Author Topic: Cleaning Question (Read 696 times)

MIdeerhunter · « **on:** February 20, 2005, 04:08:20 PM »

Hello everyone, sorry if this is in the wrong forum but i couldn't figure out where it should go and since it is a bolt action i will put it here for now, anyways to the point, what type of bore cleaner do you use to clean your gun and get copper and residue out? I have the foaming bore cleaner, hoppes 9, Hoppes elite, and rem cleaner, and jb nonembedding bore cleaner...i have tried and tried to get all the copper out of my barrel but it seems like the patches always come out black when i put a solvent on them...when i put a clean patch through it comes back out white right now...but when i look at the barrel very carefully with no light, it looks like a dull color on the rifleing...what is this? i thought it might be where the blueing worn away on the rifling from the bullet but im not sure...also how do u know when to stop cleaning the gun and when is it clean enough? also i use it for deer so it doens't have to be 1/2 moa accuracy for varmints or anything like that if that makes a difference...also which cleaner do u recomend?

jgalar · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2005, 05:54:05 PM »

I usually push a bit of tissue about 1/2" into the bore and look at it with a flashlight. Copper will show up as a gold color. What I use to remove copper from old milsurps that I buy is a home made electric bore cleaner. Here is a website showing how to make one. I only use it for 15-20 minutes than clean with regular solvents. The electric cleaner works really well for me, but I wouldn't use it for every cleaning.

http://members.rogers.com/snidey/borecleaner.html

riddleofsteel · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2005, 05:55:24 PM »

If you are dealing with copper fouling you can run a clean patch down the bore soaked in Shooter's Choice or any good commerical copper remover. Wait 5 or 10 minutes and run a clean dry patch thru. If it comes out with any green or blue color on it you still have copper in the bore.
Another issue is powder fouling. In hot loaded rifles powder residue and copper plating seem to bond to the bore and only physical scrubbing and polishing can get it out. The rougher the bore the worst the problem.
If you have been using bore polishing paste or compound it takes what seems like FOREVER to get the black residue out. In all honesty the last time I did a bore polishing it took me almost an hour to remove the residue with regular bore solvent and patches.

Normally I use a bore guide and clean a newly fired rifle with Shooter's Choice or any other good copper solvent I have on hand until I get clean patches free of blue or green residue. Then I scrub the bore a few times with a nylon bore brush and give it a final cleaning with solvent before drying it and applying a light coat of oil.
If I get a rifle that never seems to come clean of copper I use the Outers Foul Out. It seems to work but is a hassle to set up.

lowertroll · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2005, 10:27:44 AM »

Butch's Bore Shine seems to work real well for me. To remove all the copper use Sweets 7.62. When you can leave Sweets in the bore for 15 minutes and the patch has no blue, the bore is copper free.
I have come the conclusion that you should start your relationship with a gun with a perfectly clean barrel, and think that a clean and shoot regimine is good in the beginning. Then get most of the copper and powder residue out between shootings after that. The practice of building up a very thin hard layer in the bore seems to work for me and I no longer get all the copper (blue) or all the powder residue (black or gray) out. I think a light layer of oil in the ""clean" bore is a good idea, but dry patch before shooting/hunting.

kenjs1 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 04, 2005, 03:06:36 AM »

I had the same problem. I tried Butch's Bore shine after not being that thrilled with shooters Choice. I left it in the barrel to sit for a while and got a lot of copper out. I shot it some and there was no improvement in accuracy. I tried a few other things like tightening the action screws and that helped. What got me over the copper hump was another method suggested to me. I ran some patches soaked heavily with Kroil and gave it a few minutes to sit. That Kroil, if not familiar with it, is from a company called Kano and it is very cheap. It is a high quality very thin oil that will remove carbon\powder fouling. I think once it loosens or gets under the fouling the copper that has attached to it removes much easier. I then used some break free bore paste and gave the barrels a good scrubbing. I gradually saw less and less copper. I think bore paste is a very good idea but not on every cleaning. Next time out at the range I got the best groups ever out of two rifles that had never shot moa before. Good luck.

Mac11700 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 04, 2005, 04:05:56 AM »

I always start out using Barnes CR-10...since finding this cleaner...I have found most of the others always leaves some copper in the bore and carbon in the chamber...(and depending on the rifle...this isn't always a bad thing...)..just follow the directions and you will have a perfectly clean bore...just don't expect your bullets to be in same place on your next groups fired...they gennerally won't be..fire another 5 shot group and clean it again....this is where a-lot of guys have problems using the X-Bullets...they don't have it cleaned good enough for them to work right,in their paticular rifle.....I usually fire 5 shots and then clean... for the first couple of boxes...then it doesn't take long for cleaning afterwards....when using a-lot of the other cleaners..on a new rifle...it would take a-lot of scrubbing to get all the patches to come out clean...just a fraction of patches with the CR-10...there has been quite a few studies done on clean barrels and accuracy,on some barrels it matter...on others accuracy has actually fallen off...and it shot better fouled somewhat........most of the time it depends on the quality of barrel you have...and even then...things can be different...I've had cheap rifles that didn't foul as easily as some expensive ones...and vs-versa...but normally the better the barrel you have the easier it is to keep clean...it's just going to take some experamenting on your part to find out what works best for you...just keep track of how you cleaned it prior to shooting .....if your planning on changing the way you do it...

Mac

Squeeze · « **Reply #6 on:** March 04, 2005, 10:17:13 AM »

I have always meant to try Barnes CR-10, since the Barnes bullets, I shoot like to
put copper in the bore. But I found Montana Xtreme Copper Cream, in the Sinclair
catalog, and gave that a try. It works well, in liberal applications, on fouled barrels.
According to the label, it works on copper, lead, and powder fouling, as well as shotgun
wad plastic fowling. I had a fairly heavily fouled BAR barrel from shooting Barnes
X bullets, and with two or three liberal applications of this cream, in the bore, and a
good scrubbing with a plastic bore brush, all of the copper was gone, along with
all of the other forms of crude, in the bore. This stuff is non-embedding, non-abrasive
to metal, and is recommended for new barrel break-in. I probably won't be trying
Barnes CR-10, after finding Copper Cream.

Squeeze