There has been lots of talk with Sweets wrecking barrels. So.... I have an old Lakefield 22 barrel, that doesn't fit any gun I own, so I soaked it with Sweets. Everything is covered in Sweets and it is sitting in the garage. We will see what happens to my beloved 22 barrel.

I have used sweets for over 15 years and My rifles have not lost any accuracy in that time period.

Ranger Dave - unless the barrel is submerged in the solvent, corrosion will begin quickly. Ammonia is hygroscopic - it will attract moisture in the air. This will start the oxidation process, a.k.a. corrosion. If you wish to accelerate the process, simply heat the solution past 100 degrees F, it almost happens before your eyes.

If you submerge the barrel in Sweets and seal the container, you could open the container in 12 months with no damage to the metal. Sweets has been tested to death - IF used correctly, no harm can be done to your barrel. Get creative with it (leave it in the barrel or mix solvents) and you will be very sorry.

my local gunsmith say that to clean a really bad barrel you should get a bore mop and push it in just past the chamber and then position the gun with the barrel towards the ground. Then you should unscrew the cleaning rod and leave the bore mop at that position and pour a little sweets above the bore mop and let it slowly leak through the bore mop and down the barrel. I'm not sure how much oxygen can get to "the mix" but I think this theory has merit. BUT then along comes "wipeout" solvent and I think it's pretty good. I look forward to your test of the Sweets.
I personally don't think the world is about to rust away before your eyes. THANK YOUR FOR YOUR EFFORTS IN THE TEST!! Looking forward to the results.

Fred Sinclair offers chamber plugs in just about all C/F cartridges. They have a silicone o-ring to keep the solvent out of the action.

If I remember correctly, he does not advise using them with Sweet's. They are fine with CR-10, Shooter's Choice, Hoppe's, etc. They also work well with the electronic bore cleaner (using an eraser on the end of the anode).

Well I checked the barrel every hour last night until I got tired and went to bed.
The barrel was left as in on the muzzle end(no sweets or anything). The tip of the muzzle was treated with sweets and after an hour wiped with Hoppes oil. It also rained last night so humidity was high. Temp was 20C when started a went down to 11C last night.

After an hour both side looked the same.
2hrs looked the same.
3hrs I looked at both side with a 10X mag glass. Could not see any damage, pitting, etc on either side. So put a new coat of Sweets on the barrel.
4hrs the same
5hrs I started noticing some rust starting on both sides. Sweets side was slightly worse. I needed the 10X to note the difference. I went to bed.
12hrs both had rust. Sweets was harder on the blueing. The rust could be taken off with steel wool so it wasn't heavy.

The barrel look great. I'm guess there was still so lead in the barrel from 22 bullets. I'll cut it in 2 tonight and look.

The muzzle tip looks like it did at the begining of the test.