Comments on: Foul the Bore Before Hunting?!?

By: rifleman.45-70

rifleman.45-70 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Knowing that a fouled bore shoots better than a clean bore goes back to the 1880~1890′s, when the Irish team shooting against the Americans at 1000 yard Creedmore with muzzle loading Rigby rifles, .45 cal lead bullets, 86 gr of black powder, did not clean/swab their bores at any time during the competition, and handily outshot the Americans.
Same thing goes for the .22 long rifle, as could be seen from the 200 yard matches held through the 1950′s [I still cannot fathom why those matches were reduced to 50 feet!] with records that still have not been beaten.
Jack Hessian probably rolls over in his grave whenever someone says you need a clean bore to shoot well!

By: Dan1Dad

Dan1Dad — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:07:32 +0000

I must add that what I wrote is for those who ride around with the gun loaded and chambered. Which I also disagree with having a round chambered until you are ready.
If the gun is unloaded, you can carry it anyway you choose and saftey is not an issue.

By: Dan1Dad

Dan1Dad — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:05:12 +0000

Ive just read the 10 shooting myth and found it very interesting. But one problem I have is blatantly ignoring safety for the accuracy of the rile.
Where Mr. Tabor writes how placing the barrel downward in the car could leave dirt on , or damage the crown of the barrel as a reason to always place the gun barrel up, I politely disagree with doing this.

The reason and most important is that no one can be 100% sure where the bullet would come down if it goes off. And with fire arms I was always taught, ” if your not sure, dont do.” What if the firearm goes off and it hurts or kills a someone upon descendingg from the sky? Is that worth not getting you rifle crown scratched ?

I would have much preferred a more sensible solution as maybe carry the firearm in an open case, a sheath, or even wrap a towel over the end of the barrel or make some kind of a protector, like a simple plastic cap. Its not as if the time taken to remove the rifle from a opened case, sheath, have the towel drop off then you pick it up, or just pop a plastic cap off the gun with your thumb before you can shoot your prey.

Sure, the odds are slim of someone being hit by a falling bullet, but there is still a chance. Why take it? I am a firm believer in safety first, no matter how small the chance of someone getting hurt. Safety takes precedences over any thing especially to scratches or dirt on the crown. Never leave things to chance, or, “I doubt it will happen” type of thoughts. Because sure enough, it will happen if you treat safety that way.

By: SmithKoWitz

SmithKoWitz — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:19:49 +0000

You must clean your barrel at some point, don’t you? Or has it not been cleaned in over 20 years? How do you check your zero, with a bore sight or test firing a round or two after you clean? At some point if you clean your barrel, a round must be fired for the barrel to not be in cleaned state before you go out to hunt, that is all he is saying here.

By: vishnu

vishnu — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:25:10 +0000

This is sound advice but hardly news. I’ve known that the first round from a clean barrel is often a “flyer” for as long as I have been shooting (30+ years). Rather than sending “a round down the barrel and foul the bore before heading out to hunt,” I always check my zero and just not clean the barrel before I hunt. My primary hunting gun (a Winchester 670 in .30-06 with a 4x Leupold scope) has not changed point of impact with my preferred hunting cartridge (Federal 180-grain Power-Shok) in over 20 years!