I have been cleaning my rifles a while by swabbing several times with Kroil, then decoppering with sweets until clean, scrubbing with JB, then Tetra bore conditioner in bore until next shoot!

Questions:
1) Is this overkill?
2) thoughts on regular use of JB bore cleaning compound? Good, bad, indifferent?
3) ways to improve?

For a "between the clean" cleaning, a few patches with Break Free. Before I shoot again, I run a patch with Gun Scrubber through.
Full clean; Sweet's followed by a very light coat of any good oil, Rem Oil, Break Free, etc. I do not believe it is necessary to thoroughly clean every time you shoot. Each rifle is a bit different.

Nobody has an opinion on whether regular use of JB bore cleaner is detrimental to barrel???

My thoughts on JB paste are that it's fine if you're using it with a bore dia lead slug.
Close your eyes. Imagine nice sharp rifling. Now imagine a soft patch with an abrasive paste on it being squished up into the grooves and worked back & forth... what do you think is happening to that nice sharp rifling?

I like the chemical methods for removing copper and have had good results from a number of them that are available on the market. I do want to try Wipe Out as soon as I can find some.

quote:

I do want to try Wipe Out as soon as I can find some.

Wipeout is the best thing since pockets on shirts IMHO. Haven't found it locally, but Midway has it at:

http://www.midwayusa.com/esearch.exe/search?TabID=0&cat...+to+Begin+Search.y=6

Regards,
hm

hm1996,

Do you just fill your barrel after shooting, let it sit all night, & then swab out the next day?

Yup.

Then I finish with something that cleans out the last of the powder fouling (Butch's), and oil with Tetra. HTH, Dutch.

As thorough as you are I recommend you limit the use of JB Compond to a couple times a year.

Don't let Sweets sit very long if stainless steel barrel because stainless does have a copper content.

I use the old standby Hoppes #9 along with Hoppes #9 Benchrest for regular cleaning and JB Compound a couple times a year and when I break-in a new barrel.

quote:

I do want to try Wipe Out as soon as I can find some.

Me too. I recently picked up what may seem to be something close and that is Break Free Bore Cleaning Foam. I have liked using Break Free since the mid 70's for general lube and cleaning and figured this foam may be alright......just have not tried it yet--too cold out lately.

Will just go ahead and use Sweets and Barnes copper cleaners for now.

JB is basically jewelers rouge. Which is an abrasive but is softer than the steel of your barrel. So with regular use it shouldn't harm your barrel unless your doing something foolish like using it on a stainless steel bore brush.

I've used quite a bit in a few of my rifles and can't detect any negatives from it. But I don't think that you need to use it every cleaning. After breaking a barrel in I don't use it more than every hundred or two hundred shots. And that's usually only if I detect excess fouling build up. I think that it is the best remover of metal fouling. Even compared to the newer solvents on the market.

Though, since I've switched to Wipeout I haven't use much of any thing else for cleaning the bores of my rifles.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
hm1996,

Do you just fill your barrel after shooting, let it sit all night, & then swab out the next day?

I let the first application go for about an hour. I patch it out to check the progress then fill the bore up again if needed. If warranted I will let it stay in the bore over night.