How much to clean

I clean a bore when accuracy falls off. That varies with the rifle. 25ish shots with the 220 Swift. 50 or so with the 270. Over 100 with the 223. Not real sure about the 260, but it’s a big number. Usually, these days, I clean with Shooter’s Choice, which gets the carbon but doesn’t do much for copper, but my barrels don’t pick up much copper (all after market barrels). If that doesn’t give the accuracy back, then I’ll attack any copper with Boretech Eliminator.

After many many years, that’s the approach I use now. I used to clean after every range session. Not anymore.
 
Years ago when I joined this forum there were threads like this and as time went on I found my cleaning needs to be like 603Country for the most part.
Also I found that when I tested ammo, I got best results from clean bores, and let the test foul them.
I have seen a slow decrease in accuracy from a few rifles and after major cleaning accuracy was restored and I crawled back from ledge.
 
Once you leave a layer of carbon in a gun, it won't come off easily.

Keep adding layers and you have a over fowled gun (new term?)

So, clean it back to new and if it takes 20 shots to get to the right state, so be it.
 
I try to clean mine after I shoot them. I will not store a gun that has not been cleaned, and the bore protected with a light coat of oil. I run a dry patch before shooting all of my rifles. I find it takes less time to clean guns after each session. Rather than waiting until they start group poorly. 20 minutes versus 3 or 4 hours is a huge gap.
 
While we're here, I'll bring up cleaning products, although I know this has been discussed on other threads. Because of those threads I tried the KG products - KG-1, KG-12 and KG-3.

I had the impression that KG-1 was just a carbon deposit cleaner and KG-12 was the copper remover. KG-3 is the fast-drying spray cleaner similar to Gun Scrubber and competitors.

I was impressed with how quickly KG-1 cleaned up the carbon and I really did get the guns cleaner faster. But I saw "blue" on the patch just as much as I saw carbon. Someone on the threads said KG-1 reacted with brass tips to produce a blue color, so I contacted KG Products to clear that up since if I saw blue, I'd continue to clean.

This was the response:

"The KG-1 was originally developed as a copper remover and is why your seeing the blue. Although there is no ammonia in the product there is an ingredient we use that will turn copper blue. The performance of the product, when originally formulated, was only as good as other products on the market though. We shelved the project but worked with the basic formulation to develop the carbon remover."

"The way the system works is the KG-1 starts the process of removing the copper and the KG-12 finishes it. The KG-12 is a much stronger product and can be used alone. T

The KG-12 will turn patches more of a yellow. You could use the KG-1 to check and see if all the copper has been removed. You can also check for copper by looking just below the muzzle. You should not see any copper streaks. Allowing the KG-12 to sit for a few minutes helps a lot. The whole idea behind the product was to allow it to do the job without having to scrub with a brush. In the attachment there is a picture of the bullet we used for testing the KG-12. You can see how much the KG-12 attacked the copper just by submerging it in the product."

So it seems KG-1 is really a carbon AND copper cleaner, and as long as I see blue, keep cleaning!
 
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