When I first starting cleaning my firearms, the instructions always said to clean until the patch comes out clean. Which to me means white.
This advice must have come from the patch manufacturers as you can go through a pile of patches trying to get a white patch.
I only think bore cleanliness is important with my match rifles. Basically for all firearms I run a patch of GI Bore cleaner (a powder solvent), run a copper bristle brush 10 times, and then swap out the nasty cleaner. Might run another wet patch through just to make sure all powder traces are gone.
That’s about it for bore cleaning, if the barrel looks bright, if the cylinders look bright, it is clean. If it looks clean, it is clean.
For match rifles about every 300 rounds I will run a patch with JB bore paste. I can feel a slight tightness near the throat, and I think that is imbedded carbon residue that a bristle brush cannot remove. I have been told that it can make a difference on target, but I don't know when, and I don't want to find out during a match.
On handguns, I will shoot out leading with a JHP and have never tried to remove copper fouling. If it is not lumpy, I figure it is not doing any harm. All my handguns shoot just great.
I have soaked barrels for days with solvents like Sweets, and with a lot of effort you can reach a state where a tight patch comes out white. So what. First shot down range I have coated the insides of the barrel with copper and carbon.
I think the white patch idea is something that goes back to caveman days, and it got carried along by monkey see, monkey do.
Kind of like 3000 mile oil changes, when the car manual says 7500. People just doing what Grandpa did with his Deuce Coup.
This advice must have come from the patch manufacturers as you can go through a pile of patches trying to get a white patch.
I only think bore cleanliness is important with my match rifles. Basically for all firearms I run a patch of GI Bore cleaner (a powder solvent), run a copper bristle brush 10 times, and then swap out the nasty cleaner. Might run another wet patch through just to make sure all powder traces are gone.
That’s about it for bore cleaning, if the barrel looks bright, if the cylinders look bright, it is clean. If it looks clean, it is clean.
For match rifles about every 300 rounds I will run a patch with JB bore paste. I can feel a slight tightness near the throat, and I think that is imbedded carbon residue that a bristle brush cannot remove. I have been told that it can make a difference on target, but I don't know when, and I don't want to find out during a match.
On handguns, I will shoot out leading with a JHP and have never tried to remove copper fouling. If it is not lumpy, I figure it is not doing any harm. All my handguns shoot just great.
I have soaked barrels for days with solvents like Sweets, and with a lot of effort you can reach a state where a tight patch comes out white. So what. First shot down range I have coated the insides of the barrel with copper and carbon.
I think the white patch idea is something that goes back to caveman days, and it got carried along by monkey see, monkey do.
Kind of like 3000 mile oil changes, when the car manual says 7500. People just doing what Grandpa did with his Deuce Coup.
