Wiping between shots?

[Maven]

Never had the need to....Good lube, a proper patch and you're sitting pretty.

This!  Btw, I fired 30 shots today using 1 Ballistol : 6 water and didn't need to swab at all.  In fact, my rifle's bore, though not pristine, was quite clean.  There was no fall off in accuracy either.

[alacran]

It all depends on what you are shooting. Meaning the type of matches you are shooting. It also depends on whether you want to be competitive.
I used to use Teflon patching when I was shooting Buffalo matches at the Western Nationals. It wasn't just the top Crossticks shooters that were using the Teflon patching, it was all of them.
The reason for this is shot to shot consistency. The reason for wiping between shots was also so you could get the ball down the bore. After all a good patch ball combo had to be started with a small hammer.
Like Smiley Grouch said you get smaller groups with the Teflon.
I used to use Texas patching, I really liked that stuff. They went out of business, so I started using Minute man patching. I did not like that as much.
I have a chunk gun that when I first made it, I worked up my loads using Texas patching.
At any rate I decided that since I didn't like what Teflon patching that was available, I would experiment with other types of patching. I was getting decent groups at 60 yards with pillow ticking with bear oil. But I never could get the groups out of that Douglass barrel that I could get with the Teflon. On the few chunk gun or crossticks matches that I shoot with it now, I use Teflon. Only gun I use it with.

[Marcruger]

"Like Smiley Grouch said you get smaller groups with the Teflon."

That's a bit of a generalization Alacran.  I have a barrel that I shot for quite a while with Teflon.  Never was a "cloverleaf" barrel.  I switched to wet lube (Hoppe's BP cleaner) with plain patching (same cloth from The Minute-Men, just not Teflon treated), and the barrel decided to start shooting great groups.  The only thing I changed was the lube. 

Experimenting is important. 

God Bless,   Marc

[Dphariss]

Does anyone use any liquid to swab between shots?

Not for hunting loads, generally. Should not be needed. Though some guns tend to foul hard toward the muzzle with some loads. Or the bore may not be smooth enough. Reamed a little rough.
If using a dry patch (water soluble oil mix allowing the water to evaporate after its put on the patches) I used a “heavily damp” far from dripping wet. Once with one side and once with the other then a dry patch both sides. I don’t want the bore too wet just enough to get rid of the fouling. I make up the damp patches the night before so the water soaks through the plastic jar full then iff still to wet I press a few dry ones onto them the reduce the wetness.  I may make up some WS oil and shoot a fun target with the 50 cal match rifle to see if I can still shoot a group. I also shoot a really tight ball fit. Have not shot it in years. Weighs just under 18 pounds.

[Mule Brain]

Swabbing is totally unnecessary, with the proper lube. The patch needs to be good and saturated as well.   

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Swabbing is totally unnecessary, with the proper lube. The patch needs to be good and saturated as well.

I concur.

[Dphariss]

It depends. If shooting offhand it may not make a difference. But as a friend of mine stated some years ago about our  rest matches “you don’t have to wipe but you have to wipe to win”. AND I and most I know do not use water based patch lubes. I do not use the same lube for my “chunk” rifle that I do in my hunting, offhand shooting. A high friction lube will generally give superior accuracy. And water based lubes can be high friction. But over the years I have seen in my own rifles and heard various horror stories about spit and water based lubes. This said I have a rifle right now that loads hard. And it seems to foul toward the muzzle. So i will wipe in now and then. But I live in Montana and on sunny days in summer the humidity is usually low double digits or even lower. And he barrels get hot too.
High Friction v low friction. The old standby for patch lube with the target shooters was often (absolutes won’t work) Sperm Whale Oil (from the head not the rendered stuff). Anyone who has used it and paid attention knows that its higher friction than Neatsfoot Oil or tallow. But its not an oil at all but a liquid wax. Now I have never used teflon patches but the maker of my heavy chunk rifle barrel told me that in testing it would shoot the same hole at 100 with a teflon patch. It is pretty close to this with WS oil patches which I thing I described above.
In the “turkey” matches we used the hold at 60 yards in Cody one had to shoot well under a 10” string to get anywhere in the match. 10” means 1” average dispersion for 10 shots. 4” would be .4” average. The best I have ever done was about 4 3/16” IIRC. But this is a LONG way from shooting standing. Or shooting at large targets like gongs and such.
So what you are doing makes a lot of difference as to wipe or not. And water wet patches should never need wiping. How tight your load is can be a factor. The chunk gun is a 50 and I shoot a .498-.500” ball with a pretty heavy patch but the barrel is very smooth and uniform. The patches fell just slightly greasy after the water evaporates.

[Dphariss]

My iPad was being cranky and would not allow photos to be added.
This is my sighter target for my best match at 60 yards, plank rest at Cody 50 cal flint match rifle. Two of the 3 to the left are sighters, one a missed wind call. I leave the sighter up as a composite of the shots. It was a calm day, for Cody, WY







Plank rest.

[Daryl]

[Darkhorse]

Back in the old days some 30 or more years ago when most shooters I knew of used Crisco as our patch lube. After 3 shots I needed to wipe the barrel just so I could load the last two.
I would keep a patch in my mouth and chew it to get it wet then after the 3rd shot I would wipe the barrel with the wet patch followed by 2 dry patches.
Was it neccessary? I don't know. But I knew I won a lot of matches so I kept doing it.
Main reason I did it was after the 3rd shot my barrel was so fouled I could hardly load the next two.
Did the crisco ever catch on fire. No. Not once. I never knew it to happen to anybody.