This Forum caters to precision rifle shooters, benchrest shooters, highpower rifle shooter, and varmint hunters. Most of our users reload their ammunition with reloading tools from RCBS, Forster, PACT, Redding, Hornady, Lee, and Wilson. Custom rifles with match barrels and expensive optic socpes are popular for target shooting with both paper targets and electronic targets. Rifle shooters, hunters, varminters buy rifle scopes, rangefinders, reloading tools, gun cases, gun safes for rifles, shotguns, and precision guns. They reload with reloading dies, tools, digital scales, for accurate ammunition. They drive 4x4 Chevy and Ford trucks, SUVs, and ATVs to gun ranges for target shooting using gun cases and gun bags to carry rifles, shotguns, pistols and reloading equipment with gun cases, bullets, barrels, gun stocks, and riflescopes.

Aiming at targets with rifle scopes and rangefinders, they shoot guns and bullets at benchrest and hunting targets. Rangefinders and chronographs help sighting animals and reloading accurate ammunition. Hunters go on deer hunting trips, hunting for deer and game with rifles and riflescopes, using spotting scope to spot deer and big game. Spotting scopes and rangefinder are just as important as the riflescopes and rifles. You need good scopes to make use of good rifle ammunition. Good scopes need to be sharp with low-dispersion glass and coated lenses. Lens coatings block UV rays and improve color and contrast. It is also important to try a variety of cross-hair reticle designs. Some shooter like thick plex reticles while others prefer thick target reticles or marked mildot reticles. There are also specialized reticles with ranging icons for varminting or big-game shooting. Hunters need bright scopes with a wide field of vision. Target shooter normally want more magnification with very precise click controls.

Target rifles need specialized carbon, fiberglass, wood, or laminated stocks. These should be as heavy as class rules allow for bench shooting, but silhouette and tactical shooters prefer lighter stocks that are easy to carry or hold while standing. Silhouette shooting is a fun kind of target shooting with reactive metallic silhouettes of pig, ram, turkey, and chicken. Silhouette shooting is done with both rimfire and centerfire rifles, of 22LR through 7mm calibers. 6.5mm and 6mm (.243) are also popular.

Gun training and safety is also important to shooters, hunters and varmint hunters. The varmint hunters reload for accurate rifles using RCBS and PACT reloading equipment. PACT digital scales help reloaders to reload with safety and precision. Hunters and shooters make safe their guns in fire proof gun safes and gun storage lockers. Gunsafes and safes keep rifles protected from rust and theft. Hunters and shooters buy gun safes for all their guns, pistols and reloading equipment. Gun safes also protect spotting scopes and rifle scopes. Gun safes come large and small, with safes for pistols, and bigger gun safes for long guns and rifles. Shooters like .223 Remington, 6mm Lapua, 6BR, 30-06, .308 Winchester, 22-250, and 30 caliber rifles for hunting and target shooting. Accurate calibers let hunters track deer and hunt successfully with their rifles and hunting clothing. Hunters buy boots, packs, shooting glasses, GPS units and game calls. Game calls work for Varmint hunters and deer hunters. GPS units and radios are used in the field along with rangefinders and spoting spotting scopes. Favored brands are Leupold, Leica, Bushnell, and Swarovski. Binoculars, scopes, chronographs, kestrel windmeters, shooting sticks, game calls, and Exbal calculators for reloading are all good tools for shooters, marksmen, and hunters. Highpower and silhouette shooters also need good optics from Leupold, Nightforce, Zeiss, and Leica. The Leica CRF rangefinder is a good laser rangefinder. Nikon and Kowa have good spotting scopes. Nikon Monarch rifle scopes and spotting scopes are popular with hunters and Kowa scopes are used by soldiers and highpower shooters. Bear Basin, EuroOptics, Europtic, and eRiflescopes are discount vendors. Benchrest shooters also use riflescopes, high magnification riflescopes for benchrest target shooting. Along with scopes and optics, shooters need eye glasses or shooting goggles that are impact-resistent. ANSI Z87 rating and OSHA rating provide impact resistance for polycarbonate and Trivex glasses. TriVex eyewear are probably the best among shooting glasses that provide eye protection. Shooters and hunters should always have eye and ear protection in their range bags and use safety glasses while reloading and target shooting. Targets are important. You can shoot paper targets, electronic targets, steel targets, clay pidgeons, and a variety of speciality shooting targets. Electronic targets are the best targets for target shooters but they cost. Electronic targets use ballistic info and acoustic target mics to locate the bullet on the target. When you are done shooting, put your target in a shooting base inside your truck and then put your guns in your gun safe.

Why are folks turning to the "Terrific Twenties"? Among the most important reasons are: low recoil, high velocity, low noise, reduced cost, longer barrel life, and better ballistics for a given bullet weight. In short, compared to a .223 Rem, a Twenty shoots flatter, costs less to shoot, and is easier on the shooter's shoulder and his barrel. The first time you shoot a 20-Caliber rifle, you'll note that there is minimal recoil, meaning the muzzle stays on target. No loud, dust-kicking muzzle brakes required here. You can shoot and actually "see the show". The rifle doesn't move enough during recoil for you to loose your target in the scope. This enables you to quickly asses the results and make a follow-up shot, if need be. A related advantage is low blast and noise. Even with relatively short barrels, 20-caliber rounds burn less powder than larger varmint cartridges such as the 22-250, and the Twenties make less noise. This definitely works to the hunter's advantage in a large field of ground squirrels or prairie dogs. I'm often asked how a 20-Caliber gun compares with the ever-popular .223 Rem. Well, I tell people the Twenty is flatter-shooting, easier on barrels, and it is a better choice for small varmints, whether you want to "mist 'em" or save the pelt. The Velocity Edge--A .204 Ruger drives a 40-grainer 600 fps faster than a .223 Rem can push the typical 22-Caliber 50gr bullet. This higher velocity produces a flatter trajectory. Additionally, grain for grain, 20-Caliber bullets have higher ballistic coefficients than .224 bullets. Combine this with the extra velocity of the 20-Caliber, and you get superior performance in the wind. Run the numbers and you'll see--a 40-grainer shot from a .204 Ruger has less drop AND less wind drift than a 40gr or 50gr bullet fired from a .223 Rem. You'll find the data in the chart below. Component Economy and Barrel Life--All the Twenties burn way less powder than a 22-250, and the smaller Twenties use less powder than a .223 Rem. This attribute actually has two advantages. First, it makes shooting 20-Caliber cartridges more economical, but mostly it means less barrel heat. A typical varmint hunter may shoot several hundred rounds in one day, so barrel heat is an important issue. Terminal Ballistics--For hunters seeking maximum explosive effect on a small varmint, Twenties deliver the goods. Because it passes through the rifling much more quickly, a 20-Caliber bullet will be turning much higher RPMs than a 22-caliber bullet launched from a barrel of similar twist rate. Experienced varminters will tell you that high spin rates create the most explosive impacts. On the other hand, if you shoot a non-fragmenting bullet, the Twenty can minimize hide/fur damage. If you plan to keep the fur, you want the smallest possible hole or damage to it.

There are many effective bore cleaning methods. And each barrel is different. A hand-lapped Lilja 3-groove will show a fraction of the copper fouling as will a factory tube. Using moly bullets ordinarily reduces fouling, but moly requires a different cleaning method altogether (not covered here). And powder brands make a difference. Accordingly, there is no "one best way" to clean a rifle barrel. But here are some cleaning methods that work well, get the job done faster, and reduce the amount of wear and tear on your barrel. NEW Companion Article on Bore Brushing (Pros & Cons) -- A Dozen Experts Give their Views Remove the Carbon First, then Attack the Copper Here is what we recommend for an "average" factory barrel. After 25 rounds, or when accuracy degrades noticeably, spray some MPro7 or GM Top Engine Cleaner (TEC) down the bore from the muzzle. (Insert bore guide in breech first. Keep your MPro7 or TEC in a small plastic pump bottle for muzzle application). Let that sit a bit, then follow with a patched soaked with the same cleaner. Repeat. SharpShoot-R Carb-Out and Slip2000 Carbon Killer work really well also, when applied with soaking wet patches. Then, apply the same MPro7, TEC, Carb-Out, or Slip2000 generously to a bore brush, and run the brush through the bore 3-4 times, breech to muzzle. Allow some dwell time between strokes. Always use a wet brush. GM TEC cleans a little faster but it has some dangerous solvents, so handle with care. MPro-7 is non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive, and biodegradeable. It comes in liquid or gel, and is also sold as "Hoppes Elite" cleaner. Carb-Out (from the makers of Wipe-Out) is new, but looks very promising. When used with a brush, it has removed baked-on carbon that usually requires abrasive pastes to remove. Here's the brushing method we recommend: Pass the brush all the way out the tube, and unscrew it before the next pass. Brush breech to muzzle only. Do NOT draw the brush back down the bore. (A reverse pass, even with a "clean" brush, just drags fouling residues back into your rod guide, where they can be picked up and passed back into the barrel on the next forward pass.) Clean the brush and wipe off the shaft of the cleaning rod before each pass. After 3-4 brush strokes, run a damp patch through the bore again once or twice. Then run a tight-fitting dry patch to remove the carbon cleaner. The point of all this is to get 90% of the powder/carbon fouling out BEFORE you attack the Copper. And, always clean in a way that does not drag debris and fouling back in the bore. Foam Away that Copper and Brush Less Next, if you have finished your shooting session, plug the breech and apply Wipe-Out Foam Bore Cleaner through the muzzle. It works best if, holding gun muzzle up, you give it about a 1/2 second squirt, then wait a bit for the bore to fill. Then give it another short jet for good measure. Put some tape over the muzzle, pack the gun up and drive home. After about two total hours dwell time, patch out the bore with a few dry patches. (If fouling is severe, you can let it work overnight). The makers of Wipe-Out say it has corrosion inhibitors so you don't need anything else. But Wipe-Out is water-based so, for peace of mind, we recommend you put some Eezox or light oil on a patch and run it through the bore (we recommend Eezox). Before shooting the next time, dry patch the bore to remove any oil residue. Some folks like to run a patch with Lock-Ease graphite to help with Cold Bore Shot accuracy. Also, for a more reliable Cold Bore Shot, reduce Wipe-out dwell time so as to leave a little copper in the bore. If you need to clean faster, such as when shooting a match, run a couple patches soaked with Wipe-Out Accelerator through the bore before applying the foam. The accelerator reduces dwell time by roughly 50%. NOTE: We do not recommend using ANY foam bore cleaner other than Wipe-Out. We've seen evidence that Forester Foam and some of the domestic Wipe-Out imitators promote rust. If you use a foam cleaner, Wipe-Out is the ONLY correct choice. Alternative to WipeOut Foam--For Extended Shooting Sessions After getting the carbon out, as stated above, use a good copper solvent according to the product's instructions. We like the Montana X-treme products (especially 50BMG solvent), Bore-Tech Eliminator, and Tom Meredith's new "TM Solution" cleaner is very effective. 600-yard IBS Shooter of the Year Joel Kendrick tells us "TM" works really fast, "cuts carbon better than anything I've ever seen", and has no annoying odor. But there are many other products that work well. Brush 4-6 strokes total with a solvent-soaked brush, cleaning the brush tip and rod as explained above. Again, do not drag the brush back through the bore from muzzle to breech, and allow some dwell time between strokes. Let the copper solvent sit in your barrel 5-15 minutes (per manufacturer's instructions), then patch out. When all the solvent is gone, run a wet patch with Iso Alcohol through the bore, then patch out. As a final step we run a very small amount of Eezox through the bore on a patch, but some people prefer using Lock-Ease, which is a colloidal graphite solution. Some people feel the graphite enhances your next cold bore shot. Using these methods, you can clean your barrel in 15 minutes or less of actual labor, and your lands will stay sharp longer. You also reduce the risk of damaging the critical crown area. Procedure for Fine, Hand-lapped Barrels For a custom match barrel, all you may need to do is run 4-5 wet patches with the general-purpose solvent of your choice (e.g. Bore-Tech Eliminator, Butch's Bore Shine, TM Solution) through the bore, maybe not brushing at all. If you do choose to brush--don't overdo it. Let the chemicals do the work. (Every pass with a brush can add micro-scratches in the bore.) Then dry patch and finish with a little oil on a patch. How frequently should you clean? Setting the round count between cleaning is up to you. Some top BR shooters clean every five rounds. Some Cross-course shooters clean every eighty. Some Palma shooters, such as Jerry Tierney, go 300 rounds or more between barrel cleanings. You have to see what works for you. Solvents for Barrel Break-In During the "break-in" process for barrels, copper is the issue much more than carbon fouling, as you'll probably be cleaning (and sampling bore fouling), every couple of shots initially. Wipe-Out, with its dwell time, isn't really suited to this role. Bill Shehane of D & B Supply, recent 1000-yard Shooter of the Year, has to break-in scores of barrels every year for his customers and himself. For barrel break-in, Bill says: "Montana X-Treme 50 BMG is the best copper cleaner that I've ever tried. The older I get the less I like to clean and the more I like to shoot. I want something I can break-in barrels with quickly and maintain them in copper-free and carbon-free condition after long heavy bullets lay the fouling to it. I have used all [the solvents] and they all work--some better than others and some faster than others. But none work as fast as Montana X-Treme 50 BMG. (I use a Hawkeye Borescope to watch for fouling). During barrel break-in, I normally shoot three-shot groups, cleaning in-between. One pass with 50 BMG is normally enough for each cleaning stage. I have never had a barrel that two trips with the 50 BMG didn't do the job on, and most never take over one trip. I know they say [50 BMG] has oil in it but I ALWAYS follow with 1 patch of Montana X-treme oil before putting the barrel away." When using 50 BMG, you'll want to keep the cap on--the formula can lose some of its effectiveness if left open.
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