80 patches, still dirty...

T

Tango27

New member
I'm admittedly new to the ownership of precision rifles--fired lots of them, but never had to break one in from scratch before.

After reading Gale McMillan's thoughts on "barrel break-in" proceedures, I decided to clean my rifle after 5 round groups. The rifle (a Remington 700vs) has 15 rounds through it, and after the first two 5 round groups, I soaked a patch with Remington bore cleaner (the thick grey stuff), swabbed it back and forth through the barrel on an eyelet about 5 times, and let it set. Then using ran about 25 dry patches on a jag through it until the residue on the patches was almost nil.

After my third 5-shot group, I've repeated the process. Just for grins, I wet a patch with bore cleaner and ran it down on the jag. It came out filthy. So I've repeated the process again and again, and while there is less fouling now, I can still run a wet patch through and have it come out dirty. I've used 80 patches now...

Is Remington bore cleaner not that good? Should I break down and use the brush?
 
I would break down and use a bronze bristled brush. Usually I will start with a Hoppes #9 soaked swab and run it down the bore to get the loose junk out. Then 30 passes with a brush, let sit and run a dry patch through it a few times. Repeat, Then run a brush through it with shooters choice copper remover, followed by several passes with a dry patch. When everything is clean I'll run a tetra gun swab through it and call it a day. Run a dry patch through it before you shoot.
 
I chatted with Gale quite a bit here before I built my .300mag. I also used to chat with Ed Harris back in the old fidonet days and decided to try his modern remake of the old Frankford arsenal bore cleaner "Ed's Red" That's all I ever use when it comes to a solvent based bore cleaner. I usually start with a wet patch followed by 8-10 strokes with a wet brush, a few dry patches then a Remclean patch, wet and dry, if copper is present after that, a Sweet's patch, clean and dry.

Everybody has developed their own idea of the best way to clean a rifle ;)
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nukem:
I also used to chat with Ed Harris back in the old fidonet days [/quote]

Fidonet was not that long ago, Nukem. I used to do Fidonet on my Screaming IBM PC-XT computer. State of the art.



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God made us in his own image.
Thomas Jefferson made us free.
John Browning made us equal.

Without Browning, we might not know about the other two...
 
I've been quite impressed with MPro7 bore gel. The stuff is non-toxic and won't hurt your bore. I brush in some, let it sit 5 minutes, brush 10 or 12 strokes and patch out. Amazingly clean. Before with Hoppes my patches never would come out really clean. And this is in a .223 bore where a lot of copper is left behind as those suckers zip down the barrel at 3200 fps.
 
badgerarms, :

"Fidonet was not that long ago, Nukem. I used to do Fidonet on my Screaming IBM PC-XT computer. State of the art."

But computer years are like "dog years" ;)
 
You silliphants!! Rem. bore cleaner always turns black when you run it down the barrel, whether the barrel is clean or not!! Be sure to clean the Rem. bore cleaner out of your barrel with Hoppe's or some other solvent, or you'll ruin your bore. (The Rem. bore cleaner contains abrasives that shouldn't be left in the bore)
 
The way to get a barrel clean is lotsa wet patches and bronze brushing.

I would plan on using a new brush every 100 passes or when the brush feels like it's not doing it's job anymore.

Also, this is just me, but I run a patch through once in one direction, and then pull it off (with some jags it falls off by itself) and pull the rod out and use another patch to avoid pulling crud back in the bore.

Edmund
 
Okay - What I do is shoot one, clean with Butch's (2-3 wet patches, brush with a wet Pro-Shot brush, 2-3 wet patches, dry patch, two patches of Sweet's, dry patch, 2 wet with Butch's, dry patch, patch with light oil), for the first five shots. Then I shoot 3-shot groups for five groups, cleaning between each one. A Shilen select match barrel will stop copper fouling before you hit 20 rounds. This will take a while, but hey...

For a barrel that has been used a while, I'd soak the bore good with Butch's, then brush it 10 strokes or so, swab it out, then Sweets it, giving it about 10 minutes. Then, if I saw considerable copper, I'd repeat. You can fill the bore with Butch's and let it soak if necessary.
 
Shooters Choice for breakin of my PSS here. JB bore paste occasionally, followed by shooters choice. The patches do actually come out clean! ;)

Oh, I do brush. :D I use premium bronze bristle brushes with no steel in the brush, just brass or copper parts.

[This message has been edited by 700PSS Shooter (edited August 28, 2000).]
 
The Sweets is a lot stronger, and you'll know for sure that you're not leaving any copper in the bore.

I'm shooting...

Griffin 52 grainers in the .22 Waldog
Bart's 68 grainers in the 6PPC
Nosler 55 grainers in the 6BR (4,100 fps!)
Berger 55 gr. MEFs in the .22-250
Nosler 165 gr. BTs in the .308
 
Got to chime in about Buch's Bore Shine too. I picked some up at Camp Perry a couple of weeks ago. It works as advertised (great)its not corrosive like Sweet's if left in the bore and a half dozen patches do the job in my .308 and .300's (haven't used it in the varment blasters yet tho.

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bigbear
 
I know of a guy that wore out a brand new Weatherby barrel because everytime he ran a patch through it, it came out dirty. He put his cleaning rod in a drill and cleaned it that way...turned a brand new barrel into a smoothbore. Try not to go overboard with this stuff.
 
I remember Gale writing that more barrels are worn out by brushing than shooting.
Go gentle my friends!

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"In my opinion, anyone pushing through anti-gun legislation is a bloody traitor and should be sent up for treason" N.H. Stuart
 
Most of you guys are nuts! Read "mcshot's" post above very carefully......then search out cleaning info here from Gale McMillan and you will see you are OVER cleaning your rifles! Go to any barrel manufacturer's site and read cleaning instuctions none are as aggresive as most of you are! (and they want to sell you new barrels when yours wear out!) :eek:
 
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