copper cleaner
- Thread starter rebs
- Start date
dakota.potts
New member
I just used some foaming stuff today that did that. Seemed to work very well and easy to use. I think it's made by Gunslick. Found it at the local gun store.
https://www.brownells.com/gun-clean...RED--CENSORED-=itwine&utm_content=674-000-016
https://www.brownells.com/gun-clean...RED--CENSORED-=itwine&utm_content=674-000-016
Frankly I see little or no copper in my guns and I do run them up to max velocity at times
That said you really don't know how good anything is unless you have a boroscope.
I do, what I recommend works.
The guy who gave me a start with those two used a boroscope to test (better one, Hawkeye)
I like to go with proven knowledge. Frankly any recommendation that does not include a boroscope is speculative.
While e I got the boroscope for bore condition, it was lands and groves and throat erosion I thought it would prove value for.
Knowing if your cleaning solutions and methods is really cleaning is actually is of far more value.
That said you really don't know how good anything is unless you have a boroscope.
I do, what I recommend works.
The guy who gave me a start with those two used a boroscope to test (better one, Hawkeye)
I like to go with proven knowledge. Frankly any recommendation that does not include a boroscope is speculative.
While e I got the boroscope for bore condition, it was lands and groves and throat erosion I thought it would prove value for.
Knowing if your cleaning solutions and methods is really cleaning is actually is of far more value.
As RC20 stated, most of them turn blue to at least some degree. KG-12, is the only copper solvent I am aware of that does not turn blue (goes from tan to somewhat darker orange tan. Bore Tech Eliminator or its sister product Cu++ both turn cobalt blue faster and deeper than any others I've seen. Indeed, they're so fast you can't use a brass jag with them because the copper in the brass colors the patches in the time it takes to push it through the barrel! You need plastic, nickel-plated, steel or stainless steel, or the special alloy Proof Positive jags that Bore Tech sells to avoid the reaction.
The way I use Eliminator is from a small pump sprayer I got at Wallyworld where the travel-size toothpaste and shaving cream are. At the end of a range session, after the barrel has partially cooled while I put other things away, I remove a rifle's bolt, direct its muzzle down and give the chamber about three pumps (the mist is fine, so this isn't a lot) and watch it run down to the muzzle. I immediately plug the muzzle with a silicone rubber stopper I got in a variety of sizes from Amazon and I plug the breech and tilt the gun up for few seconds to let the cleaner run back toward the throat a little, then put the gun in its case and head home. By the time I get there it is pretty much clean and just needs a wet and a dry patch to finish the job. A barrel that's a serious copper grabber may need another set of pump sprays and to be allowed to sit twenty minutes before the final cleaning patch goes through. But no brushing (a bronze brush also is attacked and turns this cleaner blue) or serious elbow grease is required. If you simply give the stuff time to work, it does the work for you.
Slip2000 has a reprint of a Precision Shooting article from a dozen years ago on this cleaner and their even more aggressive Carbon Killer product. I find, however, that if the carbon is still fairly warm in the barrel so it has not yet hardened (carbon deposits harden as they age) when the Bore Tech product goes in, it normally really doesn't also need the Carbon Killer, which I use more on hardened carbon like inside my M1A gas piston.
The way I use Eliminator is from a small pump sprayer I got at Wallyworld where the travel-size toothpaste and shaving cream are. At the end of a range session, after the barrel has partially cooled while I put other things away, I remove a rifle's bolt, direct its muzzle down and give the chamber about three pumps (the mist is fine, so this isn't a lot) and watch it run down to the muzzle. I immediately plug the muzzle with a silicone rubber stopper I got in a variety of sizes from Amazon and I plug the breech and tilt the gun up for few seconds to let the cleaner run back toward the throat a little, then put the gun in its case and head home. By the time I get there it is pretty much clean and just needs a wet and a dry patch to finish the job. A barrel that's a serious copper grabber may need another set of pump sprays and to be allowed to sit twenty minutes before the final cleaning patch goes through. But no brushing (a bronze brush also is attacked and turns this cleaner blue) or serious elbow grease is required. If you simply give the stuff time to work, it does the work for you.
Slip2000 has a reprint of a Precision Shooting article from a dozen years ago on this cleaner and their even more aggressive Carbon Killer product. I find, however, that if the carbon is still fairly warm in the barrel so it has not yet hardened (carbon deposits harden as they age) when the Bore Tech product goes in, it normally really doesn't also need the Carbon Killer, which I use more on hardened carbon like inside my M1A gas piston.
603Country
New member
I’m chuckling...I’ve used Boretech Eliminator for a few years. It’ll get the copper you thought you got out with other materials. What I didn’t really believe was that a brass jag on the cleaning rod would give false indications that there was still copper in the bore. Well...it will.
Bottom Gun
New member
I haven’t used any foaming bore cleaners but my neighbor bought a used model 70 Winchester in .264 magnum that was shooting 4-5” groups. This rifle could very well have over 30 years of copper buildup in the bore. I bought a can of Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner and gave it to him. After a couple of dozen applications, he was still getting blue patches coming out of his bore but he tested it and found his group size shrunk to about 1 ½”.
He is continuing to clean his bore and is STILL getting blue patches even after several dozen more applications. He said he uses a nylon bristle brush to scrub his bore.
At this point, we are both wondering if the blue patches will ever stop. Could there really be that much copper in his bore?
He is continuing to clean his bore and is STILL getting blue patches even after several dozen more applications. He said he uses a nylon bristle brush to scrub his bore.
At this point, we are both wondering if the blue patches will ever stop. Could there really be that much copper in his bore?
I keep telling you guys that is why you need a boroscope.
I seldom get much copper out and that includes some old well shot guns.
Often major carbon (ergo the CK2k is my go to)
If you think you can tell whats going on looking down a barrel you are incorrect.
As I often have told managers, do you want me to fix it or do you want to understand it.
Bore Tech or CK2k will show you clean when its clean. Others, not. The borocospe is the tool needed to confirm it. I sacrificed my wallet so you don't have to.
ps: I use a brass jag with the Eliminator and I get no false copper indicators.
I seldom get much copper out and that includes some old well shot guns.
Often major carbon (ergo the CK2k is my go to)
If you think you can tell whats going on looking down a barrel you are incorrect.
As I often have told managers, do you want me to fix it or do you want to understand it.
Bore Tech or CK2k will show you clean when its clean. Others, not. The borocospe is the tool needed to confirm it. I sacrificed my wallet so you don't have to.
ps: I use a brass jag with the Eliminator and I get no false copper indicators.
SGW Gunsmith
Moderator
Before Barnes started coating their solid copper bullets, I got into my shop many rifles using those bullets in handloads, that left behind an obvious copper smear in the rifling.
What I use to get that copper smear out of the bore is a solvent called "Sweets 7.62" bore cleaner by O.K. Weber, and sold through Brownells. That stuff has a gosh-awful odor to it due to ammonia being part of the formula, but it acts just like you report. Blue/green patches until all the copper wash is removed, and then a final wipe through and coating of the bore with EEZOX.
What I use to get that copper smear out of the bore is a solvent called "Sweets 7.62" bore cleaner by O.K. Weber, and sold through Brownells. That stuff has a gosh-awful odor to it due to ammonia being part of the formula, but it acts just like you report. Blue/green patches until all the copper wash is removed, and then a final wipe through and coating of the bore with EEZOX.
SGW Gunsmith,
Try the modern chemistries. They are faster and more thorough than the ammonia in Sweets, which I used to use a lot on a grabby Garand barrel I had. But that was 30 years ago. Chemistry has evolved since then. I would never have believed the difference if I hadn't tried it myself and witnessed what it can do.
Part of the secret is the Bore Tech solvents are not used up by the reaction in the same way the ammonia and its oleates are. The strong part of the chemistry oxidizes the copper and then hands it off to a chelating molecule that binds to it so it can't redeposit in the bore, freeing the oxidizing compound to keep attacking the copper at full strength. It doesn't lose speed of attack or stop working until all the binding chemistry is packed full.
If you follow the link I put up in post #5, it takes you to a 2006 Precision Shooting article in which a fellow with a borescope set out to compare a large selection of bore cleaners, most likely including Sweet's, as it has been very popular in the past. But we'll never know, as, in the end, he found every cleaner he tried so inferior to Bore Tech Eliminator on copper that he decided it wasn't worth bothering to list them. It's pretty remarkable.
In the intervening years, Bore Tech has come up with more products, including a copper-specific and carbon-specific and moly-specific and rimfire-specific and shotgun-specific formulations. They've got a new gel that combines their chemistry with a soft abrasive to speed things up further, but I've not tried it, as just the liquids and patience seem to do the job quite well.
Also, if you have the time to kill, for all forms of carbon and moly, Gunzilla is hard to beat if you let it sit overnight. If you let it sit for weeks, it will remove all old carbon, even getting to the bottom of rust pits and clearing the rust out. Very good stuff, but slower and much less active on copper.
Try the modern chemistries. They are faster and more thorough than the ammonia in Sweets, which I used to use a lot on a grabby Garand barrel I had. But that was 30 years ago. Chemistry has evolved since then. I would never have believed the difference if I hadn't tried it myself and witnessed what it can do.
Part of the secret is the Bore Tech solvents are not used up by the reaction in the same way the ammonia and its oleates are. The strong part of the chemistry oxidizes the copper and then hands it off to a chelating molecule that binds to it so it can't redeposit in the bore, freeing the oxidizing compound to keep attacking the copper at full strength. It doesn't lose speed of attack or stop working until all the binding chemistry is packed full.
If you follow the link I put up in post #5, it takes you to a 2006 Precision Shooting article in which a fellow with a borescope set out to compare a large selection of bore cleaners, most likely including Sweet's, as it has been very popular in the past. But we'll never know, as, in the end, he found every cleaner he tried so inferior to Bore Tech Eliminator on copper that he decided it wasn't worth bothering to list them. It's pretty remarkable.
In the intervening years, Bore Tech has come up with more products, including a copper-specific and carbon-specific and moly-specific and rimfire-specific and shotgun-specific formulations. They've got a new gel that combines their chemistry with a soft abrasive to speed things up further, but I've not tried it, as just the liquids and patience seem to do the job quite well.
Also, if you have the time to kill, for all forms of carbon and moly, Gunzilla is hard to beat if you let it sit overnight. If you let it sit for weeks, it will remove all old carbon, even getting to the bottom of rust pits and clearing the rust out. Very good stuff, but slower and much less active on copper.
Why not read the product description from the manufacturer??
https://www.boretech.com/products/eliminator-bore-cleaner
https://www.boretech.com/products/eliminator-bore-cleaner