What is the best way to clean all the copper fouling out of a barrel and to finish cleaning?

Either Shooters Choice or Butches Bore Shine. Wet patches till clean. Brass brush wet with whatever you are using, one stroke in and out for each shot taken. Wet petches till clean, let soak for 15 minutes or so, if another wet patch comes out with no blue on it your done. Dry patch 2 or 3 times and a light film of oil. If there is blue on last wet patch, repeat. Pain in the butt but you will be clean when done. Good luck. If barrel has not been cleaned properly for a while, it may take a couple of cycles but after that you just need maintanance cleaning which normally consists of one cycle of the above.

Wipe-Out. No better method than that. Period.

Blob,

I do as b beyer outlined, but one thing to watch is that no matter how clean the barrel is, when you use a brass brush to scrub it with products like Shooters Choice or Butches Bore Shine, your patches will come out tinged in blue/green. I think the solvent attacks the brass brush and you get contamination from that...

What I usually do is switch to a nylon brush once I am fairly sure things should be clean, and then run your solvent soaked patches through after that and any sign of green indicates genuine copper fouling not "contamination"..
Regards,

Pete

Sorry Pete, I should have mentioned that. No sense chasing fouling that isn't there.

quote:

Originally posted by Blob1:
What is the best way to clean all the copper fouling out of a barrel and to finish cleaning?

Another vote for Wipe-Out

Darnedest thing I've ever used!

Only down side is that it can remove some stock finishs.

A little care when using it will prevent any problems.

Sweets 7.62 solvent and Barnes CR-10 are two of the best copper removers, followed up with JB bore paste.
bigbull

Another vote for WipeOut. If you start using this stuff you'll throw all your brushes away. I still don't understand why more people don't use it. Takes me an average of 5 minutes per gun to clean. Unbelievable stuff.

Geronimo

Isn't JB paste an abrasive?
Any cleaning is very subjective, some of you
Yanks with your 223 autos shooting 1500 rounds
a session, well?
If I fire two shots from my 223 BA, a swab or two with Hoppies, muzzel down on rag till next day(s) couple of wipes with dry rag and thats it. It even gets out copper if your not in a hurry, but unlike Butch's, Sweets etc I think
it also helps prevent rust.
The problem (I reckon) with say B.Beyer's method above is that these chemicals can/may need a little more time to work, so why swab/scrub so often, using up goop/time/effort etc.
If I'm using sweets on my barrel that collects
copper, 15 minutes is minium soak time. Once
when I got mad at it, it copped a week of the
stuff, with booster swabs in between.
Mostly a soak overnight with Hoppies gets the copper (and Powder) out.
But I've noticed that a tight patch,on an old bronze brush, dragged back thru the bore can often get out more carbon stuff.
Then when I think it's clean, a wipe with G96 on
a rag will still come out a bit dirty.
But it doesen't seem so good to use first.
If I get one clean and don't intend to use it for a few days or more a slight amount of G96
triple action should stop rust.
A pro shooter friend of mine used a spray can
of Power clean, apparently made for Mercury outboard upper internal engine cleaning, let it
drain while he slept, couple of wipes with toilet paper, and away he went. He reckons some top benchrest shooters use it.
Similar I guess to GM Top Engine Cleaner (chevy) that someone mentioned on the net somewhere.
Ed's red seemed useless to me, on copper.
JL

Wipe Out!! The easiest way I know.

WIPEOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lyle

Wipe out blew me away! After talking to thier rep on the tele he said take the wipe out challenge. Take your cleanest barrel. Fill it with wipe out and leave it overnight. Then look at the first patch. I had cleaned out that barrel with Butches, shooter's choice and Kroil. Still the patch came out blue as lake Louise. Wipe out is the most amazing stuff. You will not do better. Good hunting.

Don't know if this stuff has reached Australia
yet. "Fill the bore", then what, tip it all out
and waste it? Does it do copper,powder,protect?
JL

quote:

Originally posted by JAL:
Don't know if this stuff has reached Australia
yet. "Fill the bore", then what, tip it all out
and waste it? Does it do copper,powder,protect?
JL

It's a foam.

I first clamp the barrel tilted slightly muzzle down in a padded vice, plug the bore with a patch on a cleaning jag from the breech end, force the plastic cone shaped nozzle against the muzzle, and give it a squirt.

You will soon learn how much, just a tad as it expands like crazy.

Let her sit. Over night if the bore is really fouled, 15 minutes is plenty normally.

The just "wipe out the bore and it's clean as a whistle.

It rarely require a second application for the patches to come out clean.

I attached a piece of plastic tubing to my foaming cleaner. I jam the tubing into the chamber of my barrel and there's enough friction to hold it there.
I think hit the button and the foam fills the bore and spits out the muzzle a little.
I just leave the tubing there to pulg up my breech, I find that's the easiest.