I have used "Wipe Out" foaming bore cleaner and like what it does for a barrel. I notice there are several other foam cleaners out there now that might be more widely distributed.


Have any of you tried them? Good . . . Bad I am sure this group will have OPINIONS.

I used WipeOut recently on several of my cleaned weapons, which were cleaned with a strong copper remover such as CR-10. I still got some blue color out of the barrel. What really shocked me was the ease of use of this stuff. There's no scrubbing, just getting the foam in the bore and letting the chemical action do the job. I told my brother about this stuff. He loves shooting his rifles, but hates cleaning them. I have become a believer ... Tom Purdom

I've used both "Wipe-Out" and the Finnish produced "Forrest Boar Foam" extensivly. And they both seem to work the same to me. I usually find that in a dirty barrel, it can take 2 applications to get the barrel totally clean. And both foams usually need to be left for some hours (or even overnight) to work the best.

FWIW, Wipe-Out stings my skin a little if I get any on my hands and don't wash it off right away. Forrest Boar Foam does not. Not that it really matters.

Ps. I find that the foams don't always get out carbon gunk, even though they work well on copper fouling. So I use other traditional nitro solvents to get the carbon stuff out.

I use Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner, and it seems to work well. I usually put it in and let it there for several hours, then wipe it out with a clean patch, and then repeat the operation. About three applications tends to do the job, so that after the last application, patches are not coming out blue.

I'm always worried that this stuff may leave a bad residue in the bore, so after using the foam, I follow up by using several applications of Butch's Bore Shine. I then wipe it out with several clean patches.

Do not let Wipe Out touch the finish of your wood stock. You will not like the results.

quote:

Originally posted by HP Shooter:
Do not let Wipe Out touch the finish of your wood stock. You will not like the results.

Amen to that one! That stuff made the top of my work bench blacker than coal.

I tried Wipe-Out and I have to say that I don’t really see the savings in time or work. Like a previous poster mentioned, it doesn’t work all that well on carbon so you have to do the normal cleaning routine anyway. I also don’t believe that the tiny amount of copper that may be left by Sweets or the others is going to make a bit of difference in accuracy.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick 0311:

quote:

Originally posted by HP Shooter:
Do not let Wipe Out touch the finish of your wood stock. You will not like the results.

Amen to that one! That stuff made the top of my work bench blacker than coal.

I tried Wipe-Out and I have to say that I don’t really see the savings in time or work. Like a previous poster mentioned, it doesn’t work all that well on carbon so you have to do the normal cleaning routine anyway. I also don’t believe that the tiny amount of copper that may be left by Sweets or the others is going to make a bit of difference in accuracy.

+1

I tried it on a Garand I bought from the CMP, and was not impressed. That rifle was the one that taught me the effect on Wipe Out on an oil finish, and I decided to use the rest of the can as a wood stripper prior to refinishing the M1's stock.

As far as I am concerned, it is a mostly useless product. Break Free Carbon Cutter for carbon and powder fouling and Iosso bore paste for the copper and really stubborn carbon is all I need. Lube and preserve with CLP, and good to go.

quote:

Originally posted by ErikD:
FWIW, Wipe-Out stings my skin a little if I get any on my hands and don't wash it off right away. Forrest Boar Foam does not. Not that it really matters.

Totally agree, I wear disposable gloves when using WipeOut.

quote:

Ps. I find that the foams don't always get out carbon gunk, even though they work well on copper fouling. So I use other traditional nitro solvents to get the carbon stuff out.

Yup, so do I. First clean the bore to get the powder fouling out, then let the foam sit over night. Still a lot less work than having to endlessly patch copper fouling out with Sweets or whatever.
- mike

In my opinion if you really want to get ALL the copper out wipe-out does it-very simple to use and once you get the hang of it you won't get any on your stock.

I think Wipe-out is a gift from the gun gods. It saves me countless hours cleaning the too many rifles that I tend to shoot.
You have to use a tight fitting bore guide or the stuff will get down into the action it really creeps. As said before you really don't want it on your wood. I also don't use it on gas-guns because of the way it creeps everywhere, but in a std bore it cleans much easier than any other way.
I spray it in and wait 15-30 minutes whatever is convenient while I'm doing something else. I then run 2 or 3 patches through. Respray and wait a couple hours, I then run 2 or 3 more patches through, run a brush with bore-brite on a patch coated brush, 2 or 3 oiled patches to clean out the bore brite and then a dry or lightly oiled patch. This is about 20 less patches than seemed to be required for other decoppering methods and I've tried dozens of different solutions.
The stuff has some idiosyncrasies but is a wonder on most regular rifles...........DJ

My rifles either have hand-lapped match barrels, or they get fire-lapped with Final Finish, so I spend very little time scrubbing copper off because there isn't much to begin with.

This is so very true, good (or even custom) barrels seldomly fowl a lot. At present, I'm blessed with a number of barrels which don't fowl. I still clean them every time I've been to the range - I guess it must be old habit...

- mike

quote:

Originally posted by HP Shooter:
My rifles either have hand-lapped match barrels, or they get fire-lapped with Final Finish, so I spend very little time scrubbing copper off because there isn't much to begin with.

I agree. I use Krieger, Shilen and Schneider barrels exclusively and I just don’t get allot of copper build up. I use my home made Ed’s Red Formula for regular cleaning and my bores stay clean as a whistle. Every once in awhile I’ll use a bit Sweets in the process.

I`ve been useing Wipe Out for a couple years now and wouldn`t be with out it. I give my bores ( I usually take 3-4 rifles / trip) a squirt when I get back from the range and go about my business until the next day. A quick dry patching followed by a couple of patches with Butches or Hoppe BR and the bore is spotless. The total time spent on them is ~ 30- 45 minutes for all of them. I`ve used Sweets, JBs` Shooters Choice copper remopver and none have been as fast or easy IMO.

quote:

`ve been useing Wipe Out for a couple years now and wouldn`t be with out it. I give my bores ( I usually take 3-4 rifles / trip) a squirt when I get back from the range and go about my business until the next day. A quick dry patching followed by a couple of patches with Butches or Hoppe BR and the bore is spotless. The total time spent on them is ~ 30- 45 minutes for all of them. I`ve used Sweets,

JBs` Shooters Choice copper remopver and none have been as fast or easy IMO.

I absolutely concur

Since when has cleaning a weapon taken all that much time...or been all that troublesome?

Stripping and cleaning weapons also allows the owner to get to know the weapon and gives him a chance to do PM checks while assembling the parts back together and testing the function and safety aspects.

If you read allot of the posts on this forum it is very obvious that an awful lot of owners of rifles would be much better off if they got to know the workings of their rifles a bit better...and there is no way that I am aware of that beats stripping a weapon down, cleaning it, and reassembling it on a regular basis, to get that knowledge.

Perhaps I’m just getting old and remembering those days when cleaning and maintaining firearms was considered a part of owning, using, and enjoying them.

NO one here knows how to clean a rifle.No mention is made on what type of caliber one is shooting,molly bullets,type of bullets etc...Ask me and I'll tell you.You got to use both mechanical and chemical methods.How will you remove the copper if it is covered with a layer of molly then carbon and then powder?Answer,remove powder and carbon by softening it with chemical,then removing it with a paste like jb,rem bore clean,etc.The remaing copper can then be removed with a copper solvent or a paste(sweets is very efficient for tough jobs or when shooting large calibers or hunting bullets).In the end you may want to remove gummy oxidation and polish her up real nice with a paste again.There you go,a really clean bore.

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
NO one here knows how to clean a rifle.No mention is made on what type of caliber one is shooting,molly bullets,type of bullets etc...Ask me and I'll tell you.

I think you just won the award for the most arrogant and ignorant post I've seen this year.
Just for your enlightenment Wipe-Out will remove powder fouling and Moly along with the copper. My bores come out mirror bright and I've used a bore scope to examine quite a number of bores cleaned by different methods.

As far as needing to spend more time getting to know my weapons........It seems like there's a certain Freudian error involved there. But I've gotten to where I enjoy shooting more than I like cleaning and I usually learned enough about my rifles when I built them...............DJ

If the shoe doesn’t fit no one said you had to wear it!

nothing works better than wipe out overnight. the only problem i've had is my pac-nor on my 7mm does not like to shoot very well when it's spotless, after about 10-15 rounds it's back to normal.... of course this is coming from an idiot who doesn't know how to clean guns.

DJ, you must have read my mind.

In about 60-odd years of shooting, one of the things I have learned is that any time I meet a person who says "they NEVER", or "such and such IS" (the only way), or any absolute statment about rifle shooting, they probably either haven't done a heck of a lot of it, or they have a mind set which may pass up observing a lot of valuable information.

I think rifle shooting and rifle manufacture are pretty much games of variables, not absolutes, and "variables" means pretty much that, in my experience...things "vary" in different conditions, different rifles, different hands.

I used Hoppe's for the first 25 years, then I started using Jim Sweet's 7.62 cleaner, then for the last two years, I've used wipe-out. It may not do the best for everyone, but it meets my needs, in both benchrest competition and hunting guns.

I like the freedom to just shoot it into the bore in the evening when I come back from the range, and remove it with a patch the next morning. With over 100 rifles to keep clean, I sure don't feel an urgent need need to be disassembling them every time I shoot.

I find that when I have extra time, I like to run a patch with Shooter's Choice or Butch's, followed by a dry patch, through the bore first to remove the loose gunk and the top layer of carbon, but when I am pressed for time, I just shoot in the Wipe-Out and then go on to other business while it works without me.

djpaintles,how will wipe-out remove the stuff?The best bore scope is group size.

Albert, Wasn't it you that still holds a World Record in Benchrest shooting? If so how could you do so well not knowing how to clean a barrel and using Wipe-Out?...... ........DJ

Just blind luck, I guess, DJ.... You know God looks after drunks and damphools....

My name is not Albert but I can wipe-out anybody in shooting.

Oh man, now it's starting to get deep.
I like the various foam bore cleaners. I've used just about all the products people recommend & the WIpeOut type cleaners are definetly easier to use. I get good results w/ JB's, Kroil, Hoppes BR, Sweets, etc. it just takes longer. Fine if you are cleaning one rifle but I take at least three when I'm off to the range & I don't want to spend a day cleaning them when I get home. It does seem to work better if i run a solvent patch down the bore , then a dry patch prior to foaming. COme on guys, play nice.

Rick, and Shootaway... I hear you... yep, stripping and cleaning my rifles again and again will really help me learn the fundamentals of firearms use... 'lift bolt handle, pull back, remove bolt, clean bore... to restore firearm to usable condition, insert bolt, push forward, lower handle,' etc., etc.,.....

Yep, never knew how much I could learn by doing that.

I'm also pleased to have been shown the light about cleaning firearms after doing it quite successfully for more than 40 years (many of those as a marksman in the Army)...

What a Christmas present!! Much wisdom have I learned!!

Might just give the stuff a try... I LOVE shooting, but I HATE cleaning up...

I've heard that many times before,"hell I've been shooting as a child"The truth is you can start shooting today and in three years time beat every record that existed and in the process learn more about shooting a rifle than some one who has been shooting in competition for 30yrs.Look at Gretzky.

Shootaway, I presume that your post is replying to mine...

I shoot 'real world' as distinct from 'armchair' shooting.

I hunt, sometimes with my son, sometimes without.

I still compete in military shoots.

I still qualify as a 'marksman' in military parlance... (it's in the dictionary).

I also happen to have observed that marksmanship comes from what's between the ears of the person using the firearm... much more than what that person is using, or what they clean their firearm with...

Just my observations...

Anyway, I'm gunna try this newfandangled foamy stuff... I can't see how pulling a bolt action rifle apart will help me learn any more than I knew 40+ years ago, but if it makes things easier.... I'll do it...

The best/cheapest copper remover is household ammonia. Plug the chamber, fill the barrel and let it soak. 4 hours is usually plenty.
Dump it, wipe it, then oil the bore to prevent rust. I've used it on chrome-moly and stainless steel barrels to remove copper fouling.

After 40+ years of fiddling with them, I consider myself pretty savvy about guns, reloading, and amatuer gunsmithing. But I've never been able to satisfactorily clean a rifle barrel! Thanks to everyone for all the "tips"; it helps me to know that I'm not alone.

BTW: I do know when NOT to mess with success. I came by an old Savage 99 a couple of years ago that was somewhat neglected. After checking to see that there was nothing as large as a dirt-dobber nest obstructing the bore, I fired a three shot group with factory loads. All three shots fell underneath the two-minute dot of the scope. Then, I handloaded some of my favorite .30/150's, and shot another three-shot group that was smaller than I could theoretically aim. My good friend and companion shooter said "Don't dare clean that barrel"! I concur with his analysis and will shoot the old Savage "as is" for as long as it will perform.

I've also found that cleaning .22 Rimfire bores is a "loosing" proposition. It always takes at least a box or so of shooting to get them "fouled" back to their previous accuracy level.

I use wipe out as per instruction. And repeated the process 3 times. My patches were coming out clean.

I put the guns up for a couple of months.

I recleaned the barrels using Montana Extreme and guess what I found?

More blue patches indicating copper fouling. I must have run 30 more patches through the bore before they started coming out clean.

I have hunted with two of these rifles and shot them numerous times. I expect them to have fouling in them. But when I clean them up for the season I am going to pull a couple of previously cleaned guns out of the safe and try both Wipe out and Montana Extreme in them independently and see if I get any more blue patches. Dan Huffman of Montana Extreme said to plug the barrels during storage with them filled with Montana Extreme. He said the Amonia Oil will not hurt the barrel.
This msy be my next experiment.
Longshot

quote:

Originally posted by rugeruser:
Rick, and Shootaway... I hear you... yep, stripping and cleaning my rifles again and again will really help me learn the fundamentals of firearms use... 'lift bolt handle, pull back, remove bolt, clean bore... to restore firearm to usable condition, insert bolt, push forward, lower handle,' etc., etc.,.....

Yep, never knew how much I could learn by doing that.

I'm also pleased to have been shown the light about cleaning firearms after doing it quite successfully for more than 40 years (many of those as a marksman in the Army)...

What a Christmas present!! Much wisdom have I learned!!

Might just give the stuff a try... I LOVE shooting, but I HATE cleaning up...

I guess if just cleaning the barrel of your bolt action rifle is your idea of maintaining it then you have the perfect cleaning regimen.

My suggestion was for those many posters on here who have rifles that aren’t functioning properly/safely and later find out that parts other than the barrel have accumulated enough gunk to prevent them from working. Just running patches through a bore or squirting the latest fad chemical in there ain’t gone do much for built up residue inside the bolt the locking lug area or trigger/sear.

I love the Outers foaming stuff. I can get it a Wallyworld, but my local gunshop doesn't have it. I like to leave it in at least 8hrs at a pop and it will remove everything. Great product!!

Speaking for myself all of my firearms are meticulously maintained and i know everone of them like the back of my hand-using wipe-out is just one step made easier.

I like to take it to the range. Last shot with the barrel warm I shoot it full of foam. I sit it upside down in the wooden racks with the bolt removed a rag under the muzzel and shoot another rifle. I then follow up with normal cleaning methods once all the foam has ran out. I finish gun#1 while gun #2 is cooling with foam in it. Foam disolves in about 10 minutes, takes about 5 minutes to finish. I come home with a clean gun. All the foams seem to work the same, I bet by the time you use one can of foam you will have saved the money it cost in patches and other cleaners.

A certain few of you need to get a life. I have never used wipe out and haven't had any desire to try it but if it works for those that say it does well for them why blast them for it? There are many different ways to reach similiar results.

quote:

Originally posted by fredj338:
COme on guys, play nice.

Fred you're probably right, when a Troll dangels bait off the bridge maybe it's best to leave it lay, but then again sometimes it's kinda fun to yank the guy into the water.
It was pretty funny to me to hear a guy talk about bore cleaning and small groups to a guy that actually holds a benchrest world record (one of the other posters not me), as well as some of our other members who happen to be the most renowned gunsmiths in the world (again not me but others) .....splash................DJ

What I said is that no one here knows how to clean a rifle.I'll take that back if anyone can put up a technical argument to support this stuff.So far what I've read are things like,"this cleans my gun good",and "yes mine too" djpaintles,I think you're one of those people who believes something is true only if you read it in the paper.

shootaway, ask 10 different bench rest winners how they clean their rifles, then ask 10 barrel makers how they clean their rifles. I'll bet you a Canadian brew none will be identical & all will think their way is best. So, how can you so arrogantly say you have/know/apply the definetive method? Again, gettin way too deep in this thread. Trying to be nice here.