[kymike]

I have a glenfield model 70 .22 I have had it for 23 years and it's older than that I'm sure. My groups are not that tight anymore. I'm wondering how I could find out for sure if it's the barrel. I have put many many many rounds through it.

[Sniper03]

KYMike,

Is the bore clean or all leaded up? A lot of the old rounds were lead and had an issue with after many rounds were fired of fouling up the bore and filling in the Rifling's with lead! If the bore is in good shape it could even be the ammunition you are shooting. When you are talking about accuracy what range are you speaking of an what degree of being inaccurate regarding hits on the target. Should the barrel be pitted or fouled that will certainly cause inaccuracy. Worst comes to worse you can get a new barrel form Gun Parts Inc. also known as Numeric Arms Inc.

03

[masterPsmith]

Kymike,

Chances are that the barrel is fine. It is very uncommon to shoot out a .22 cal. rimfire barrel. I have some that are at least 100 years old and are shot a lot. The barrels are in pristine shape and they shoot very well. Give it a good cleaning and try several different types of ammo and see which it prefers. Also check the muzzle crown for any nicks or irregularities. Sometimes a re-crown works wonders. Headspace issues can also cause inconsistencies from shot to shot. Just a few thoughts...................
Let us know what you find and how it works out.


Jim..........

[Innovative]

When I test a .22 rimfire, I try several different brands of ammo (5 shot groups) at 50 yards. The standard velocity usually beats out the high velocity stuff by quite a margin. You might be surprised to see how much difference there is between different brands of ammo. Each rifle is will prefer one particular brand.

During your testing, be sure to clean your barrel (with a brush and solvent) just before you switch to a different brand of ammo. Each brand or rimfire ammo leaves a different residue, and that will affect accuracy when trying another brand. If you want to do a good ammo test, remember that a rimfire barrel needs to be "conditioned" with 3 or 4 shots after cleaning, before it will shoot the ultimate tight group.

[dteed4094]

I have a friend That bench shoots a lot of 22lr competitions. He doesn't clean the bore more than once in 2000 rounds and when he does he doesn't think it is ready for competition till he shoots 200 rounds through it. He does however run a dry patch through it every time he is done shooting it. I don't know if there is any validity to this but he does well competing.

[Innovative]

dteed4094 ........

It is common for competition rimfire shooters to not clean their barrel for a very long time. As long as you don't use different types of ammo, your barrel will stay conditioned to shoot tight groups in the same place. Competition shooters rarely encounter rough weather conditions like hunters.

However, if it appears that your accuracy begins to deteriorate, nothing beats a good bore cleaning.

[dteed4094]

Anothing to consider is your eyes are 23 years older!!

[JonM]

I would agree with the barrel needing a good cleaning.

You can shoot out a 22lr but you need to run nearly 10k rounds a day for a year... or something approaching that. There just isnt enough heat and pressure in a 22lr to wear the metal down unless its a really crappy barrel to start with