Baked on carbon in bore

S

stephensackro

New member
I have a 9mm carbine that shoots great but gets some very hard carbon deposits in the grooves for the first 6 inches of the barrel (I'm assuming it is baked on carbon). The deposits are on most of the grooves and are only on one side of the groove extending 4 or 5 inches in length down the barrel. This stuff is as hard as cement and requires a lot of scrubbing with a copper scrub pad material. Nothing I have tried does even a half way good job of removing it. Does anyone know of a product that works good for this? Some people say that Bore Tech C-4 Carbon Cleaner works? I reload and use 124 gr FMJ round point bullets with win 231 power, some say it is because of the powder not burning clean and recommend using AA#2 instead. Your thoughts.
 
Bore tech C4 works well. Soak a cloth with it and leave it in the fouled area to soak - several hours or overnight. I soak stainless steel revolver cylinders in Bore Tech C4 overnight and the baked-on stuff wipes off with a rag.

For the cleanest shooting handloads, use lead-free primers. Most of that black crap is from regular (leaded) primers. There's an article in the April 2020 issue of Shooting Times on lead-free primers.
 
I have a .32 wadcutter target pistol that develops a nasty carbon ring in the chamber at the case mouth. Can't make it much more than 60-70 rounds and it starts giving failures to extract. I swab the chamber with a q-tip soaked in "Sea Foam Top Engine Cleaner and Lube" sit for a couple minutes, then a quick scrub with a bronze brush and the carbon ring is gone. Wipe clean and start shooting again. This cleaner is supposed to dissolve carbon build up on valves and pistons in an engine. I got the idea from .22LR bench rest shooters. If they seem to think it's safe, I guess I will too. But there's something about a product that dissolves carbon, and using it on carbon steel that's on the back of my mind. So I don't leave it soak for very long.
 
Bore tech C-4

I'll try the Bore tech C-4 and see how well it works. What do you think causes this hard carbon deposit ? The powder, Win 231 ? I typically load my 9mm to about a medium load. Primers? The carbine is a KelTec 2000 which is a blow back design, I know that makes it dirty. But I have the same problem with my pistols that are a locked breach that use 9mm and Win 231. My other pistol and revolvers use other powders and don't seem to have this problem. Would like to find out what are the factors that cause this.
 
Carbon

I really am not sure if it was the win231 or not. Going to try loading up some 9mm using Bullseye and see what happens. I use this in my 45 acp and never have any fouling or carbon problems.
 
The last time I ordered powder, nobody had any HP38 or 231, so I bought Bullseye, which I also use in my light .45 loads. I just guessed at a load (below book maximum, of course) and it worked in two guns. I need to chronograph and adjust for power factor.
 
Slip2000 makes a product called Carbon killer, and makes quick work on carbon. Used with Boretech, you can get all the layers of carbon and copper out of your barrel.
 
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