Shooting Sports USA's managing editor, Chip Lohman, is a talented writer, an NRA Certified Instructor, and all-around good guy. Like most writers, he maintains a healthy sense of curiosity. The debate about the proper care of a match barrel is a hot one, spiked with folklore and old wives' tales, Lohman said. He and his staff set out to set the record straight: "We tried to interject some science into the discussion of cleaning a match barrel," he tells us. 

Read on for more: 

Let the Barrel Tell You

Why worry about a little barrel fouling when the throat is subjected to a brutal 5,600°F volcano at 55,000 PSI? To investigate these and other questions about taking care of a match barrel, we spoke with a dozen experts and share their knowledge in this first of a series of articles.

After listening to folks who shoot, build barrels or manufacture cleaning solvents for a living, we concluded that even the experts each have their own unique recommendations on how to care for a match barrel. But they all agree on one thing— the gun will tell you what it likes best. Because the life expectancy of a match barrel is about 1,500 to 2,500 rounds, the objectives of cleaning one should include: preserve accuracy, slow the erosion and remove fouling—all without damaging the gun. This article doesn’t claim that one cleaning method is better than the next. Rather, we set out to interject a little science into the discussion and to share some lessons learned from experts in the field.

Continue reading here. Remember, this piece is part one of a series, so be sure to bookmark the site for future reference.