What does it take to thoroughly clean out an old rifle bore

U.S.SFC_RET

New member
I have an old Remington 03A3 that I have tried to clean out with a good .30 bore brush and Kroil and a 1/2 ton of bore patches. I've tried soaking with kroil over time with a good brushing and lots of patches only to discover that once I run the bore brush through again I dirty up more patches. I repeat this over and over again. Soak, brush, brush, brush, swab, swab, swab. The bore brush is tight. I've tried CLP, KROIL and a mixture of the two. I still get dirty patches.:(
Comments if you could.
 
Hoppes on a clean brush, scrub scrub scrub
Gunk out on patches, scrub scrub scrub
Copper cutter till the blue gets faint, scrub scrub scrub

Repeat over and over again till clean

WildelbowgreaseAlaska
 
Try This

Get your self some butch's bore shine and a nylon 30 cal brush
soak a patch and run er through the bore repeat a few times then put on the nylon brush get that wet with the bbs and start workin that thing full stroke chamber to muzzle do this many many times till your arm gets sore:( ....... repeating swabin and brushin tell you run a patch and it comes out clean....
the patch will have a blue green look to it that is copper fouling
the bbs will eat up a brass brush :mad: so make sure to use nylon :D
Also if it is realy bad give it a few swabs and let it sit for a bit between
swabs and scrubin
It helps to mount rifle in cleaning station and to add in keepin the mess in check use a bore guide :rolleyes: and a trick i like to do that keeps my wife off my butt :eek: put a 20 oz plastic soda bottle over the muzzle wrap a strip of cloth around barrel so bottle will fit nice :cool: it will catch all spray from brushing and colect used patches that is if you usea pionted jeg for your patches ,once done remove and whip off any remaning stuff
once im close to being finished i remove just so i can see patch with ease
 
I have saved a lot of elbow grease with Wipe-Out foam cleaner. It works very well on a new Savage barrel with a lot of tool marks. Dry out the other stuff and squirt the barrel full of foam. Let it stand 20 minutes, wipe out, repeat a couple of times. Then leave it full of foam overnight.
 
Outers Foul Out?

The electronic cleaning device will plate out the copper. I think that if you get it too clean the accuracy may diminish a bit. Lately I've been using the foam stuff. Seems to do the job without much elbow grease.
 
I'm gonna respectfully dissagree with WildoldfashionedAlaska, on this one. The foaming bore cleaners are just short of "miracle" products.

I had (have) an old Mauser that had a ridiculously dirty bore when I got it...good rifling but it looked like the inside of a chimney. I spent several hours using the traditional methods...Finally got it looking (and shooting)decent, but every time I cleaned it, I was STILL getting way more stuff (Especially copper) out than I should for the amount of rounds fired.

My gunshop guy gave me a partial can of Foaming Bore Cleaner (Outers I think). So I set the gun up with the muzzle sloping slightly downward, stuck the nozzle in the barrel (NOTE: get it in there DEEP, this stuff come out with lots 'o pressure!). I gave it a squirt until some came out the muzzle (VERY blue). repeated it every 10 minutes for about 2 hours, until no more blue came out. Ran 1 patch through, looked down the bore and was astonished to see the perverbial "Mirror Bore". I subsequently used it on an old SMLE, that was bad, but not nearly as bad as the Mauser. Good stuff, there, too.

I also like it because there's less risk of doing any damage while cleaning. (Yes, I know this should be true of traditional methods, if you do it right, but I'm a klutz.)

Now, note that I only used it for the initial cleaning to get years of accumulated junk outa there. Now, I clean those guns the same as any other. But, if you've got a really nasty bore, I highly recommend trying one of the foaming cleaners. They seem really expensive (about $12 for a small can around here), but go a REALLY long way.
 
bore cleaning

Sir:
Wildalaska is deat-nuts correct!
All of the work you'l do with all the products will do one thing - remove metal from the bore and make it oversize.
An old mechanic told me long ago, "son, you don't get an over-haul out of a can!"
Yes, you can clean it up to some degree just as I've cleaned up some 6.5X50 Japs' - but it never will be new again!
There is but one way and one way ONLY to remedy this - change the bbl!
Check the ser. number on your springfield to see if the action is a high or low numbered one - then change that bbl!
Harry B.

P.S. Shoot it; you may find it drives tacks like it is!
 
Another product

A few years ago I ran across a product called RB-17. Unbelieveable stuff. They have a website, but don't sell direct to the public anymore. Your gunshop can order it, if you aren't close to one of their distributors.

this stuff is nontoxic, biodegradable, and removes lead, copper, doesn't take a lot of work, clean the bore as usual, then a few passes with this stuff on a brush (it is a gel), then wait about 20 min. Start running patches through. You will be amazed. Everything comes out. It ain't cheap, but it works wonders.
 
I recently started using bore foams on my old guns. The firdt one I tried was Outers brand. It worked great! Just make sure you hang it muzzle down and spray thru the chamber end. I follow about 10 minutes later with with a brush. I always finish it off with breakfree. It may take several applications of the foam to get everything out.
 
The newest miracle chemistries remove metal by chelation. That applies to both rust removers and bore cleaners. RB-17 may be one? That's new to me. Bore Tech's Eliminator is one for certain. At $10 for 4. oz, it sounds awfully expensive, but their reviews show they do in a few patches what the conventional cleaners require many to accomplish. Gunzilla may be another. Bore Tech's is the only one I've seen unpaid reviews of, so I intend to try it, but have some Gunzilla to try first.

Bore fouling's relationship to accuracy depends on the nature of the fouling. Some years ago Merrill Martin wrote a Precision Shooting article on what he termed "Carbon Tunnel Syndrome", suggesting that a carbon filler developed on the surface of a bore steel and helped accuracy and might be best left unmolested if possible. Any evenly distributed fouling may do this in theory.

On the other hand, metal jacket fouling has a nasty tendency to accumulate nearer the breech end of the barrel were pressures and temperatures are highest, narrowing the bore only at that location. This has a detrimental effect on accuracy because it squeezes the bullet down as it passes through. This tends to distort the bullet a little and to allow it to tip slightly and unpredictably when pressure bumps it back up after passing the constriction. Howe (Modern Gunsmithing, 1941) describes a build-up of this fouling as the first thing to look for when a customer complains his gun isn’t as accurate as it used to be. He suggests employing special solutions that remove it as a good money making activity for gunsmiths, since it is easy and seems to miraculously restore accuracy. There is some general agreement in the shooting community that a barrel which tightens at the muzzle can benefit accuracy, and a perfectly straight barrel may also shoot well, but one that is constricted at the breech is problematic and almost never shoots to the gun's potential.

So, without a bore scope you can't really tell what fouling you've got? I would go ahead and clean out what's there and shoot the gun back in, if need be. Up until now, you have not been using a bore cleaner that attacks copper fouling from bullet jackets. The commercial ones that do, except for the new chelating chemistries, will have ammonia or ammonium oleate in them. Check Father Frog's web site for home cleaning solutions to remove metal fouling if you like. For a severe case, the old lead-removing peracetic acid formula, a 50:50 mix of white vinegar (5% acetic acid) and hydrogen peroxide (3%) will aggressively get whatever metal is in there. You plug the breech with a neoprene stopper or a bore plug and pour it in, but don't leave it in for more than 10 minutes because, given enough time, it will go after steel. Be prepared to follow it up with an acid neutralizer. Formula 409 on a patch works well. Follow the neutralizer with a dry patch, then chase it all down by pouring boiling water through the bore. That’s the way 03's used to be cleaned in the corrosive primer days. They’re used to it. And don't let the vinegar and peroxide overflow onto your finish. This stuff will froth up as it attacks the fouling, so pour gradually until you see bubbles breaking near the muzzle, and no further. It will turn turquoise as it acquires copper. It remains clear when attacking lead.

A gentler approach is to get some Shooters Choice and again plug the breech with a neoprene stopper or bore plug and fill the barrel and let it sit for 24 hours. Then pour it out and run your dry patches. Benchrest shooters have mixed Shooter's Choice with Kroil for years. Butch's Bore Shine is another good choice. The makers told me they have left steel blanks in it for up to six months and a microscope showed no sign of etching, despite its relative aggressiveness.

Nick
 
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