I purchased my first 15-22 last week. I went to the range yesterday to try it out and get a feel for it. Being it is my firs ever rifle I have no experience with ammo for it. I jus asked for .22lr ammo and was given Remington target shooting standard velocity ammo. All was fine while shooting, in fact it was better than I thought it would. When I got home however and started cleaning it, well that's another story. I purchased a .22 rifle cleaner with the weight and brushes. (Forgive my lack of terminology, I'm new to the whole rifle thing). I was unable to pass the weight through the barrel. After visualizing the barrel it appeared as if it may have been defective kind of offset. After numerous attempts I finally cut the weight off and passed the leader through. After about a half hour of repeated passes, I was able to get it about 99% clean to where there seems to be a little bit of powder residue left. I plan on cleaning it again before I shoot it again.
Is this common with the 22-15 or is it just a lower quality ammo and can this be avoided? Any feed back would be appreciated.

Did you run patches with cleaner on it and a brush before using the bore snake. I assume that's what you were referring to about the weight thing. If not, try that first. The bore snake Will go through the barrel much better after you do those steps first.

When I purchased my 15-22 I cleaned it thoroughly as described in the owners manual. On the first trip to the range I ran 300 rounds of ammo through it. The last 25 or 30 rounds performed very poorly. They fired properly, but the barrel apparently started to get very badly fouled. When I looked closely at the paper target it was clear that the bullets were not flying properly, they were tumbling and hitting the target with their long sides. This is often referred to as key holing.

My barrel was so badly fouled that the weight on the end of a bore snake would not fit. I needed to use very thin cleaning rod with a .17 sized brush to first make a hole large enough to allow the properly sized brush and rod to be used. I spent at least half an hour clearing out the crud.

I have fired the rifle many more times and that first time was the one and only time that I have ever had this problem. Clean it really well and with the proper brush remove all of the deposits and you should be fine in the future. Every few magazines pop open the action, remove the bolt, and take a look down the barrel from the rear of the gun. It should be clean. If you see deposits starting to form just run your brush or bore snake down the barrel to give it a quick clean, and get back to shooting.

I now have over 16,0000 rounds and clean it after every outing. The gun runs great with all kinds of ammo, but cleaning is key also dont use too much oil on the bolt it will only attrack more dirt. I use Hopps on the bolt let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes then use a brush then wipe clean. lightly apply oil, have fun!!

If you were shooting Rem's, I'm sure you problem is lead.

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Don

I had trouble getting the boresnake through my bore the first time I used it, too, but the problem I had was that the leader behind the weight hadn't been "stretched" yet, and was too fluffy & kinked from being in the package to let the weight drag it through the barrel.
I lubed the leader slightly, wrapped the weighted end around my foot, and pulled the snake hard for a couple minutes to stretch the leaders braid out a bit.
The leader stretched into a more useable configuration.
It was still hard to pull through the first couple uses, but it got easier with use as the brushes and such assumed their 'least resistance' positions.

Me I never clean mine that much, and I depend on it in competition almost every weekend. I never clean it unless it has had at least 1k rounds thru it since the last time. I never patch and clean the barrel. That is why the ammo is lubed from the factory. I run a dry boresnake thru the barrel one time then look at it with a bore light. Always looks good. Then I very carefully clean the bolt assembly, breech face and the feed ramp. Then I lightly oil the bolt rail points. That is it. Doesn't matter whether I shoot lead or copper washed bullets. I have to shoot some rimfire side matches at the PSA Shootout this Sunday and I doubt I will clean it until after that. Those matches pay money.

are you sure you got the right size bore snake?