Rifle Cleaning, Part 2

[cdoc42]

A previous thread raised the question about cleaning frequency. Rather than adding this to it, I thought starting a new thread would lose less posters.

When I moly coated bullets, I could clean until I saw no more copper, but I NEVER got all the black out. So even though there may have been advantages to moly, eventually showing a clean swab wasn't one of them.

Recently I cleaned 4 rifles; two .270's, a .25-06 and a .338 Win Mag. It took me about 3 hours until I got almost 100% clean swabs through all of them. I found if I swabbed the barrels with a copper removing solution or foam, let them stand for 15-30 minutes, used a bristle brush just once, then swabs until there was no more blue color, I still had black soot to clean out. In some cases, the swabs just looked gray; if I added more copper remover solution, much to my surprise, I got more blue, telling me that sequential dry swabs that look clean really are not, so I restarted with copper remover again.

I wonder if any shooter colleagues here have found a more efficient method.

Over the years I have used the following products:

Gun Slick Foaming Bore Cleaner
Butch's Bore Shine
Shooter's Choice Copper Remover
Hoppes No 9
Sweet's 7.62 Bore solvent
Hoppes 9 Gun Medic
Gunzilla
Shooter's Choice Bore Cleaner
Montana X-Treme Bore Solvent
Montana X-Treme Copper Creme
Quick Scrub III cleaner spray

Lubricants:

Kroil
Sheath Rust Prevention
DSX cream
Tetra Gun Oil
Shooter's Choice Rust Prevention
Shooter's Choice FP10
G96 Gun Oil

G96 Gun Treatment (I listed this last because it is the last thing I use to lube the clean barrel as well as a polish for the outside o the rifle barrel and stock. Great stuff for that new finish look)

 

[nhyrum]

I would also like to know. I'm in the same boat.

What I'd add is I use wd-40 specialist for rust protection. I've seen multiple tests on its corrosion protection, and a plate treated with it(sprayed on, let soak and excess wiped off) lasted a week with daily salt water treatments, left outside, with no reaplication of product. My gun room reaches upwards of 90 percent humidity, and I don't have a safe yet.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[firewrench044]

Wipe-Out
and Wipe-Out Accelerator

it is P F M

I also use Butch's Bore Shine if I have shot only a few rounds through
a gun

I do not agree with you on WD-40
It is a penatrant, and evaporates fairly quickly
living on Florida's East Coast you find that out damn fast ( corroded
equipment )

I use car wax and Break Free Collector on all reloading equipment
and all firearms after cleaning

 

[Dufus]

The WD40 Specialist is not the same as regular WD40.

It has been proven enough to be in the top three as far as rust protection.

I never use any abrasive cleaner. You can use it for ever and patches will still come out black.

The toughest contaminate I have encountered has been carbon. There are no easy solutions to removing carbon that does not include tons of elbow grease.

Clean regularly and you never have to deal with it.

 

[cw308]

Carbon KG-1 Copper KG-12 Moly coated bullets JB Compound & Kroil oil. Humid conditions, Ballistol

 

[RickD1225]

Cut a patch of Lead Away cloth and run it through the barrel. You likely will need to use a smaller caliber jag than the bore size due to the cloth thickness. It will surprise you what comes out even after standard solvent cleaning to where to where a normal patch comes out clean.

 

[MosinM39]

Opinions, including those of expert shooters and barrel makers, vary widely on this topic.

You should not have to clean a rifle barrel for 3 hours, IMHO. Though some will dispute me, I believe that even risks added wear on the barrel (unless you meant that you spent 3 hours on 3 or more rifles).

I have seen writings and videos by known long range shooters that advocate no cleaning of their barrels for 1000s of rounds. (Granted, those rifles likely have specially made barrels with tailor made ammo.) Some experts recommend incorporating a mild abrasive cleaner like JB into the process, some say never use any abrasive cleaner Some say only use patches, never use a bore brush. Some say use only nylon bore brushes, never a metal brush, etc etc etc.

I have cleaned with hot water, Ballistol, Hoppes 9, Hoppes Elite, Butch's, Shooters Choice, Sweets, KG, CLP, and several more, in different applications, following prescribed instructions, by different methods. Unless you spend hours, like you said, you will always find some more black, brown, gray, green or blue stuff coming out of a barrel. My recommendation, don't worry about that, it shouldn't affect accuracy for normal shooting applications.

What motivates me to clean, and I have seen some evidence too support this, is that in certain situations leaving a rifle dirty can set up conditions for micro corrosion forming under the crap. And also, I was trained in the military to keep the rifle clean.

My 2 cents, settle on a decent bore cleaner, and a decent copper cleaner if you wish, and get the barrel reasonably clean, protect the bore, don't spend too much time, use the time saved shooting or reloading.

If you really want to try and get at it, I recommend you follow cw308's advice and try the KG-1 and KG-12 cleaners, and see what they do for you.

 

[Clark]

There are a couple things that irked me when I got back into guns in 1992:
1) Load books with capriciously designed recipes for max loads
2) Accuracy ritual online advice appropriate do benchrest, not hunting

If you talk to someone who shoots 200 rounds of target rifle every Saturday, his barrel is not going to last two months if he is shooting a 7mmRemMag at 3400 fps, like I am. So he shoot some wimpy round like 6mm PPC, 6mmBR, 6.5 6.5mm Creedmoor, .260 Remington, 308, etc.
Bart Bobbitt shot a 3.2" 20 shot group at 800 yards in 1997 and Krieger put an ad in a magazine saying he used a Krieger barrel.
And he does not clean out the Copper.
But he is shooting at 2600 fps. I don't clean Copper from my 2600 fps 17HMR either.

In 1992 I bought some Sweet 7.62. It is an Ammonia based solvent that by 2003 I had noticed it etched holes in my Chrome Moly barrel.
It has been a long process of trying many things.
My current process in my war against Copper fouled barrels:
Moly coat bullets
Put rifles in P3 ultimate gun vise and bolt the vise to the bench
clean bore with powder solvent on patch, e.g. KG-1
dry patch
KG-12 on a patch
wait a couple minutes
dry patch
Witches Brew [like a combination of Flitz and Kroil already mixed] on bronze brush that measures larger than the barrel groove diameter, 15 strokes
Patch with alcohol
dry patch
inspect for Copper with magnification at muzzle.
Go back to KG12 step if not Copper free, if Copper free go back to shooting