After bore cleaning, do your groups start bad and tighten up?

[ChrisBCS]

This is the first time I shot the rifle after cleaning, its first cleaning in my hands (patches/Hoppe's). First group after cold bore and sighter, was a bit over 1 MOA with no flyers, just looked like .308" diameter shotgun holes. After 14 rounds down the tube, I had sub-MOA groups again excluding called fliers that were from glaring shooter error.

 

[Rob01]

Yup that is common with some barrels. Some take more. Some less. I usually shoot 20 rounds through my rifles before going to a match to make sure they have a good fouling before shooting.

 

[TacticalBoltKnob]

After a quick cleaning of the carbon out of the bore, I see no ill effects of accuracy with my rifle. When I clean the copper out, however, it does take about at least 20 rounds before things tighten up again.

 

[Sterling Shooter]

After cleaning, I will shoot about 14 rounds before match day. On match day I will shoot 8 sighters and then go for record. This schedule seems to assure a very good first round hit. I've gone for record on some occasions earlier, like after finding the x ring, but, having shot a few nine ring hits immeditaly after, that did not go on my right-in-there call in prevailing wind, I realized I needed more rounds down range to stabilize my bore for more consistent velocity. Chronographing your loads may indicate an appropriate schedule.