I was talking to a young shooter the other day and he said he was having trouble cleaning his first centerfire rifle. He was using Sweets and patch after patch was coming out blue. Which meant there was still copper in the bore, right? I told him years ago on my first 30-06 I had been having the same problem till it occurred to me that the brass jag might be turning the Sweets soaked patches blue. I simply dug out a cheap plastic jag and PRESTO, no more blue!

This kind of makes me wonder why we don't use aluminum jags or some other metal that is not attacked by the same solvents that we use on the copper deposits in the barrels. The same goes for the bronze bore brushes that we use to scrub the copper deposits out of our rifle barrels. Trying to remove copper with a brush that has significant amounts of copper in the bristles????

Does this seem a little wacky to anyone else?

Seems Midway is marketing a nickle plated jag just for this reason.

Don't bronze brushes and jags pre-date using costic chemicals to clean bores? When I still had hair, about all you had was Hoppes and 3 in 1 oil.
And the jags and brushes wouldn't mar a steel barrel. You now have plastic brushes and jags and eyelets that are pretty stout.
Would nickel plating be harder than barrel steel??

I have found a miracle cure for copper fouling. The KG products are amazing! I have had guns that took hours with sweets to remove the copper (and i had a nylon bore brush so that was not the culprit), but with the KG products i have seen barrels with similar amounts of fouling cleen in only a few minutes. They have a series of product, including a polish, that work well.

In my GP100 I shot a couple barnes bullets that left pretty hefty fouling. Used thes products, including the polish and the next time I shot barnes, probably 4 times as many bullets, and very little fouling. Great products.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Would nickel plating be harder than barrel steel??

No

Why would he be using Sweet's unless he had already inspected the bore and found a copper fouling problem? And______________even so--why not use JB and do it right?

Brass is softer than barrels and we usually read and follow instructions / warnings / cautions provided by manufacturers, one of which addresses chemical interactions. Some, however, live by monkey see / monkey do. Life is about learning...

quote:

Originally posted by amamnn:
Why would he be using Sweet's unless he had already inspected the bore and found a copper fouling problem? And______________even so--why not use JB and do it right?

I for one don't want to use an abrasive in my barrels & JB is just that - no matter how "mild" they say it is.

JB is indeed an abrasive; however, I believe it is made from wheat chaff or some such and the abrasiveness comes from the silica that is drawn into the plant as it grows. I think you would have to scrub a barrel for a long, long time before you got a measureable amount of wear.
Me?? I use it all. clean your barrel really good with the chemicals and then give it a go with JB if you want to feel what a really slick barrel feels like.

Contrary to the post above, nickle plating is much harder than barrel steel. Most barrel steels are 30RC +or-. Bronze brushes with a bronze core are the best. I use stainless jags. Your arm will fall off before JB or Isso will wear anything.
Butch

Aluminum is a soft metal. It can get imbedded with grit that can wear a bore. Brass is harder and won't get grit imbedded. The brass is softer than the steel so it will wear before the bore.
I use a good brass rod on my rifles and an aluminum rod on my shotguns.

quote:

Originally posted by guncurtis2:
I have found a miracle cure for copper fouling. The KG products are amazing! I have had guns that took hours with sweets to remove the copper (and i had a nylon bore brush so that was not the culprit), but with the KG products i have seen barrels with similar amounts of fouling cleen in only a few minutes. They have a series of product, including a polish, that work well.

In my GP100 I shot a couple barnes bullets that left pretty hefty fouling. Used thes products, including the polish and the next time I shot barnes, probably 4 times as many bullets, and very little fouling. Great products.

I have also become a KG -12 fan.

Much easier on my hands and arms,
due to much less scrubbing.