I am shooting a 223R load of 6 grains of TiteGroup, WSR, LBT Blue, and 84 grain bullet and getting hard black fouling that makes the first patch with solvent hard to get through the bore. It causes five shot groups to go from sub minute to 2-3 minutes usually by the third group but sometimes a bit later. It comes out easily with wet patch -- brush -- dry patch and takes one fouling shot to be ready for another good group. There is no indication of true leading. Only the tiniest flecks of lead can be seen in good light on the first patch and none later.
In last week's CBA nationals I cleaned after every target card as a stopgap measure (max of about 15 shots between bore cleaning) l think that helped get me in the money although I didn't win my class. I hated the cleaning. More importantly I can't believe that if those two inch fliers come at shot # 12 or #18 that earlier shots aren't affected as well.
I am going to shoot strings of groups with different components. My goal is to find an accurate load that doesn't require bore cleaning. Any suggestions as to which components are less likely to foul would be appreciated.
I know this is possible because in the early 1980 I went the whole season a couple of times without ANY bore cleaning (2,000 -- 3,000 rounds). I know that a few others have done the same. Load was 72 grain bullet, CCI 450,and 9 grains of old first batch surplus 5744. Even with the hot primers there were always unburned power grains but it shot well all season and a bore cleaning at the end didn't improve groups. That ended when 5744 changed and I got hard black fouling.
Any advice is welcome.
John
