The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Gun Cleaning Forum Green Berets have final word on copper fouling !Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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Was killing a gray, windy day by catching up on Guns & Ammo TV. Had a portion with a Green Beret sniping instructor on gun cleaning. They train with match grade AR 15s. - Best points: - a barrel cleaned down to bare metal takes at least 20 rounds, sometimes more, to refill the bore with copper. - the "clean barrel will typically shoot 1.5 MOA, after being "recoppered", it will shoot 1/2 MOA. - the only time they remove copper is when starting a fresh training class, so that everyone starts out equally handicapped. - they clean rifles once/ week to remove powder and carbon fouling ONLY. - copper is never removed unless accuracy goes to h e double l. He said usually that does not help and it's usually new barrel time. The AR he was shooting had 5000 rounds down the tube, had never been "copper scrubbed out" and was still a 1/2 MOA rifle. Bottom line: A match quality barrel fed top grade ammo does not need the bore ever cleaned to bare metal. Get out the powder fouling and it will shoot great a long, long time. If you have a crap barrel, that accumulates chunks of jacket material, give fire lapping a try and/or get a new tube. As well as using a quality one piece rod and bore guide, he removed the jag before withdrawing the rod. 5 wet patches, 10 dry, 5 more wet, 10 dry, clean the chamber and bolt assembly and back to rock and roll. No nasty brushes, no abrasives. It appeared he was using Bore Tech C4 carbon remover and I'm guessing they use Bore Tech CU+2 when they want to get down to bare metal. If you spend the extra money (a lot) to get your barrel Nitrided, life gets even easier and the barrel will probably outlast you. KISS wins again ! | ||
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Agreed  Cal30 If it cant be Grown it has to be Mined! Devoted member of Newmont mining company Underground Mine rescue team. Carlin East,Deep Star ,Leeville,Deep Post ,Chukar and now Exodus Where next? Pete Bajo to train newbies on long hole stoping and proper blasting techniques. Back to Exodus mine again learning teaching and operating autonomous loaders in the underground. Bringing everyday life to most individuals 8' at a time! | |||
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I read an article where Navy Seal Snipers said much the same. They said they didn't clean their rifles for a whole season or mission.But their reasoning was that the rifle stayed consistent that way. It did not state that actual groups were tighter but that the rifles were more predictable. I agree that many barrels need re coppered or fouled to shoot their best. I own a couple. I have found that a couple shots put them back to where they are sighted in for and always prefer to hunt with a fouled barrel. Molon Labe New account for Jacobite | |||
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That is all baloney in the context of a single person owning a single barrel. If the seal has a bad barrel he just has Uncle replace it. No matter how badly he abuses barrels uncle can always buy him another. Sergeant Seal does not have to be concerned with money coming out of his pocket or how to get the best live out of a slight rough bore that may need lapping. Seal does not know how to reload, nor lap barrels or anything else. All he knows is to clean it and shoot it. If it still does not shoot he scraps the barrel. Any brain dead moron can do that. | |||
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Guess I am just a sucker for people who actually lay their lives on the line to protect our country AND have to have accurate dependable rifles every time all the time. Green Berets and Seals are hardly "a single person owning a single barrel". To suggest that is just laughable. I'm sure the poster degrading the expertise of our elite military units has not 1/00th the experience in either shooting or combat as they do. As the Beret and the Seal pointed out, quality barrels, fed quality ammo are consistant and do not require all kinds of abusive chemicals and bore damaging brushing to keep them driving tacks. When my most recent quite expensive barrel (just under a grand) was installed and delivered I asked the expert gunsmith about the "break in stories". The barrel was a top grade 3 groove Shilen that was Nitride treated. (As are those barrels treated featured on that Guns and Ammo segment) He said "shoot it, push a Hoppes soaked patch, followed by 2 dry ones. Repeat that 10 times. That's the break in." I followed his instructions and it always shoots (at worst) 1/2 MOA 5 shot groups which ain't bad for a .338 caliber bullet. Tarawa was a command cluster f--- that cost the lives of countless of good men needlessly. Probably still studied as "how not to plan and execute and amphibious landing". Too bad there were no Navy Seals back then to survey the landing zone. That would have avoided the slaughter that resulted in the first pubic pictures of dead Marines rolling around in the waves. Not that our military learned much, with Inchon being the first and last well planned and executed amphibious landing. But that's another story for another time. | |||
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SR4759: You are misinformed. "Sergeant Seal/Sergeant GB" does know how to reload, lap barrels and most everything else. For most of them, shooting is their hobby and for all of them it is their life. Many of them knew quite a bit before they ever put on a uniform. Many of them dominate civilian competition when they are around to compete. Heck, when I was in most of us had Midway, Dillon and Sinclair on speed dial. All of the tricks of the trade for shooting are taught and practiced. You may not always be in a position to "get a new one". Believe it or not, they have a budget and sometimes you get managers put in leadership positions that want to save money first. Also, in the Special Ops world you better be able to sort it out once you leave Fort Bragg or Virginia. Shooters/SOTIC geeks/Sniper-Observers are the same as any exceptional shooter. They have their own beliefs and habits based on experience, what they were taught, what their mentor showed them, and sometimes just odd superstitions. However, their reasoning is vetted with real world experience and a lot of trigger time. Real world experience under difficult situations. Some firearms have a personality of their own and you have to find what they like to get them to perform best. I have seen guys that cleaned their barrel down to the metal after X number of shots and spun and weighed all of their rounds. My personal view is don't mess with it if it is working. I have also found that most firearms are like a BBQ grill; they are best when left seasoned with the proper mix of carbon and grease. | |||
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Military combat units that are financed by the tax payer are hardly founts of engineering knowledge. They are units that often require 50,000 rounds to kill one enemy. That experience does not transalate into the ultimate knowledge about cleaning and condition of YOUR varmit rifle. Go read the technical manuals. When a barrel is gauged to be oversize or quits meeting accuracy specification it is replaced. That is the way it is with the military. There is nothing about Seal barrel cleaning opinions that would have made any difference at Tarawa. The worst thing that happened is they forced the operation commander to give up his original plan. It had nothing to do with Seal having clean barrels. M-16s and M-4s were not the problem. Lack of artillery was the problem. | |||
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The OP clearly stated the article referenced sniper team training. Those involved certainly don't need "50,000 rounds to kill one enemy" & their experience translates very nicely into varmint hunting. | |||
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While I have the greateszt respect for our military........... How many military shooters hold true accuracy records? Most benchrest shooters I know, you know those infuriting guys that shoot groups in the 100th of a minute of angle????? They clean religously! Minute of man does not require that much accuracy! . | |||
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Accuracy records? I would not know but I would dare say not many. To set a record normally means you have had a lot of time to practice nothing but that one task and its sub-tasks. Winning matches? A lot of them (Olympics, Camp Perry, etc.) I hope you are not thinking of comparing a civilian bench rest shooter to a sniper. Those are entirely different tasks done in completely different environments and under completely different conditions. By the way, I have attended training given by some top shooters (even a few record holders) of every discipline. Most were a wealth of knowledge. However, we had to apply all of that training to the world of reality. The annoying conditions of stress, fatigue, limited visibility, the inability to place a wind flag every 10' so you can make the perfect wind call, other people trying to kill you, weather, dragging 100LBS of light weight gear aroung with you, etc. Then there is that little understood fact that you will probably not be shooting at the "minute of man" stationary target. Often, you only have a small portion of "minute of man" for a target, and he is moving, and innocent civilians are in the way, the darn hostage is in the way, your buddies are in the way, and heck, the bad guy and his buddies all have guns too! Then there is the problem that if you miss (but heck, who can't hit minute of man) you or someone else that is depending on you may die. Those darn minute of man targets are so uncooperating, but not near as challenging as the stationary bench rest targets located in a permissive and safe environment at the local gun club. The guys who do this are serious, more serious than any civilian shooter could ever imagine. Some of them do clean their weapon to the extreme; some don't. However, they have had access to the best of everything to prepare them for their mission and have made the best decision to successfully accomplish it. Most apply the standard of sub-MOA POA/POI shot; anytime; anywhere; under any condition. Its not as easy as it sounds. If anyone ever cares to know something about Special Operations personnel, I strongly suggest you befriend a REAL one (not a member of the 100+ Divisions of Posers and Liars) or go see your local recruiter and take one of the ultimate tests to see if you qualify. Just my opinion based on my experiences. Larry | |||
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SFRanger, I prefaced my post with the statement that I have the "utmost respect for our military", and I do. But a bunch of the original post is just ........so far off my experience..... that it needed questioning IMHO. When it comes to "pure accuracy" the standard ( at least for me ) is the Benchrest crowd, I don't see how it could be different.... The game is just "pure accuracy". A Sniper or military member has a MUCH wider purview than PURE accuracy! All the points you made are 100% correct.
In short....IF......this is the "Green Beret" final say on copper cleaning. I think they either need better barrels for accuracy.......nah......there are just too many inconsistancies in the original post... | |||
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SF Ranger, Excellent comment!! Thanks. | |||
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I think you watch too much TV. Most of the serious shooters here have been handloading and messing with rifles decades before any of today's SF, Seals, Rangers or other beret wearers were born. No matter what they know about shooting people it does not transfer into knowledge about handloading for accuracy or baby sitting fouled rifle barrels. | |||
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SR4759: You are basing your opinion on your personal experience, the posting of what one alleged Green Beret stated works for him and what appears to be your absolute zero knowledge of Special Operations, the equipment they have access to or the training they go through. I respect opinions until they are expressed about something that the opinionated expert obviously knows nothing about. I watch too much TV? Your 10037 post suggests that you may spend just a little too much time on the internet rather than actually putting all of your experience to use. Seriously, if you are that good, "those beret wearers" hire civilian experts all of the time. You should bag you one of those big contracts and mentor and train them poor young fools. But keep in mind, just because you have been doing it for years does not actually mean you are any good at it. I have 40+ years playing basketball and the Spurs still haven't called me! With all of my experience, I have to be better than those whippersnappers they have playing now. By the way, the posted information by pigmaster's from the "Green Beret" in question goes against everything I learned before I ever entered the military, my personal experiences, and everything that is taught in those military schools and units you appear to know so much about. That information appears to be referring to how a CQB (close quarters battle) rifle gets treated. My opinions are based on being one of "those people" and a very limited 40+ years of shooting and reloading. I will never claim to know as much as some people on this forum. It would really limit my ability to be opened minded enough to learn anything else. | |||
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Totally different equipment between a sniper and a benchrester. I would have to think that a sniper would have to work up loads on a range under somewhat controlled conditions. He could shoot his best group and a benchrester could shoot a group inside his, probably into one of his bullet holes. But equipment differences are a huge factor here. Field conditions only exist after the sniper has developed a good working load for his weapon and field conditions are quite different for a sniper and a benchrester.  The only easy day is yesterday! | |||
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I didn't see any reference to bench rest accuracy by the OP. That's a pursuit far different from what most of us strive to achieve. We're looking for consistent accuracy capable of hitting our intended target at a range we feel comfortable with, which appears to be pretty much what snipers desire, though at somewhat longer range than most hunters. Bench rest isn't generally applicable to "real world" shooting, with its "space guns", fancy rests & truly anal ammunition preparation. | |||
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Oddie- The title of the post...."Green Berets have final word on copper fouling"....... If this information ACTUALLY came from a Green Beret......I have to think that they must not "have the final word on copper fouling".
Here we must agree to disagree. I think it is......especially the varmint shooting. Benchrest shooters give us all kinds of information and improvements in accuracy all the time. I learn a bunch from them and apply it as it best fits my needs. Heck most all of our custom barrel makers competed in Benchrest shooting and decided they could make a product better than what was then available. | |||
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Bore Tech Cu+2 Copper Remover, period. Use it after you think you have a clean bore, and you will be surprised. | |||
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Observation and Question: Can snipers/SO riflemen rely on having a supply of custom-loaded ammo in the field? I would guess that some standardization would be a practical necessity. Perhaps SFRanger can answer. | |||
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Sorry, Shilen has never offered a 3 groove barrel. | |||
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Larry, I certainly agree with you. I shoot benchrest and it ain't the same as shooting a person. | |||
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Pigmaster is Larry Root. Just put him on ignore. ____________________________________________ "Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchett. | |||
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Im sure most if not all hear have heard of a barrel maker that go's by the name of Gean Schillan sorry if i spelled that wrong. He is well known for and famious for saying 9 of 10 rifle barrels are damaged, wrecked, and otherwise condemed to a much earlior grave by improper cleaning and over cleaning. The makers of "Butches Bore Shine" products also has stated in written print that you shouls almost never remove all the copper fouling in a barrel as the copper fills in imperfections and basicly gives the barrel a more uniform surface VS a 100% clean barrel. | |||
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There is no right or wrong here, its just mostly opinnion and the individual gun..I've done it both ways and both seem to work... I have ended up, after many years of try and test, cleaning the copper out once, twice or even 3 times a year depending on caliber and use and using a bore snake with Rem oil on the brush the rest of the year, with most of the guns I have owned. Copper build up can cause inaccuracy in some rifles, and a clean barrel can do the same in some rifles.. I just treat each of my rifles differently. I have not cleaned my 30-06 but once in 40 years and it took 200 or so rounds to get it shooting its 1/2 inch groups again..My old 308 Savage needs cleaning with at least a bore snake every 50 or so rounds. I never clean a gun during hunting season, it can change the POI for one thing and I don't want to mess with it for another..I may pass a bore snake thu the barrel at the end of the hunt. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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Bench rest shooters fire from a "fouled" barrel. Each match has a period for "fouling shots" for a reason. A bare bore will shoot differently than one with a few shots through it. A clean bore is important - both to the life of the barrel and to accuracy but - and this is the important part - Shooting from a "fouled" bore is more consistent than firing from a bare bore. No match shooter has the time or desire to clean his gun in the middle of a match. The bench-resters that I have known lap their bores by hand before shooting them and then clean with patches and a stainless coil swab occasionally. (no bristles sticking out) Speer, Sierra, Lyman, Hornady, Hodgdon have reliable reloading data. You won't find it on so and so's web page. | |||
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Well PaulS, I guess you haven't met me. | |||
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I don't believe we have met - are you the same Butch that operates Shadetree Engineering and accuracy? Speer, Sierra, Lyman, Hornady, Hodgdon have reliable reloading data. You won't find it on so and so's web page. | |||
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Yes Sir. | |||
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PaulS, you have been hangin' around a different bunch of benchrest shooters than me. I have never seen a serious BR shooter use a SS cleaning coil of any kind. As for lapping their barrels, I know one who uses JB Bore clean for 200 strokes, before he ever has the barrel chambered. That may work for him but I prefer to let the barrel maker do the lapping for me. NRA Patron Life Member Benefactor Level | |||
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Just came from Ft Sill to congradulate my son for Graduation. You are right, there are two discussions going on here, one is apples and the other is oranges. Military Marksmanship knowlege is a culmination of mountians of experience over a period of many years and it is an entirely different world than benchrest shooting. And it is always evolving through slow, carefully adopted changes and therefore there is no "final word". In short, they know their business and I have the utmost respect for such knowlege. Ive had many discussions with my son reguarding his Marksmanship training and it is extremly effective. Thank you for your service.  AK-47 The only Communist Idea that Liberals don't like. | |||
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JB will never lapp a barrel no mater how many strokes you use it ________________________________________________ Maker of The Frankenstud Sling Keeper Proudly made in the USA Acepting all forms of payment | |||
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You are right Ted, but I don't think DocEd is advocating that. | |||
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I for one, have never understood the reason for paying good money for a "State of the Art" match grade barrel, or any well made barrel for that matter, and then feel like it can be improved upon by jamming a rod down the bore repeatedly. Perhaps the magical abrasive compound with only effect to "bad" portions of the bore that need improving. Perhaps it is in an effort to keep your arm and grip in shape?  Rusty We Band of Brothers! DRSS, NRA & SCI Life Member "I am rejoiced at my fate. Do not be uneasy about me, for I am with my friends." ----- David Crockett in his last letter (to his children), January 9th, 1836 "I will never forsake Texas and her cause. I am her son." ----- Jose Antonio Navarro, from Mexican Prison in 1841 "for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Arbroath April 6, 1320-“. . .It is not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.” | |||
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Butch, you are correct on your assumption. I was just making the point that this subject keeps popping up and there never seems to be a definitive answer. There is certainly no rock solid proof that any one method is the best. From "Green Berets" to HOF BR shooters, and everywhere in between, there are opinions and theories and no one can prove anything. What works for one does not always work for the other. NRA Patron Life Member Benefactor Level | |||
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HAHAHA--this is a funny thread! Only remove copper as stated by the OP is a pant load. Get a bore scope it DOES NOT LIE!! It is layered in! | |||
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Wow, what an interesting thread so far, but I really do not see the controversy. As a long time shooter, F-Class mostly, I would never begin a match for score on a bare, clean bore. Nor would I begin a match on a cold, clean bore. Nor has my life depended on a cold bore shot to kill my target before it killed me. So when you consider that our military depends on the odd cold bore shot hitting their massive man sized target at 300 to 500 yards (of course you could hide two men behind a typical 600 - 1000 yard target), I do not find it at all odd that they do not attempt to do so on a cold, clean bore. If I was tasked to hitting a 1,000 yard target and was given the option to do so on a cold clean bore or a cold fouled bore, I would take door number 2 all day long - but I would much prefer a nice warm, fouled bore any day along with a couple of ranging shots for good measure. When hunting, I never take a shot on an animal with a cold, clean bore either. I don't have any problems with routinely cleaning and removing copper, but I have seen more firearms screwed up from over cleaning than under cleaning. I believe the average shooter has become a little too OCD in the cleaning cleaning. Now, in regards to the benchrest guys, well, we all know they are a superstitious lot - you're never going to change their mind and/or habits. ___________________ Just Remember, We ALL Told You So. | |||
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Not one thing you said refuted anything I said. There is nothing about their operations that change the physics or chemistry of what goes on in a barrel. If the beret wears hire civilians all the time then by definition the beret wearers are using someone else's ability as a crutch. Just because you work for the government does not mean you are any more intelligent than Obama. Find a Teas Chart of polar and non-polar solvents and try to explain it to me. I don't think you will be able to handle it bubba.
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That is pure baloney bubba. You cannot admit the truth because you are an incompetent bag of hot air that knows nothing about chemistry, physics or metallurgy. Try working as an engineer 40 years then comeback and tell me how much you know. When you were in you had who on speed dial? That just means you are a baby. When most of us learned to shoot there was no Dillon, Midway or Sinclair. Dillon is hardly an fount of knowledge about accuracy or rifle barrels. Midway is an online retailer - no great knowledge there. Sinclair is a little more involved in accuracy but not so much they would teach anyone anything unless they/you are ignorant to begin with.
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How do you only remove carbon & powder fouling when it is layerd with copper a well? I have found that 100 round of shooting over a few sessions can have 4 or 5 layer of copper & carbon fouling. "When the wind stops....start rowing. When the wind starts, get the sail up quick." | |||
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Simple---Iosso Paste. This is the one of the best shooters and builders on the plant. Read and learn. Lot of BS on this thread lol.. BTW Speedy is the one who showed me the way to use Iosso--stuff is awesome. S.G. & Y. PRECISION RIFLES, LLC - BARREL BREAK-IN & CLEANING PROCEDURES - Many of our customers upon taking delivery of their new gun or barrel are in a quandary as how to go about breaking-in that new barrel for maximum life and accuracy. With so much written in magazines these days stating use this, don’t use that, brush, don’t brush...what’s a person to do?? At S.G. & Y. Precision, we have a unique opportunity to inspect many barrels on a daily basis with our video borescope. Consequently, we see the results of a variety of break-in as well as cleaning procedures, and most of them leave the rifle owners with their mouth agape when they see the fruits of their misinformed labor on our bore scopes color monitor. We have seen practically new barrels ruined with less than a hundred rounds shot through them by some of the crazy and sometimes humorous break-in methods employed. Anyway here goes for what it’s worth. SPEEDY’S RULES FOR PROPER RIFLE HYGIENE & BREAK-IN A. Bore guides: 1st Rule of Thumb: If the brush will go through it, it’s too damn big! 2nd Rule of Thumb: If you don’t have one, get one! Without a good bore guide, you are just wasting your time trying to break-in a barrel or cleaning it for that matter. More barrels are destroyed or severely damaged and life shortened by cleaning without a proper bore guide than by shooting. There are many types and brands of bore guides available on the market and range in price from $5.00 to $50.00. The only one we recommend is the Lucas two-piece bore guide (see picture below). They are the best insurance you can buy for that new barrel. All other bore guides in my opinion are only good for one thing, keeping the solvents out of the trigger and action (refer to rule #1]. A LUCAS bore guide id made up of two sections. One is a guide similar to most available on the market. What sets the Lucas apart from the rest is its smaller second guide which has a hole reamed just large enough to for the rod to pass through it. This section then slips into the main and keeps the cleaning rod centered in the bore no matter how you bend the rod up and down or side to side. Order from: Mike Lucas Phone: (803) 356-0282 (Tues., Wed., and Thurs., 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST.) Please use E-mail if possible. 225 Browns River Road Lexington, SC 29072 Email: lucasmjb@windstream.net B. Solvents: There are three solvents we recommend they are as follows: 1) SWEETS 7.62 Sweets is used in our in our cleaning procedures only as a bore lubricant prior to pushing the brush through the barrel. Sweets is composed of mostly large soap molecules similar to household dishwashing detergents. Because of the lubricity provided by the soap in the sweets it allows the brush to easily slide through the bore on its first pass. Not to mention removing all of the loose powder and carbon residue left in the barrel prior to cleaning. NOTE: Sweets can also be used in extreme cases of copper fouling. The procedure in this worst case scenario is as follows. A) Brush the barrel with Sweets (Kiss brush good-bye). B) Let bore soak 5 to 10 minutes (No Longer on Chrome Molly Barrels. Sweets and CM don’t get along very well together for very long). C) Now soak a patch with HYDROGEN PEROXCIDE and very, very slowly push it through the bore. A chemical reaction will take place between the Ammonia in the Sweets and the Hydrogen Peroxide causing all copper to go into suspension as the reaction takes place. The muzzle of your rifle will look as if it has rabies as the patch slowly nears the crown and you see all of the foaming reaction that is taking place. The blue green colors you see as the patch exits the barrel will amaze you. D) Inspect the bore after you patch it out with Butches, by placing a Q-Tip just inside the crown. This will light up the bore and allow you to check for any remaining copper. If there are still traces of copper a second application will usually finish the job. E) At this point you should clean the barrel a described below. If the barrels is chrome molly, we recommend that it be put up using SPEEDY’S FORMULA also described below. The black powder solvent portion of the formula will protect the bore from any rusting or pitting as it does black powder flintlocks or cap & ball long rifles. 2) BUTCHES BORE SHINE Throughout the years we have tried every type of solvent there is known to man and then some you don’t even want to hear about. But none have ever done as good a job as Butches Bore Shine. Used on a regular basis Butches will keep even the largest overbore barrel as clean as the day it was chambered. 3) SPEEDY’S FORMULA The Speedy Formula is used for the protection of the bore when putting a firearm up for the season or prolonged storage. For those of you poor souls that do not have Butches Bore Shine available to them this solvent is a very good second choice. This was the best we had found up to the advent of Butches. SPEEDY’S FORMULA is made up as follows: Mix 2/3 rd.s . Hoppes No. 9 Plus Black Powder Solvent with 1/3rd. Regular Hoppes No. 9 Nitro Solvent. Let this mixture set overnight and it will form a sort of gel that adheres very well to the brush and cuts powder fouling to a minimum. C. Procedure for “Break-in”: Although we at S.G. & Y. Precision Rifles feel an extensive break-in procedure is not necessary for the custom barreled rifles we build, since that all have a lapped finish in them. The procedure probably has some merit when applied to a factory barreled rifle that has an as machined finish from the factory and no lapped bore surface at all. Custom barrels are lapped to impart a finish to the bore that will produce as little copper fouling as possible through out the length of the barrel. Before firing that first round through the barrel, we will clean the barrel as if it had been shot by following these simple steps. Step 1) Insert Lucas bore guide into receiver and chamber. If you don’t have one, STOP here and get one! If not, just shoot your gun and forget trying to take any care of your barrel at all. If you do have one, proceed, and give yourself one “At-A-Boy” for being astute enough to have purchased the proper tools for the job. NOTE: One “Aw-Sh*t” wipes out all “At-A-Boys”. Step 2) Run one wet patch of Sweets through the bore and let soak for approximately 30 seconds. Do not patch this out. Remember this is going to serve as our lubricant for the brush as we push it down the bore for the first time. Try this dry and you will see why we apply the Sweets. The sound coming from your barrel as you run a dry brush through it resembles that of stepping on a cat’s tail while wearing your wife’s high heel shoes. Not a pretty picture (unless you’ve shaved your legs recently). Step 3) Next, run the brush through the lubricated barrel only enough to expose the entire brush as it exits the muzzle. Yes, I know that you still have 12 more inches of cleaning rod you could push out the end of your barrel but we want to protect that new crown. Also, if that rod hangs out that far, you will eventually start wearing down the rifling at the crown from about 4 to 7 o’clock. This is very bad “JU-JU” for accuracy. Plus we get to make an extra $40 when you need to re-crown the puppy. OK, back to our Step 3. Once the brush is exposed, saturate it well with our Butches Bore Shine or Speedy’s Formula and SLOWLY run the brush through the bore 10 complete back and forth passes while keeping the rod as straight as possible. This is where the Lucas bore guide really pays for itself! Remember, the key word is slowly. We are not trying to break any land speed records today. Let this sit a minute or two and proceed to the next step. Step 4) After you have let the barrel soak for a few moments, saturate a patch with the Butches Bore Shine or Speedy’s Formula and pass it through the bore. Follow this with 2 dry patches and then with a chamber mop or patch wrapped around a brush on a short cleaning rod, dry the “CHAMBER” of the barrel with Brake Kleen or lighter fluid. NOTE: We wrote “DRY THE CHAMBER” not the bore of the barrel. Next, gently wipe the crown off with a soft cloth or patch and lube your bolt (let’s not gall the lugs just yet). Now, you’re ready to shoot your first shot. NOTE: THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDURE IS PRESCRIBED FOR FACTORY BARRELS. I DO NOT FEELTHAT CUSTOM LAPPED BARRELS BENEFIT FROM AN EXTENDED BREAK-IN PERIOD.I CLEAN THE BARREL ONCE BEFORE IT IS EVER FIRED, SHOOT ONE SHOT, CLEAN AGAIN AND THEN GO ABOUT MY LOAD DEVELOPMENT PROCESS. MY MENTOR PAT McMILLAN ONCE MADE A STATEMENT THAT HAS HELD TRUE OVER THE YEARS THAT IS “THAT A BARREL IS EITHER GOING TO SHOOT & NOT FOUL, OR FOUL AND NOT SHOOT!” EVERY GOOD BARREL I HAVE EVER SHOT HAS PROVEN THIS STATEMENT TO BE TRUE. Then for factory barrels follow the schedule below to complete your barrel break-in. 1. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 1 shot. 2. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 5 shots. 3. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 10 shots. 4. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 10 to 15 shots and clean again. 5. You’re done! If you did this without the correct bore guide call me for a new barrel! D. Additional Cleaning Tips: 1. Each time you clean your rifle, you may wish follow the last dry patch through the bore with a patch soaked with LOCK-EEZ if the bore felt a bit too dry as you passed that last patch through it prior to drying the chamber. This is a graphite powder suspended in a quick evaporating carrier that coats the bore slightly before passing that first round through a completely dry bore. LOCK-EZZ is available at S.G. & Y. Precision Products and most NAPA stores around the country. 2. We are always asked about POWDER FOULING and how to remove it. The only product that we have seen that really does a good job on powder fouling, especially on the carbon ring that forms just ahead of where the neck ends in the chamber, is IOSSO Bore Paste. This is used with an IOSSO BLUE NYLON bristle brush and worked slowly in the neck and throat areas, then slowly down the entire bore. Follow this up with a few wet patches of IOSSO Gun Oil or Butches Bore Shine. Then patch out the bore as if you had brushed as usual, and you’re again ready to shoot. E. Follow the outline above and make it your regular cleaning program and I promise that your barrels will deliver their greatest potential accuracy and extend their life without a lot of grief and hours of wondering if they are clean. Good Shooting, Speedy GonzalezSpeedy Gonzalez Speedy Gonzalez Speedy Gonzalez S.G. & Y. PRECISIION RIFLES, LLC Cell: 972-672-6630 speedy.godzilla@msn.co | |||
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