.22 lr cleaning

What is your cleaning routine for .22 lr rifles and pistols and what do you use? Interested in bringing the target rifles out of hibernation.

for target guns,

if they have been in storage, a good once over and general clean,
punch the bores with hoppes , brush, and then dry patch till almost clean,


shoot,,, often, and don't clean the bore again unless groups go wonky,


learned that from several Smallbore guys

I don't try to scrub the barrel on my .22lr guns maybe 5-10 passes per match with a bronze brush and a little Hoppies or GI bore cleaner but I do try to scrub the chamber especially of the semi-autos a little bit. The rest is just wiping grit off the bolt face and Breech and maybe fingerprints off the rest.

I clean my .22s a lot more than most but it's pretty perfunctory. After a range session one pass with a brush soaked in solvent, dry patch, patch barely damp with CLP. Wipe down metal with a a sightly oily rag.

Yeah, everyone here will say I clean the bore too much.

Don't listen to this BS. A bronze brush will screw up your barrel way faster than any lead bullets you will fire through it. Use solvent, and if you need to scrub in the throat, use a nylon brush with a patch soaked with solvent. Work slow, slow. Over time, the lead will come out.

.22s are easy. As noted in the post #2, the procedure is simple. Beyond pulling a boresnake through the barrel after shooting there is little to do. I have two very nice target rifles, an Anschutz biathlon rifle and a Feinwerkbau rifle that I use for smallbore prone. Wipe down the outsides of the guns, boresnake and a little oil, put away.

Cleaning .22 LR firearms is not do difficult. A properly sized cleaning patch dampened w/ solvent is pushed through the chamber and bore followed by a dry patch. If there is buildup of lube on the muzzle, wipe it off w/ the damp patch. That's about it for a bolt-action of single shot firearm. For a semi-auto, you will need to give attention to the bolt face and breech wiping away any fouling, etc.
A soft brush may be useful for small hard to reach areas. If fouling is hardened, remove it with a brass scraper. Wipe the exterior of the firearm down with an oiled cloth. If dealing with a revolver, you will need to also give attention to the ejection system. There is little to do on a single-action. On a double-action, you will want to wipe out under the ejector star, etc. From time to time you may also want to use a phosphor-bronze brush to clean the charge holes in the cylinder. This will make loading/ejection easier. HTH. Sincerely. bruce.