE50A]

Barrel cleaning by Speedy (Hall of fame BR shooter) - YouTube

 

[Mnt monkey]

I've had the privilege of shooting with a lot of bench rest competitors,,, even shot a couple of speedy's rifles,, he built personally I recommend this man's advice!!

 

[Mnt monkey]

Competitive benchrest shooters look at a quality match winning barrels and their care a differently than a lot of us do,, it's much more than a tool to them and more than just a rifle barrel, when they get their hands on a match-winning one hole capable barrel they will do anything to keep it exactly in that competitive winning condition, something to be learned from that ,it just makes sense as that throat begins to erode and you're cleaning your barrel after every 20 or 30 shots , I would think any kind of brush, I don't care if it is a softer metal like bronze it's also going to affect that throat erosion, I can see a lot of you smiling or laughing at that, but again a lot of you aren't trying to put bullets in the same hole either. Now I guess us muzzleloaders since we don't have a bullet chamber and a throat in the gun it's not such a concern but maybe what I can learn from this for me is learning to get my muzzleloader barrel it's clean as I can in as gentle a manner as I can. I have come to believe this most of us don't know how to truly clean our muzzleloader barrels , maybe I'm wrong it's just that the four used muzzleloaders that I've purchased that had quote perfect bores and we're in excellent condition on the outside all had some serious serious bore issues when you truly got the light on and looked at them. Most of my shooting passed has been in bench rest it's hard for me not to approach any of the muzzleloaders I have and that I've been shooting the last seven or eight years and not see them as benchrest rifles I struggle with that,,, but I'm going to stay in that camp and that's why I'm always accuracy above bullet performance and it's why I won't keep a rifle if it won't shoot a half inch or less I'm talking muzzleloaders, and I sure won't have a smokeless rifle if it won't shoot a hole ,I see a lot of guys that are content to shoot an inch and a half or two inch or even 3 inch rifle I couldn't do it. To me an inch and a half rifles fixing to get sold or rebuilt especially in today's world 50 years ago I'm sure that would have been acceptable but there's no way I would accept anything less today. Thank you encore for that link!

 

[ShawnT]

Mnt Monkey,

Totally agree. I shot BR (Group discipline) for several years too. You got so spoiled to the accuracy that you find you must try to get that out of every rifle you own or you want to wrap it around the nearest pole. Lots of Barrels get sold from BR shooters that a guy shooting a varmint rifle would love to have, but like they mentioned in the video it all depends on the accuracy your looking for. Group shooter measure targets in the thousands and it don't take much before they swap out looking for the Holy Grail "Hummer" barrel. Groups that run .200 center to center are not so good anymore
Another thing I found was that after shooting 1.5oz Jewel triggers for so long that a 2# trigger feels like hitting a wall and you feel it will never beak. Guys at My club laugh and say I am totally nuts. But if they have issues guess who they come looking to. I never actually got to Meet Speedy but I have shot next to guys that had his rifles and they shot fantastic. There are lots of improvements to products we all here use that were tested or taken from a product used in Br competition. When Leupold was working on the newer BR Competition Series scopes that came in 40 and 45X, I got to look though a 45x Prototype at a match in PA. The scope was being tested (And he had a ton of Input) by Hall of Fame shooter Tony Boyer. Tony took the time to get lots of shooters up to the Line to look though that scope on his rifle and offer any input he could get. I sure miss going to those Matches. Can't begin to talk about all I learned from those guys, and it all seemed to change and get better every year.

 

[Mnt monkey]

Took a long time for me to get away from the feel of a 2 oz trigger breaking crisp,, I used to shoot really fast too, I'd have five rounds downrange before a lot of guys had their second round loaded. Now ,that two stage trigger feels good, because I know I'm fixing to get a big kaboom. Yes ,,these are not muzzleloaders these are bench rest muzzleloaders and don't ever forget it,, now I'm starting to shoot traditional side locks and under hammers yes they're bench rest rifles too. This is someone here that can really really those traditional guys nervous,, I mean my Frankenstein bench rest long distance Target approach to modern muzzle loading and now traditional, I'm sure having fun and again I've said this before I would have been the last person on Earth I would have ever thought would have been an addictive 45 Cal fast twist muzzleloader groupie guy,, but still, they are my benchrest rifles.