ar-15 cleaning question

[son of liberty]

i recently read in a magazine article that it is possible to damage the rifiling and barrel crown of an ar-15 by using a cleaning rod WITHOUT a chamber guide. is this true? if so, how can i tell if i did damage to my ar. because ive cleaned mine several times without using a chamber guide

[FarmerRick]

Do you clean from the chamber end or the muzzle end?

If you clean from the muzzle end and by several you mean 4 or 5, I think you'll be just fine.  If you mean hundreds of times, well, you may not be just fine.

What do you use for a cleaning rod?  Is it steel, aluminum, or coated?

[son of liberty]

ive probably cleaned about 50 times. owned it a little over a year. mayby put a 1000 or so rounds thru it. i have gone through both  the muzzle and chamber. my cleaning rod is either brass or plated aluminum, cant really tell

[FarmerRick]

You're probably ok.  If the accuracy has not changed, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Always clean from the chamber end when possible(hard to do with a lot of .22's and semi-autos, levers and pumps). 
A chamber guide is nice to have I suppose, but certainly not a necessity.

[Dan W]

More barrels are damaged  with cleaning rods than by shooting.

Use a Boresnake  and CLP on my AR15's after each range session, but I only really clean the barrel with a copper solvent every 1000 rounds or so, and I use a coated Dewey rod and only enter from the chamber.

No notable changes in accuracy after 1000 rounds down the pipe without a cleaning on my 18" RRA non chrome lined 1x9 barrel.

I just recently cleaned it with a foaming bore cleaner and copper remover...nothing blue on the patches... maybe I am just lucky

[son of liberty]

thanks dan. the only thing still kinda worrying me is at 200 yrds i can only hold about a 3 inch sporratic group. i am using a 16 power mill dot scope. i cant tell if my heavy factory trigger is to blame or if i screwed up my barrel. or mayby im worrying about it too much

[Dan W]

2 inches @ 200 yards is 1 minute of angle (MOA) and is pretty good shootin'.

I have a tough time holding 1 inch @ 100 yards, but the problem is not the rifle...

[OnTheFly]

thanks dan. the only thing still kinda worrying me is at 200 yrds i can only hold about a 3 inch sporratic group. i am using a 16 power mill dot scope. i cant tell if my heavy factory trigger is to blame or if i screwed up my barrel. or mayby im worrying about it too much

Do you have prior groupings to compare it to?

Fly

[FarmerRick]

Ammo, trigger, breathing, barrel free-floated or not, many variables there. 
3" at 200 yards isn't too bad, but I suspect you could do a couple things to improve it a bit.

[son of liberty]

when i first sighted the rifle in, i brought the elevation down. the bullet impacts made a dead straight line down. then i did the windage. same thing. dead straight line to the left. that was at 100 yrds. i dont know if i could get it to repeat like that again. i think im worrying bout too much. its gettin a timmney and floating hand gaurd with my tax return. if that dosent tighten my group then i will look at my barrel

[Dan W]

Ya see it's those damn FLYERS

[WarHorse1961]

Show off!

[Dan W]

Hardly... that's the only good group I have ever shot

[Gunscribe]

thanks dan. the only thing still kinda worrying me is at 200 yrds i can only hold about a 3 inch sporratic group. i am using a 16 power mill dot scope. i cant tell if my heavy factory trigger is to blame or if i screwed up my barrel. or mayby im worrying about it too much

One thing to consider when shooting at distances over 100yards is bullet weight. The faster twist barrels (1 in 9, 1-7) need heavier bullets to shoot accurately. 55 gr fmjs in my heavy barrel 1 in 9 twist barely hold 1 1/2' at 100 yrds. a 68 gr HP in the same barrel will shoot one hole 3 shot groups all day on my good days.

If I wanted accuracy I would try a heavier bullet. Granted some of the cartridges loaded with heavier bullets may be to long to function in the AR platform, but the middle range weights of 60, 62gr should be a good compromise for better accuracy.

It has been my experience in my .223/5.56's that the 45 and 50 gr bullets are about useless for long range accuracy. Your mileage may vary.