First Shot?

[rosewood]

I learned my lesson. A wet patch every once in a while, otherwise I don’t clean bores anymore. I have a .300 Win Mag that would reliably put it’s preferred ammo inside 3/4”. And sometimes 1/2”. Granted, it liked Fed Prem w/ 150 gr TBBC, @ about $50 a box in the 90s, but it shot them great. I got the crazy idea to do a thorough, copper removal, cleaning. The same gun hasn’t shot much under 2” since. Even w/ reloads w/ each bullet sorted by weight and each powder charge weighed twice, it won’t do any better.
Wyman

I believe this can go either way. I have heard stories of a guns that wouldn't shoot and a good cleaning made them 1/2 MOA guns. Each and every gun/barrel is different.

It could be your bore is rough and needs to be lapped. The copper smoothed out the rough spots and made it shoot. Lapping may smooth it out and make it shoot clean. As I said, each gun is different though, it may not help at all.

Rosewood

 

[Buckstop]

I learned my lesson. A wet patch every once in a while, otherwise I don’t clean bores anymore. I have a .300 Win Mag that would reliably put it’s preferred ammo inside 3/4”. And sometimes 1/2”. Granted, it liked Fed Prem w/ 150 gr TBBC, @ about $50 a box in the 90s, but it shot them great. I got the crazy idea to do a thorough, copper removal, cleaning. The same gun hasn’t shot much under 2” since. Even w/ reloads w/ each bullet sorted by weight and each powder charge weighed twice, it won’t do any better.

Wyman

You might try JB bore polish. Helped a couple rifles that I was ready to give up on.

 

[one hogman]

If it's a Muzzleloader,a clean bore, but for a centerfire rifle , All of mine shot the best thru a lightly fouled bore, and that's been confirmed thru at least 30-40 different rifles over the years..

 

[one hogman]

I learned my lesson. A wet patch every once in a while, otherwise I don’t clean bores anymore. I have a .300 Win Mag that would reliably put it’s preferred ammo inside 3/4”. And sometimes 1/2”. Granted, it liked Fed Prem w/ 150 gr TBBC, @ about $50 a box in the 90s, but it shot them great. I got the crazy idea to do a thorough, copper removal, cleaning. The same gun hasn’t shot much under 2” since. Even w/ reloads w/ each bullet sorted by weight and each powder charge weighed twice, it won’t do any better.

Wyman

My thinking is you damaged the crown or rifling somehow in the process, I have never heard or seen a thorough cleaning make a rifle shoot bad.. you might just have a Smith look at the crown, it is the easiest and most critical part to damage as far as accuracy goes.

 

[sea trout]

Clean with one cap fired through to dry.

True funny story from last year if y'all wanna read...

Every one at camp was up and gettin ready the Saturday opener of muzzle loader week.
My wife had our musket and was bringin our 7yr old daughter, I was bringin our 9 year old son who was shootin his mini 30 for youth week.
My brother in law stood on the dirt road in the early mornin darkness and asked everyone at camp to watch the end of his muzzle and see if sparks come out. So he popped a cap in a safe direction and we told him yes it's workin good.
He told his sister, (my wife), that she'd better do the same. She said "no...we just cleaned it thursday night it's good"
Sure enough, on the hunt a big red pig walked up towards my wife and daughters box stand. My wife pulled the hammer....set the trigger...aimed good and fired and just the cap went off. She gave it a second just in case the charge would ignite but it didn't. Then her and my daughter were shockingly trying to get another cap out of those little white remington tins as the big red hog was runnin away.
So her brother had the "I told ya so" at camp for a while and we all had fun with that.

Good luck everyone!

 

[280 Man]

I don't hunt GA but my first shot is gonna be through the same barrel that shot this group. Hasn't been cleaned in a couple months and has had upwards of 65-75 rounds through since it was last cleaned. Im through with "burning powder" for fun until season ends in Jan.

 

[releehweoj]

Both my rifles seem to shoot better with 3 or 4 rounds of fouling in them