What is your best method of cleaning the copper fouling out of a barrel and continue cleaning.

i tried various products (hoppes, bisley, youngs,etc), but the best thing i found was "forest bore foam". i"m assuming that you have it over there(it"s in a blue and white can with a clear tube on it).
i was running in my new .308, and i could see the brass in the lands, looking from the muzzle. could"nt shift it(i used to use "butch"s bore shine) till someone told me to try bore foam. spray it in from the breech, leave it in for 20 mins, then patch it out again. it"s pretty strong stuff, so don"t get it on the kitchen table like i did!
i still use butch"s bore shine for light fouling, or for removing oil after storage.
hope this helps

For copper fouling I've tried Hoppe's Benchrest Copper Solvent and "Foaming Bore Cleaner" from Walmart.
The Hoppe's works but you have to let it sit for a long time.
The Foaming Bore cleaner works well. You still have to let it sit, but not for as long and generally one spray down the tube will get it all out.

The Foaming Bore Cleaner is sold at Walmart and costs $6-7, I don't remember the actual price.

I have a .308Win.
What I do is put the foam in, let it sit for 30 minutes and push patches down the bore until it's all clean, then I go back with Hoppe's Benchrest or #9 to get out all the powder residue. The foaming bore cleaner gets a lot of powder residue out, but not all of it.
I put patches through til they come out clean, then run a patch with Breakfree CLP down and let it sit for 30 minutes. After that I run a couple patches through to get the excess oil out.

I have used hoope's 9 but wanted to get abit more into cleaning. Will get some foam for sure and go with that. I want to asure that I don't get copper fouling built up so need something that will clean better. I like the idea of hitting it with Hoope's after foam and then CLP. I was told that Barnes CR-10 was real good and acted real fast. Thanks

Also I have an aluminum rod for cleaning and watch about hitting the crown with it. I guess a bore guide would help that? Would the aluminum do ok if used with care or should I try a nylon one?

I start with a broken-in barrel.

I brush the bore with 15 strokes. I then run a patch soaked in Sweets 7.62 solvent with 15 strokes. I repeat this process three times and the bore is clean.

If you have a hammer-forged barrel, you might have to repeat this process many many more times.

I guess this would sound kinda trivial to some, but how many rounds do you shoot before a deep cleaning? I used to clean after every shooting (20 rounds or so)but just a lite cleaning with a bit of # 9 solvent and then lite oiling. But was reading where to much cleaning can be bad if rough brushes are used.

If I am going hunting I do not clean because the first shot or two out of my 308 has a different point of impact after cleaning.
If I don't plan to hunt, I clean after every range session no matter how many rounds I put through it.

I do not use metalic brushes on anything with rifling. If I have shot a lot of rounds, more than 50, then I may use a nylon bore brush.

To me, there is no such thing as a "deep cleaning."
It's either clean or its not, so I guess I give it a "deep cleaning" after every time I shoot the gun.

Metallic brushes will wear your barrel out a tiny bit faster than without using it, but so will letting an uncoated aluminum rod contact your bore as you're pushing it through.

I have and use aluminum rods, but my next gun related purchase will be a nylon coated rod.

Depends on whether I'm in a hurry or not. If I am cleaning at the range and in a hurry I will use Barnes CR10 but after I get home I will use Wipe Out.

Definitely get a full length nylon coated cleaning rod. I also get a package of 2 1/4" patches and wrap the patch around a bore brush. This seems to make for a tight fit. With the Barnes CR10 just soak the patch and run it through. I use a bore guide when doing this in order to keep the CR10 out of the action and chamber.

After I get home I use Wipe Out foaming bore cleaner. Don't know if it is the same as the kind Wal Mart sells. Bought it at Midway

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=784639

It may take a few applications but I have taken a gun I thought was clean and used this and it cleaned some more. Just spray in the muzzle for about 1 second and put your finger over the muzzle to keep the foam from coming out and watch the chamber. When you see the foam at the chamber take your finger off and let the foam finish expanding. Keep a rag under it and after about 5 seconds the foam will stiffen up. Now your barrel is filled top to bottom with cleaner. Leave it in as long as you want. I usually treat 3 or 4 guns and go do something else for an hour or so. Push it out and you will get a lot of blue that indicates dissolved copper.

The stainless ones clean up quick but the blued steel ones will sometimes take overnight.

Nothing takes copper out like a combination of Butch's Bore Shine (let it sit for a minute or two) and some elbow grease with Iosso bore paste.

I had never noticed just how effective that combination is until I cleaned the copper off my CZ 550 during break in. The blacking of the bore in Cr-Mo barrels makes copper very obvious, unlike the SS barrels that have been in all my CF rifles up to now.

Blob, go to an electrical supply house and get a couple yards of shrink tubing the proper size. Depending on just what you get you may or may not be able to shrink it on your cleaning rod with a hair dryer. If not a propane torch or even a cigarette lighter will work.

I like the shrink wrap idea, but that may also be a problem.
Nylon is hard, it won't pick up and retain grit. Some heat shrink tubing I've seen is relatively rubbery. I think grit could get into that and contacting the bore may be as bad as an aluminum rod.
Its always worth a try though. Heck, I might try it myself. I normally wipe my rods as they come out of the bore, maybe the heat shrink tubing will wipe clean without any problems.

Why not just get a Dewey coated rod?

Jeff

Hey the heat shrink tubing sounds good, will try it on my aluminum rod.

Take a look at this site for some good bore cleaning suggestions:

http://www.6mmbr.com/borecleaning.html

Having a little chemical background I can justify, that whichever copper remover we use, it's all based on ammonia. And as higher concentration is as easier copper goes.

The problem is, Ammonia (not NH4OH itself, but more strictly NH3) is very volatile, and all solutions age (drop the concentrations) quite easily. That's why they quit working pretty soon. So, a piece of advice. Keep them cool and closed all the time.

Here is my solution (literally).
5% ammonia. That's all.
"Household Ammonia" from Wal-Mart, while it's only 3%, will do the trick too, if it's fresh.
But 5% is still better.
I can forsee as some of you will wonder about corrosion.
There was an article on the net (sorry, don't remember the link) where a gentleman did a research on it.
His conclusion was 5% is OK.
Dan Lilja, the Barrelmaker, in some of his articles confirms that.

A reasonable question where to get it.
Ask a nice girl from the lab .
It's very cheap. A liter of 15% solution will last forever. Just make sure that you use a very tied cap. Even a Coke bottle will do.
Take a bit and delute it with water (1 part of 15% + 2 parts of water), and you are set.
Even buying a gallon of Household Ammonia every week will be cheaper than paying rediculous prices for the chemicals which don't work at all or quit working in a month.

My 3 cents

If the bore is big enough,you can double a piece of small(.065)weed trimmer line and push it through and put patch in the loop and drag it out. You can drag a much tighter patch than what you can push through. On my air rifles(smaller cal) I use a piece of heavy (.135)weed trimmer line and push the patch through--safer than a metal rod.

Wipe Out. Do a search, I've written about it enough. (And I chuckle and shake my head at anyone using a brush. They're living in the past...)

Oldflint, Wipe Out uses some organic compound. I'm not a chemist, and the name escapes me. But no ammonia-- you can use it indoors without annoyance.

Pertinax

quote:

Originally posted by pertinax:
Oldflint, Wipe Out uses some organic compound. I'm not a chemist, and the name escapes me. But no ammonia-- you can use it indoors without annoyance.
Pertinax

Agreed. But all chemicals we use are not parfume. And most of the copper removers still smell like old urine (sorry! ammonia) Meantime I'm talking about a solution which will cost you a box of chocolate in 10 years (chocolate goes to the lab girl ).

Wipe Out contains "butylcellosolve, alcohols, and water".

Other quotes from can include:

No acid, no ammonia

Contains a powerful anti-corrosive that prevents rust

Active for 24-48 hours and may be left in the firearm without harm

Most black powder firearms can be cleaned in 10 minutes

Do not put oil in the bore

I like that I'm not doing any harm with scrubbing with wire brushes and multiple patches. I clean the chamber out last with a cotton bore swab with just a touch of oil on it.

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When growing up back in Tennessee, whenever the ash tray got full or the whitewalls got dirty we just traded pickup trucks.

Figured when a barrel got dirty enough to notice, you simply rebarrel.

Shilen has always had another barrel when called.

Hammer

Blob, some good thoughts so far, but.....
Get over the cleaning rod thing, order a Bore Tech or Dewey rod, aluminum is pretty soft, but a good cleaning rod isn't that expensive, so get a good one. Also a bore guide is pretty much a must for taking good care of your barrel, your chanmber and throat as much as the barrel itself. The dewey universal bore guide with a solvent port built in is a good one that will fit several rifles, Sinclair makes some nice rifle specific ones.

Bore Tech has a great line of cleaners, one called eliminator does a great job, and they offer a citrus based (non ammonia) cleaner--it may be the Eliminator-- but I have had great luck with their products.

Iosso bore paste is pretty aggressive and I occasionally use it on a bore mop on a rifle that I feel is really not all the way clean, a few passes with a mop with Iosso on it will tell me, if there's anything in there it will show, if there is I just keep patching out til it's clean, after three or four passes with Iosso, then some more patches til they're clean.

quote:

Originally posted by Skibum:
Why not just get a Dewey coated rod?

Jeff

Because I'm poor as heck, why else?

Seriously though, my next purchase will be a dewy nylon coated rod.

Once you try a Tipton carbon fiber rod, you will not want anything else.

HP Shooter, I've been curious about those rods, what do you like specifically.

Thanks--D.

I used some of the Outers foam this weekend on my new, used, older ADL. This was a very clean rifle to begin with but i wanted to try the foam to see how it works. VERY WELL. I let it set while I clean my ML (about 20 minutes) and boy had that stuff turned blue. When I got done with that bore it was like looking in a mirror....a long, skinny, tubular mirror....but you get what I'm saying. I think it works great. I'll bet the better brands work better but if Wal-mart doesn't have it I don't need it.

Well put me in the Wipe-Out-does-not work-as-advertised column. I've yet to use it on any of my rifles and have it work with just one application. One rifle took EIGHT-24 hour applications before the patches came out clean. Then after that, just one range session and I gave up after having to wait two days for it to work. Finally used some Sweets and elbow grease and it was clean in 20 minutes. jorge

Just how does one get Wipeout into the bore and not all over the place?

Has anyone tried "Blue Wonder"? What did you think?

quote:

Just how does one get Wipeout into the bore and not all over the place?

Clark I use a regular soda straw from McDonalds. I give the barrel a couple of squirts in place of a steady one and allow the foam to expand a second or two between them. I place my bore guide in the chamber insert a short pistol rod with a patch on a loop part way in it as a stop and shoot from the muzzle.

Wear safty glasses!!

quote:

Originally posted by Clark:
Just how does one get Wipeout into the bore and not all over the place?

I put my gun in a vise on my workbench with the muzzle over the bench. Lay a rag down below the muzzle. Take the Wipe Out and stick the nozzle into the muzzle and spray for 1 second, no more. Immediately drop the can on the rag and put your finger over the muzzle. Watch the chamber and at the first sign of foam, take your finger off the muzzle. A little foam will come out the muzzle before the foam stiffens up. Pick up the rag and wipe the muzzle off.

After a few times you will be able to gauge how long to spray and keep the extra foam to a minimum.

Set the gun aside for an hour or overnight. After patching out, the treatment is complete. Wipe Out prevents rust and is non-corrosive so I feel good about whatever film is left.

Get ya some Wipe Out and M-Pro7 and you'll never use anything else.
http://www.sharpshootr.com/wipeout.htm
http://www.mp7.com/

wipe out, good stuff!

Wipe Out is the strongest by far...It really works, but get it all out and oil the bore....

for a badly fouled bore I use "Blue Goop" which is an old time bench rest remedy for fouled bores....Recipe:

1 quart of 25% Commercial Amonia (ask your druggest)
1 cup of Hydrogen Peroxide.
you can toss in a copper bullet or penny and turn the solution blue, thus the name Blue Goop, but its not really necessary...

This stuff is strong and works better than anything else, but you can ruin a barrel with it if you walk off and forget it....Leave in bore 15 to 20 minutes and wipe out, repeat as necessary then dry the bore with 6 or 7 dry patches...then run a alcohol patch and repeat drying with a few more dry patches, then oil the hell out of the bore...

Is that the drug store strength hydrogen peroxide, as used to clean up wounds.

Sounds like some interesting combos to get the copper out at a much lower cost. The weed eater line sounds good also. Will definaly make me some blue goop without the blue! A made a good cleaning rod out of a nylon control rod for radio controled airplanes. Epoxed a .308 nylon sabot on one end and sanded it down to where it just fit in the .310 bore. It pushes every thing real tight down the bore.

I had a neighbor that would put a cork in the end of the barrel and turn the rifle up and fill the barrel with white vineger. he would leave it over night and pull the plug in the morning and nan the crap would really come out. Then he would clean it good and oil it.

quote:

Originally posted by Blob1:
I had a neighbor that would put a cork in the end of the barrel and turn the rifle up and fill the barrel with white vineger. he would leave it over night and pull the plug in the morning and nan the crap would really come out. Then he would clean it good and oil it.

Well vinegar is an acid.

That is commercial amonia and just regular hydrogen peroxide....

Vinagar will rust metal in a heart beat....I wouldn't consider using it myself...