Should I be using a Copper remover?

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QuietMike

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I have been cleaning my guns with m-pro7 cleaner for a long time, but I see all these separate products for removing copper from the barrel,
I don't see any bullet jacket colored residue in my glock barrel, but i do see what i beleive is the jacket residue in my regular rifled barrels.
I shoot fmj bullets like these, Doesn't say what the jacket actually is

Should i be employing a copper cleaning step when i clean the barrels?
and also, should I use only a nylon brush with the copper remover, I heard it will eat the bronze brushes/ give you false readings.
 
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I've never used a copper specific cleaning agent for handguns, but I used to for rifles. To me it's not worth the effort in the long run unless maybe you are a benchrest shooter and want to squeak out every last 10th of an inch from your groups? I dunno.

Many moons ago I would use Sweets 7.62 on my M1917 Eddystone Enfield to remove every last bit of copper residue after a range session. The directions must be followed explicitly to prevent harm to the bore. With Sweets I did not use a brush of any type, just applied with a patch, allow to sit for the recommended timeframe and swab out with a dry patch. It has a very powerful ammonia odor and it would take an average of several days to completely remove all jacket residue down to bare steel.

Copper fouling from contemporary jacketed bullets is pretty benign to my shooting (especially handguns) so whatever comes out with regular cleaning (Hoppes No. 9 for me) is it and the rest stays. Just not worth it for me.
 
There are a lot of firearms damaged by overcleaning and probably more than damaged by insufficient cleaning. On handguns, the fouling is easy enough to see visually so when you do see enough then clean up.

Rifles are more complicated due to bore length but generally visual inspection with bore lights and when accuracy suddenly falls off are good indicators that you need to look at tougher cleaners for the bore. Lead fouling can at times make it look like the barrel is gleaming but generally the gleaming will be uneven unless grossly fouled where almost no rifling can be seen.
 
I asked Frank White of Compass Lake Engineering of his opinion's and experiences. The discussion was at Camp Perry and it was during highpower rifle Frank had customers who had match rifles in which the barrel accuracy deteriorated badly. These were not high mileage barrels. Frank said he examined the throats with a bore scope and said he could see impacted crud that would not dissolve with chemical cleaners. It took a session with JB Bore paste to remove the crud, but once removed, the barrels again shot well. JB Bore paste is an abrasive so it should be used sparing, I was using it every 500 rounds. I did find that on high mileage barrels the zero changed radically after JB Bore pasting, and it took a couple to three shots for the barrel to foul and settle in.

Pistol barrels, I am of the opinion that unless you can visually see a lead or copper fouling build up, (looking like lumps) it is un necessary to use JB Bore paste. Les Baer sells 1911's with a two inch at 50 yard guarantee, that is a very difficult standard for any pistol, but if you can't shoot two inches at 100 yards with a decent bolt gun, you are a piker or your rifle is garbage The accuracy standards between rifles and pistols are quite different.

There are some Master Class Bullseye shooters who pass a cleaning rod with a brush/patch every ten rounds through their 45 ACP's. When I asked, they said they had seen test data that cleaning that frequently made a difference in accuracy. Well, I can't hold that hard, so I will shoot 180 rounds through my 1911 with no barrel cleaning and my shotgun patterns are hardly changed at the end of a 2700 match.

I am starting to shoot Expert scores with the 1911, so I have improved. :D
 
I bought a bottle of Hoppes copper solvent. I use it very infrequently on my handguns. Every now and then isn’t a bad thing depending on how much you shoot.
 
Should I use only a nylon brush with the copper remover, I heard it will eat the bronze brushes/ give you false readings.

True. An aluminum jag won’t. I don’t apply de-coppering agents with a brush.

Should I be employing a copper cleaning step when I clean the barrels?

If the copper becomes a problem, such as failing accuracy, and your cleaning solution doesn’t remove it, yes. Clean it out of there.

Some bores don’t copper as badly as others. Some will fling shots wildly when too far dirty.
Handguns don’t tend to foul like rifles do, but if it’s unclean, make it so.
 
I recently discovered a product called KG 12 Copper Remover. It is a non-toxic product that recommends nylon brushes only. Used properly, It is very easy and works magically to produce gleaming barrels. I shoot prairie dogs and can burn 300-500 rounds thru my .223. or .204 in a couple of days. During the hunt, I run a bore snake thru the barrel every 100 rounds or so, then clean the barrel thoroughly after every hunt. Subsequent to cleaning, each rifle requires 3-4 rounds to "foul" the barrel after cleaning to restore accuracy. In my experience, this assures reliable accuracy.
 
I'm lately impressed with ProShot Copper Solvent IV. It's cheating-easy, and faster than anything else I've found.
 
As a sniper instructor, our rifles and more so the rifles the students used were subject to high round counts. During a course, we taught them how to use sweet's copper remover during the cleaning and maintenance class day 1. This would remove copper from the previous class and give a graphic example of what it looked like. After the first and second phases of training (advanced marksmanship and sniper marksmanship) they would remove copper in their bores as taught. Third phase was the last phase of the 6-7 week course, which ended with the students doing a basic cleaning for turn-in, but would omit the copper removal process. I estimate each phase would each entail around 1,000 rounds of M118 LR.
 
Have been "cleaning" rifle barrels since the mid '50's....I thought.....until obtaining a bore scope, which renewed my search for a better mouse trap. Tested all the regular cleaners I had come to trust and settled on two step application of Tactical Advantage. 10-12 strokes w/stiff nylon brush and let 2nd application soak several hours.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/testing-tactical-advantage-iosso-nylon-brush-on-new-factory-barrel.856665/#post-1124061

Manufacturer calls it brushless, but brush speeds up the tough jobs.
https://sharpshootr.com/tactical advantage/

Regards,
hps
 
Rifle barrel cleaning and pistol barrel cleaning are just totally different animals. I defer to the greater expertise of others on rifle barrel cleaning regimens, as I just dabble in long guns.

As for typical pistol barrels, here's how much you need to clean them: Only as much as needed. And here's how much is needed for most pistol barrels that aren't shooting bare/lubed lead: Basically none.

In USPSA competition, it is typical for higher-level shooters to go tens of thousands of rounds without cleaning the bore. You have to clean the chamber to make sure rounds drop in freely. You obviously have to clean the slide-frame interface to keep that running smoothly. You have to clean the trigger and hammer/sear mechanisms to keep them nice and slick. You don't really ever have to clean the bore itself.

I will detail strip one of my competition pistols down to a bare frame and slide and clean all of the innards as clean as I can get them with q-tips... and never do more than just squirt some CLP down the bore and run a patch (or a scrap of paper towel) down it. Truly cleaning a pistol barrel is wear-inducing and risky. In my opinion, it's like doing exploratory surgery as a part of a routine physical... the risks and harms far, far, far outweigh the benefits.
 
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