Copper fouling... do you ever clean before seeing accuracy issues?

[midSCarolina]

Do any of y'all run copper solvent through your barrel as a "preemptive" measure? I have a factory bergara barrel that seems to have accumulated a decent amount of copper and was wondering if it may be time for a thorough cleaning. I don't think the accuracy of the barrel has really diminished. My groups opened up a little but I kinda contributed that to me being distracted (I let a friend shoot it and he shot one 0.24moa group... I was shooting it around 0.8 ). However when I looked at the barrel a few days later, there seemed to be a lot of copper built up in it. Not sure if I should go ahead and run a solvent through it or if I should just take it back out, see how it goes, and wait until I am confident it isn't performing as it usually does. Thanks

ETA: It has been about 300-400 rounds since it has been cleaned with anything more than a wet patch followed by a few dry patches on a jag.

 

[JMcBurn]

So you are saying you are wet patching the layer of carbon out of the bore that helps keep copper from sticking?

 

[black5.3]

This is covered pretty regularly here, so my first advice is to search the topic and you will be supplied with enough threads about this to keep you busy reading for quite a while...

My take on it is that there is no set “science” to cleaning a barrel. You have to figure out what yours likes and then stick to it.. copper fouling depends on a lot of factors like barrel quality, length of bearing surface on bullet, muzzle velocity, etc. In my experience, i am always more concerned with carbon fouling because i shoot suppressed and that causes my guns to build up carbon fouling quicker. I am always being mindful of carbon rings as well. I advise you to purchase a good quality bore scope and monitor your barrel as well as the performance it shows on paper/steel and go from there.

 

[midSCarolina]

So you are saying you are wet patching the layer of carbon out of the bore that helps keep copper from sticking?

Not very often.... I did after the rifle was painted about 60 rounds ago but other than that it was probably at that maybe every 300 rounds.

@black5.3 I have read several of the threads but will keep looking into it. I just wasn't sure if you could ever look at the barrel and have a "thats too much copper in there" moment. It seems like there is a lot of copper in that barrel. I guess I'll clean it out and kinda start over and monitor it a little closer to see how quickly it builds back up and see what the barrel likes.

 

[spife7980]

A good clean wont hurt anything.

 

[M8541Reaper]

Take this opportunity to experiment with your system and see where the limits are.

Run it until accuracy degrades then note the round count. Copper clean it and start over. Do it three times and see where the average rd count is for accuracy issues. Keep your carbon cleaning the same every ____ rounds so there is somewhat of a constant.

Now you have even more performance data for your system and learning has occurred. Note it in your data book and rock on.

 

[HeavyAssault]

Isn't copper intended to be the "sacrificial metal" that is softer than the barrel bore material?? Sort of an "boat zinc" of sorts.

 

[Steel head]

I used to clean till accuracy suffered.

Anymore I clean somewhere around 250-300 mainly because of crud on the crown from the culpepper irritation device gets pretty thick and I’ve had chunks blow off and accuracy suddenly goes to crap.

All my barrels are hand lapped and I never try hard to get rid of copper till they start dying.

 

[918v]

Copper and carbon degrade accuracy and increase pressure. Wet patching does nothing. You need to brush that stuff out with a bronze brush.

 

[midSCarolina]

Follow up: Used some Pro Shot copper solvent and a nylon brush and was able to get 95% out after about 2 rounds of solvent + brushing and then took it back out and put about 30 rounds of Hornady Precision Hunter and a few ELD-Ms. It shot ok... 0.4x-0.6x with the precision hunter and shot one 3 round group of ELD-M at 0.29moa (which is about right... it has historically liked the ELD-M better than the ELD-X). Bottom line though is that a fair amount of copper was deposited just after 30 rounds. Talked to Bergara and they said they recommend cleaning copper out every 150-200 rounds with a steel bore brush and Sweets 7.62.... not sure I am going to take their advice on that one. If anyone has any thoughts let me know... i just feel like this is more copper than normal and looking to some people with a little more knowledge than myself for thoughts and suggestions. Thanks to everyone who has already responded. Pics below. Need to rezero for something besides american gunner

ELD-X

ELD-M

After 30 rounds

 

[John Glidewell]

Steel brush? Yikes. I would not use steel. A Bronze brush works better than a nylon. But the best way I have found is to let the agent sit for a bit, I use KG products. I run a bronze brush a few passes in a wet barrel and leave it wet for 30 or so min. It generally comes clean with the patch after. I clean after every range, or no more than 150 rounds. Done both, clean and just shoot. Barrels seem to last longer and shoot better if they are cleaned regularly. I also load some fouling rounds, so rather than the 42.4 load I run a 36 load for 3 rounds and it is good to go. But everyone seems to have their own opinion and way to clean a rifle. As someone stated above, play around and see what works for you and your guns.

 

[FN-Whitney]

Every barrel is a little different, some get cleaned more often than others, some not at all unless i think it got fouled with something.

 

[918v]

Nylon just glides over fouling. It’s for bitch boys afraid of scratching the bore. Get a bronze brush.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

KG-12