Cleaning techniques. Share your opinions

[mosquitoshooter]

Hello, there is much debate around a few items that I myself am curious about. With that, I am curious of your thoughts below and I am sure others are as well.

1. Do you stroke the bore both directions with the cleaning brush? Some folks say DO NOT pull the brush back over the crown. Unscrew the brush and pull the rod back through.
2. Do you like Bronze bore Brushes or plastic brushes?
3. Do you use amonia based cleaners like sweets, Montana extreme, etc to remove the copper? If so, how often to you scrub the bore with these chemicals?
4. After how many rounds do you clean your rifle?


I am just looking to get a discussion going as many of us have high dollar barrels that we would like to take care of and learn about experiences you may have had.. Myself, I stroke the bore both ways and use a bronze brush as I dont beleive either of these will hurt the bore. The worst part of the bronze brush is my copper cleaner eats into it and i get false readings of blue copper. I do use Montana Extreme 50 BMG copper remover which is probably the strongest amonia based stuff out there.. For my "normal" caliber rifles I clean after 50 or so rounds. With my 50 bmg I clean after 20 rounds. I use copper remover everytime and I DO NOT leave the copper remover in the barrel. The 50 BMG I scrub the shit out of to get the copper out. Of course, before scrubbing for the copper I use Hoppes #9 to get the powder out. Powder first, then the copper. My last step is to oil the bore with a wet patch. Then, I never leave the oil in the bore. Run a dry patch through. I know a guy that leaves a crapload of oil in the bore he thinks the bullets will go smoother through the bore that way. He didnt understand when I explained to him what "ringing the barrel" means. Hydraulic pressure.

 

[Graham]

Cleaning techniques. Share your opinions

Many threads about this on here.

1/2) Nylon brushes: for putting solvent in the barrel, not for scrubbing. No harm done to a steel crown with nylon. But use a rod guide.

2) Ammonia is sooo 1980s. There are much better chemicals now.

3) Clean when accuracy degrades.

4) The .50 BMG is a different animal.

 

[Darkside-Six]

cleaning a rifle?.....what's that?

 

[JGorski]

Don't use any kind of brushes, but Hoppes #9, after soaking it with that I soak(1 wet patch, actually) the barrel with Kroil, then season it with Militec-1 and 2 dry patches, seems to be working for me.

 

[Tesla]

I use 6 wet patches with BoreTech Eliminator, letting the solvent sit in the bore overnight. Next morning 3 more wet patches with BoreTech and after that 2 dry patches and I'm done.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Once the barrel has cooled, I use Outer's Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner, according to instructions, repeating until the blue on the patches goes away. While I make no attempt to get the bore completely clean, bore scope passes have shown this cleaner to be very effective.

A final pass with a lightly oiled patch using Hoppe's Gun Oil finishes my approach. Before firing, I run a dry patch down the bore, mainly to remove any accumulated dust, etc.

Since I may or may not be coming back to the rifle in as much as a year, I make sure there's some effort made to prevent long term bore pitting.

I don't normally use brushes at all anymore, but if I do, it's nylon, used to spread Hoppe's original #9 bore cleaning solvent down into the deeper rifling grooves. Hoppe's #9 is the only solvent I'll leave in the bore for more than an hour or so. I employ it for long soaks to dislodge old deposits.

Greg

 

[Woj8541]

Dammit, I said I wasn't gonna do it, but.... Here it is....

Those of your that are cleaning with copper remover are most likely seeing some significant impact shifts between fouled and clean bores. (Unless of course, you're cleaning after every 50 rounds, in which case you're taking that bore back to bare steel.) These impact shifts are unnecessary and can be very frustrating. People, copper fouling isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing. Copper is your friend. Well, for a while anyways.

Every barrel is different and you need to let the barrel tell you the story. If that barrel shoots well and you spent a day pounding targets with great accuracy, why on earth would you want to alter that barrels present state by removing copper?! Leave it alone and the next time you take your rifle out to shoot, you're going to be pleasantly surprised with no need for fouling shots for the zero to come back in.

Clean out the powder residue daily if you can with some sort of biodegradable carbon remover. Scrub with a nylon brush and run patches til it's clean. Done deal. When the rifle starts to open up, the copper is now worn out its welcome and needs to be removed. Now you can use copper remover. Realize though that after you remove an assload of copper don't be surprised if that bore takes upwards of 50 rounds to come back into the previous level of accuracy.

I've had .308 tubes with over 7k through them without EVER cleaning copper. They still shot better than I could. Clean less, shoot more.


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[raptor99]

Not arguing with you about the copper but was glad that you mentioned the "POWDER" fouling. I recently had a 260imp 30 degree built and then had the barrel melonited. The barrel is super smooth and does not copper foul. I finally just quit cleaning it and ran into a problem where the accuracy went to hell. I started cleaning but got very little copper out of it. Then I read an good article over on 6BR about carbon fouling and loss of accuracy. I had it bore scoped and the throat was loaded with rock hard carbon. I tried all types of cleaners and nothing touched it. I was told to get a nylon brush and "Flitz" and start scrubbing. After a crap load of scrubbing I finally got it out and the accuracy returned.

The article I read said that if you aren't using a brass brush and scrubbing out the carbon you will have problems down the road. I thought my barrel was going south on me because that's just the way it acted. I still use wipe out but I also scrub the crap out of the throat area now. If you don't agree with me that fine, not going to argue with anyone just telling you what happened to me and what I went through...

 

[Wildwillalaska]

I am on board with general train of thought, shoot more, clean less. I admit I cannot typically make it 200-300 rounds between, but am getting there. I just got a new GAP rifle in on Thursday and was reading the break-in and cleaning procedure that was included with the rifle. I had gotten some of the boretech products based in part upon their cleaning suggestions on the GA Precision website under downloads. Been very happy with it to date, so was surprised when the written version included with the gun discussed using Butches or Shooters choice first, then follow with Barns CR2 or Sweets for the copper--my old 1980's regime. Curious if there is a return to previous thoughts on our old-time friends or ??? I am a fan of both Butches and Shooter's choice. Sweets has its place if there is stubborn copper fouling--but use it very, very rarely these days.

Sadly, not one boretech dealer in Alaska. Good news for me at least is the new hide sponsor, Bullets.com, will ship it here via USPS barge, so not a complete loss.

 

[sib1948]

Clean what? Just lube the bolt well after each 3-4 range trips and keep on shooting.

 

[huffmanite]

FWIW, do not use any one bore cleaner. Like to rotate among a number of different ones. Example, come home with a rifle from range, use the MP 7 pro cleaner, usually just wetting a number of patches and use a jag thru the bore, occasionally run a tenex/nylon brush down barrel and then dry patch. Next time with the rifle, might use the Shooter's Choice Aqua Clean, then the Hoppes, then the Gunslick cleaner, then the CLP bore cleaner. Sometimes I might use a couple of these during one bore cleaning of a rifle. So, I have kinda a shotgun approach to cleaning a bore, hoping one cleaner will do something another might not do. And yes, sometimes I will run a bronze brush down the bore, but make a lot more strokes with the tenex/nylon brush than I will with a bronze brush.

 

[MitchAlsup]

I used to clean meticulously, pushing the brush in one direction, over and over and over.

Then I found an easier method:
1) take a mop,
2) dip it in Hoppes #9 (or similar)
3) run it through the bore both directions
4) leave rifle in horizontal position for 3 days
5) 3 dry patches
6) done

It gets most of the copper too.

 

[ZiaHunter]

I no longer use ammonia based cleaners and have had good luck with BoreTech products. Use the carbon remover with a nylon brush to remove the carbon and periodically use a CU remover when accuracy starts to degrade. Always use a bore guide and a coated rod. AB Dick makes non-woven cotton pads and when used with a Parker Hale jag do an excellent job of cleaning the bore. Clean the bolt, chamber and lug recesses then lubricate with high temp grease.

 

[Aloysius]

Dammit, I said I wasn't gonna do it, but.... Here it is....

Those of your that are cleaning with copper remover are most likely seeing some significant impact shifts between fouled and clean bores. (Unless of course, you're cleaning after every 50 rounds, in which case you're taking that bore back to bare steel.) These impact shifts are unnecessary and can be very frustrating. People, copper fouling isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing. Copper is your friend. Well, for a while anyways.

Every barrel is different and you need to let the barrel tell you the story. If that barrel shoots well and you spent a day pounding targets with great accuracy, why on earth would you want to alter that barrels present state by removing copper?! Leave it alone and the next time you take your rifle out to shoot, you're going to be pleasantly surprised with no need for fouling shots for the zero to come back in.

Clean out the powder residue daily if you can with some sort of biodegradable carbon remover. Scrub with a nylon brush and run patches til it's clean. Done deal. When the rifle starts to open up, the copper is now worn out its welcome and needs to be removed. Now you can use copper remover. Realize though that after you remove an assload of copper don't be surprised if that bore takes upwards of 50 rounds to come back into the previous level of accuracy.

I've had .308 tubes with over 7k through them without EVER cleaning copper. They still shot better than I could. Clean less, shoot more.


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This right here! Amen brotha.

 

[lw8]

I'm no expert...

But here is what I do generally-

I patch with a basic rust preventative and store wet if it's going to be a while...CLP or similar.

For a thorough cleaning, I patch in a bunch of Hoppes # 9 and run a bronze brush one way about 10 times, then more solvent. I let it soak and put more wet patches through every hour or two in the evening, soak overnight, then dry.