My Winchester Model 70 .375 H&H was made about two years ago, appears to have the hammer forged barrel.

Total rounds fired so far about 200, mostly ordinary Federal 270 gr softpoints, a couple of boxes of Nosler 300 mixed in. After each session of 10-25 rds, gun is carefully cleaned and copper solvent used overnight in the bore. Copper fouling has been pretty mild.

Monday I sighted in with a box of Federal 300 gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, then did the usual cleaning and left the copper solvent soaking overnight. Next morning I finished cleaning and looked in the bore- it looked like a copper pipe! The copper fouling was so severe that no steel was visible on the lands, just copper. I'm still trying to get it out.

It's easy to say that the copper had been building up slowly and I hadn't noticed it- but I used copper solvent every time and also checked the bore when finished, so that seems unlikely. The other possibility is that the Trophy Bonded Bear Claws have a serious problem with copper fouling, at least in some guns. But I thought that the Bear claws used ordinary jacket material, not pure copper like some. If that's true, then they shouldn't deposit any more copper than the regular ammo. What is your experience with them?
(signed)
Confused in Chicago

I never had copper fouling with the TBBC's, but they are a premium bullet, and premium bullets tend to have more copper than regulars, and more copper means more fouling, etc. Perhaps your bore is rough enough to notice it, while the noslers may go through without a problem due to a lower copper content. That's just a guess. But I would stay away from Swift and Barnes because they foul more than TBBC.

GJ Don't panic, since you left the Cu cleaning solvent in over night, you probabably dissolved the Cu and then redeposited it evenly on all the clean Fe surfaces. Just the relative positions in the elect. series which will allow the electrolyte (solvent) to evenly plate Cu on steel.

Buy a couple of cans of "Wipe Out" bore cleaner and you won't be sorry.

Dak

That's a good comment, but I don't think it explains my particular case- the fouling was most prominent on the lands, and remained there. After only 3 days (!) of soaking in the solvent, refreshed three times per day, most of it is gone. But I sure don't want to be trying to solve this problem in the middle of a hunt in the middle of nowhere!

Gearhead Jim

Perhaps it's time to polish the bore with neco kit or JB paste to decrease the fouling.

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Copper wash is the nemisis of big bores..They use soft malable copper that expands rather than shatters...more bore, more room for copper....Wipe Out will solve all your problems...

where can i get my hands on some of this wipe out.

The Mfg website is down, but you can also purchase it at MidwayUSA now.

I was introduced to it by Shilen several years ago back when it was only sold by the Mfg. I'm glad to see it's become so popular. It's always nice to see a good product succeed.

http://www.paulcompany.com/
http://www.sharpshootr.com/

http://www.midwayusa.com/