Have I wrecked my barrel?

R

Renol

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I'm trying to see how likely it is I have rusted out my barrel.

A few months ago I had to get rid of some really built up copper fouling. I made the mistake of following bad advice and didn't clean my rifle for a season. It was bad enough you could clearly see it in the groves just looking down the front of the barrel.

I used JB non embedding bore cleaning compound, some kroil, and some ammonia based foaming cleaner that the name escapes me atm. When I was done with the ammonia stuff I sprayed action cleaner down the barrel and pushed through a couple of gun oil soaked patches.

So recently now, I picked it up and pushed through a patch with some CLP just to put some oil on it since I haven't touched in better part of 6 months and the patch came back with some dark brown particles and a light brown color from the rifling grooves. What's the likelihood this thing is rusted out and wrecked now?

I've attached a few photos for reference. Am I being paranoid or am I looking at a new barrel? I'm away for business until next week so I can't work on it more or check it with a scope down the barrel yet, so I'm looking for possibilities.


It's either rust, more fouling breaking loose, or nothing. Bottom patch was first, then the dry patch, then another one with CLP.
 

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I would keep it wet with something allowing soaking and hit it a few licks every time I walked by it. Don't mix solvents, not all are compatible.

Shoot it and clean while warm.
 
Unless you had some kind of weird reaction in there from all those substances, the bore is unlikely to be destroyed. Even if the bore is rusted up, you probably won't need a new barrel. Milsurps can have surprisingly ugly bores and still shoot ok.

On the other hand, copper oxides can be brownish too. Look at an old penny.

It'll probably be ok after a good scrubbing.
 
Given your description of the residue, the barrel is fine.
Shoot a few jacketed rounds, clean/oil it it . . .

... and vow to sin no more. ;)
 
Your barrel is probably just fine. Unless it was allowed to get wet, or if you were firing corrosive ammo in it letting it set for over a year without cleaning won't hurt a thing.
 
I'm not going to tell you it's just fine because I can't see the inside of that barrel. What I can tell you is that brown crap coming out of your barrel is not normal. Is it rust? Who knows. What I recommend is that you take it to someone with a bore scope and have them check it.
 
LineStretcher said:
I'm not going to tell you it's just fine because I can't see the inside of that barrel. What I can tell you is that brown crap coming out of your barrel is not normal. Is it rust? Who knows. What I recommend is that you take it to someone with a bore scope and have them check it.
Click to expand...
So the brown is abnormal. I kinda had a feeling. I have a bore scope that I got specifically to check this out (and have as a fun toy) but I'm away from home for work til next weekend so I'll check it then.

I'll post up pics when I can, but hopefully its nothing.
 
"...the brown is abnormal..." Maybe. Maybe not. It's most likely to be just more crud assorted that got dissolved by the solvent being in there for so long. No big deal though. Might be a bit of copper eaten by the ammonia you don't need. Just give it a proper cleaning with one type of solvent when you get home.
Using multiple brands or types of solvent doesn't do anything any better than just one.
"...military ammo..." Won't bother anything.
 
I lent a shotgun to a friend of a friend and just assumed he would clean it properly--ex-military and all that. "Don't worry, I'm NRA certified master instructor blah blah blah."

About half a year later I dug it out of the safe and was alarmed that it was leaking red-brown fluid down the sides and a puddle had formed in the safe. I spent an hour or so cleaning and running a brush through--but in the end he probably just emptied half a can of spray cleaner down the muzzle and called it good after using it. Made a bit of a mess in the safe and the gun's paint job--but the bore turned out to be fine.
 
OK, without the barrel at hand I'll give you my best guess(s) ;)

First, one patch looks like a normal dirty patch and the other looks more like it's soaked in oil/solvent whatever.

Two, that brownish color may be nothing more that old oxidized oil. Just about every one of my rifles will do that if they've been sitting for a year or more. I usually use WD40 and a final on my bores and put some on a rag to finish wiping down the firearm. Usually when handling one sometime later I give it a wipe down with a rag, then the WD40. The rag used for the wipe down shows brownish stains from the WD40 and it's just oxidation.

Frankly, I don't think you have anything to worry about. :D
Paul B.
 
What cartridge are you shooting? What kind of rounds? Make and mfg and velocity.

More or less its not going to help until cleaned and why copper build up is so bad.

If it really was that packed (almost unheard of) I would go after it with Bore Tech Eliminator. I would not shoot it until I had the copper cleaned out for sure, more shooting will just pack it in harder and put in carbon as well.

Its a modern non haz low odor and it oriented to copper cleaning (and much better at it that the ammonia stuff) but does a good job on carbon as you will have carbon layers.

What you have or have not done is hard to tell with that witches mix brew, bore scope would tell you a great deal if you or a friend has access to a Lyman.
 
Just run a couple of patches to clean it out . I found using Ballistol at the range to remove most of the fouling , two or three patches . When I get home I'll patch it out then 3 patches of JB Compound , dry patch out then Hoppes #9 3 patches to wash out then dry patch clean.. Another good safe product is KG - 1 and KG - 12 followed by Hoppes #9 and dry patch.
 
So I finally got around to checking the gun out. I put a scope down the barrel and it all looks 99% good. There was a few spots of what looks like minor copper fouling that I'm not going to worry about. The rest of the rifling was clean and shiny metal.

Looks like I was being paranoid. I've attached a couple pics from the scope to show the tiny bits of fouling. Quality is kinda meh but you can make out the spots.

EDIT

It was asked what brand ammo I shoot. Well, I've shot a lot of different brands. Usually its Remington corelok, Winchester, Federal. The copper fouling was because I put probably 500 rds through without ever giving it a solid cleaning.
 

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