Rickiesrevenge's post got me to wondering.How do your guns shoot with a clean an oiled bore first shot.With most of my guns I start the season with a fouled bore [one or two shots]as the first ones from a clean and oiled barrel are never in the group with the rest. My .22's seem the worst about this,sometimes requiring 5 to 10 rounds to settle down .The only guns I hunt with, with a clean and dry barrel are my muzzleloaders and they are sighted in clean and dry. A fowled muzzleloading barrel draws moisture bad and sometimes it stays loaded for a couple of days,so I want it dry,and clean. Some of my pistols will put the first shot out a couple of inches with an oiled bore.

I always fire a couple fouling shots before taking to the woods. I've seen the same thing your talking about which is the first couple rounds normally are out of the group and then it settles in. If I need to do anything to the barrel during the season it's normally to just run a bore snake through to remove moisture or grime.

never shoot with oil in your bore! at least dry patch it out before shooting.

Y'all clean your guns??

About a week or two prior to season opening I check the zero on whatever I am taking with and don't touch the bore again until after season is over.

Exactly..............

X's 3.

If your ML can use Blackhorn 209, you don't need to worry much about moisture. In fact, I don't clean mine from last Sat. in Oct. - 1st Sat in Jan. No issues whatsoever with corrosion and that's rain or snow or shine.

never forget what ole' john at FA told me. he cleans about 1x per year for the bore, i clean the cylinder a touch more when the rounds don't want to be seated fully other than that i don't.

i will clean a little more if i use jacketed bullets, like 2x per year.

I normaly use 3FFF black powder in all the muzzleloaders,it shoots better for me.Of course the flintlock won't run on anything else.The flinter is 30 plus yrs.old and still has a shiny clean bore.I hunt any weather so if they get soaked you have to wipe them off.
If I have to clean the bore on a pistol I try to put a shot thru it before I hunt it again. One advantage to having more than one to hunt with. All the revolvers are sighted in the same distance, as are all the single shots and each has its own marked ammo box.Mark sight in data on the lids and load data.
C.R.S. is bad sometimes so I write it down.

I'll bring an interesting perspective. I'am a firm believer in a fowled bore. if my gun is zeroed at the range with that bore than it should be good enough for hunting. but one year i was in wyoming hunting goats and came upon a dead buck. as most would do i told the warrden in the area about it and went on my way. The next thing I knew i was being pulled over and interigated about shooting the buck. I told him I did not shoot the buck and was trying to fill my doe tag. in fact I hadn't even shot my gun yet. He proceeded to check all firarms and found mine was dirty. and asked me why i told him I hadn't shot my gun. I was stuck with a loss of words and said i like a fowled bore.

Luckilly someone elce had seen the poaching and called it in with a different vehicle description. so it ended at that. But what a mess it could have been. I think I would have won in the end after they checked bullets because I was using my 375 win. not to mant people hunt goats with that one.

Again thats just my story and you need to do what makes your gun accurate. Maybe I just have bad luck!!!

I neglected to mention I use a stainless and modern in-line. I can see your issues with a flinty! I need to find a new barrel for my old .45 Kentucky 1:66 (Jukar Spain). I pushed a ball down it without powder once as a young buck, and never did get it out. I imagine it's part of the barrel now.

The old percussion round-ball shooter was darned accurate at open sight ranges and for the smallish deer we have in our parts.

If you're really curious, just do some down&dirty testing. Record a few groups right after cleaning and then every 100 or so rounds and see what your gun likes best.
I personally clean only for proper functioning.
.22's every 1000 or so rounds or when it takes force to chamber cartridges. Centerfire semi-autos, top-end only every 500 or so, lowers when they look gross. Revo's when there's too much residue caked up (that's kinda subjective, I admit...).
When your test is complete, please share the data.

Bench rest shooters seem to clean after every target,but they are after a different accuracy standard than I am. Some olympic shooters say they would never touch a .22 barrel that shoots,and they are after pure accuracy also. I want mine to shoot as
well as I am capable of, but off of field rests. A few thousants here or there I won't notice. What I am after is the first shot out of the barrel has to go to the same place everytime, if I do my part. I take all my hunting guns to the range for sight checks before season and don't touch the barrel again until after season closes,if at all.[except the muzzleloaders] How do you treat your long range guns Ernie?

With my centerfires, they are fouled just before the season, while confirming zero and drops. I don't clean again until I am done.
If something happens to where I need to clean for whatever reason.
I will still foul my barrel even if it means firing a couple of rounds into the dirt

When I go to the range to shoot a centerfire firearm off season and do not anticipate shooting again for several weeks I will clean my bore. Prior to going out to shoot I will run a patch saturated with mineral spirits through the bore and then several dry patches. This procedure in my rifles seems to eliminates first shot flyers or bring them into a very acceptable level. If I am checking the zero on the same rifle prior to hunting season I will not clean again until the season is over.

Rimfire .22 or my handguns that shoot cast bullets exclusively only get cleaned when accuracy starts to deteriorate, with a .22 that can be a long time.