Trying get this rifle cleaning thing down!

Question:
Is Butch's Bore Shine a good quality solvent capable of getting your rifle bore clean expediently with absolutely NO HARM?

Choices:
Yes
No...will add post below to tell you the best.

 

Let's say I've used it and even left it for hours in a barrel with no apparent harm to the barrel and it will get a barrel perfectly clean without the use of brushes. On the other hands, it's quite odorific and I'm a bit concerned about toxicity so wear gloves whilst using it to keep it off my skin.

The products I use the most are Wipe Out Accelerator and Patch Out which will also get a barrel perfectly clean with no harm or brushing. The final product in the barrel is Prolix which I use instead of oil.

Butch' is a good product.

KG-12 or
WipeOut/PatchOut with accelerator
are easier on the weapon and the operator.

I personally do not care for Butch's. IMO Shooters Choice is a much better product. The only thing I use Butch's for, because I still have a partial bottle left, is for a "tattle tale" to let me know if I have any copper in the barrel. If Butch's soaked patches come out blue then I get the Wipe Out & Accelerator and get 'er done quick.

I do like Butch's but I use Sweet's 7.62 to remove the copper then use Butch's as a followup to clean the sweet's out. Then I use Butch's oil as the final touch.

There are 3 cleaning products on my bench and in my shooting box I travel to competitions with.. Butches, Sweets and Iosso Paste.

With these 3 I can get any tube clean down to the bare metal no matter how fouled it is in less than 30 minutes...

Butches and Sweets are the primary by far cleaning agents. First wet patch with Butches then soaked brush with Butches for a few strokes---dry patch out Butches then a wet patch of Brake Cleaner then wet patch of Sweets then soak a brush with Sweets and brush the bore 10 or so strokes then let sit for a couple of minutes then dry patch and repeat depending on how much copper you have. Finish with a butches patch and let soak until the next relay.. I have the last few years gotten to where I just leave Butches in the bores during storage. Yes oil would be better but the scope shows no harm at all..

If you have any doubt or are starting the cleaning process from an unknown condition use the Iosso to get it CLEAN. Always better to start from a known condition.

quote:

If you have any doubt or are starting the cleaning process from an unknown condition use the Iosso to get it CLEAN. Always better to start from a known condition.

Why Iosso paste instead or JB's bore compound?

Butch's has very little effect on copper fouling.

I have not had good luck with Butch's. It does no better than Hoppe's, which I only now use for powder fouling on my in-line muzzleloader breach plug. It does nothing for copper. The poster above is more in line with my experience when he said Shooter's Choice is much better.

If I ever want to go to bare metal, I ues WipeOut.

I didn't vote because I sure don't know what is the "best". But, I think more damage is done to the bore by running the rod back and forth than is done by using the aggressive cleaners(sweets, etc.) as directed. BTWDIK?

Montana Extreme BMG and/or KG 12

Let the patches soaked in Butch's dry after cleaning your fouled bore. You'll notice they typically turn a nice shade of blue-green which is due to the high concentration of copper in them! If you aren't seeing it, you aren't letting it sit long enough. It's about all I use now (I've used Shooter's Choice in the past and thought it worked about as well, but is just harder to get in my area.)

My bottle was so good I gave it away! I now use Sweets, Wipe Out, Hoppes.

I don't necessarily dislike Butch's, but do yourelf a favor and try some Bore Tech eliminator.
No 'dangerous' chemical, but does the job better than anything I've tried, and I do like Wipeout and yes I use Iosso--if I've got a stubborn SOB, and want to make sure I'm definitely down to bare metal for some reason, I don't really care typically--I like Glen Zediker's advice, do what the target face tells you works--in other words, if you are getting accuracy, forget all the rest.

Has anyone made up Eds Red and used it?

Ed's Red works great for shotguns, not rifles. Bore Tech is better than Butch's, but not as good a Montana Extreme Copper Killer or KG 12.

i use sweets 1st and then butches afterwards, but always keep an open bottle of hoppes around for perfume

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
. . . always keep an open bottle of hoppes around for perfume

+1
Ain't it the truth!

Hoppe's to cut the carbon, Wipe-Out to remove ALL the copper from the bore.

Wipe-Out works like nothing else I have ever tried on copper fouling.

I clean my rifles this way @ the end of the saeson. I then shoot them 5-10 times to break in the "sqeaky clean" bore & do not clean them, other than a dry patch is I get caught in the rain, until the hunting is over for the year.

I second BoreTech Eliminator. Cleans faster with the least effort of anything that I have tried so far without the odor.

I have never had as much trouble cleaning a rifle bore as I did on an M1 Garand with an October, 1940 dated barrel.

Thirty to fifty patches a day, alternating with brushing, with Butch's and Hoppe's No. 9, and also Shooter's Choice in place of Butch's, for a full week and half.

The carbon and copper were impacted in layers in the bore.

I found that the Butch's worked better than the Shooter's Choice.

The rifle now shoots pretty well.

F&*$^k Butch's




This is what will happen after shooting in the rain and leaving a Butch's soaked patch in the throat of a 416R stainless barrel from Sunday to Tuesday.

Damn, that's a shame!

I don't trust any of the ammonia-based copper solvents enough to leave them in the bore for more than 15-30 minutes.

I swab them out and neutralize with Hoppe's.

Roger that, MR.

Tough lesson learned. I'd gotten away with the technique of wetting the bore, leaving the patch in the throat to keep things wet and standing the rifle muzzle down in the corner for a few days. In this particular instance, I glibbly pushed the wet patch out without giving it a thought (or look), dried the bore, and ran a real light oiled patch. Got to the shooting range, fired the first round and had heavy bolt lift - WTF!?!. No signs of excessive pressure on the case head so I fired another. Same deal.

Then, I noticed the bulges on the case neck. I couldn't believe it. This was a week before my Kodiak bear tag was valid. I shot one more just to prove the impossible and it was.

The big globs of rust colored junk on the patch were discovered after I got back and fished it out of the trash. There were SCABS of iron oxide on it. Amazing. I called Butch and he, however nicely, shined me on and basically shoved that barrel down my throat. Being a .450Ackley, there wasn't much that could be done to clean up the chamber.

Since then, I've been very cautious around ammonia based solvents.


As an aside, I later came across an interesting article in a late 90's Precision Shooting magazine regarding the mixing of differnt solvents and the formation of some pretty agressive acids. Apparently, a lot of match barrel makers got away from the ammonia mixes as a well made smooth barrel really doesn't need to be cleaned to bare steel to shoot well anyway.

Last year I got sick as a dog using smelly solvents.
Like fish I used Boretech Eliminator and never looked back.
I am disabled and spend alot of time in the gun room cleaning mine and all friends rifles and handguns.With BoreTech I don't need the smelly cleaners.
I did keep my Wipe-Out and Accelerator.I'm in to no-smell cleaners as of last year.Drop-Shot

quote:

Originally posted by larrys01:
Ed's Red works great for shotguns, not rifles. Bore Tech is better than Butch's, but not as good a Montana Extreme Copper Killer or KG 12.

My GS told me how to clean shotgun barrels.I use an old 12g bronze brush wrapped with 4 ought steel wool wet with hoppes. I broke the plastic handle off of a shotgun cleaning rod.I screw the brush into the rod and chuck it into an electric drill make a few power passes in the bore takes out plastic,powder residue & lead.I run a patch thru the barrel to remove and material and another with a wee bit of oil.

quote:

Originally posted by PWS:
F&*$^k Butch's




This is what will happen after shooting in the rain and leaving a Butch's soaked patch in the throat of a 416R stainless barrel from Sunday to Tuesday.

Interesting to say the least---just went and patched a tube that has been soaking for over 2 years--perfect chamber and tube. The borescope does not lie--wonder what really caused the problem????

Have used gallons of Butches with not one issue but this is interesting.

Boss,

This is conjecture but I have to guess that there was some unholy mixture of rainwater, electrolyte and dissimilar metal.

Butch did tell me that submersion (typically by plugging and filling the bore) is not recommended - mostly as oxygen speeds the cleansing capacity of his solvent - but perhaps that method is safer?

Butch's for me has been useless. The only liquid solvents I have used that actually worked for copper fouling was Sweet's or Barnes CR10. I quit both of them after trying Wipe Out, it's simply the easiest and best copper remover I've used. It also doesn't stink or harm the bore if left in for hours.