Best way to clean a rifle barrel down to bare metal?

[atek3]

So I have a rifle barrel thats probably pretty caked up with moly and powder fouling. What one or two products that are available at any normal gun shop, should I use to clean it down to bare metal? The barrel is a target barrel so I was told to avoid using brushes...

thanks,
atek3

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

I don't really understand why you cannot use a bore brush on a target barrel. It's not the brush that wears out the barrel. This some type of blackpowder gun?

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

Went to your blog. are you talking about that Tikka? Since when can you not clean a Tikka without a bore brush? You need a bore brush to clean a rifle. There is no other way and if you find one post it.

 

[Wiley]

Were it mine, I would run a patch saturated with Hoppe's 9, Sweets 7.62 or any good powder and copper gun solvent down the bore. Let it sit for 10-15 min. Then one or two dry patches. Repeat both steps untill you get clean patchs.

The drawback to the above is it takes time. One or two passes with a brass brush after the first round of patches will speed things up, not harm the barrel and, get into the nooks and crannies of the rifling. Again, were it mine, I would be using a brush. Or you could use a little bit of a true copper scrubbing pad (find those in the housewares section of the supermarket).

Do run the patchs and brush (if you choose to use one) from breech to mussle.

 

[redneck2]

The rod can wear a barrel way faster than a brush. If you're concerned, use nylon brushes.

Clean from breech. Use a rod guide and preferably a soft coated rod. IIRC, some copper dissolving products will attack steel if left too long. I know it's not a manly thing to do, but read the directions.

I use Hoppes or Kroil as above. Once you think you've got it clean, use Remington Rem-Clean (paste) or Flitz (go easy) and you'll find the stuff you didn't think was still in the bore

I know you'll get answers here, or go to the Centerfire Central site. The benchrest boys will give you all the answers you need

Edit to add: go to Varmint Al's site and you'll see what moly can do to a barrel if there's moisture.

 

[stevelyn]

MPro-7 will get it cleaner than anything else out on the market. Tipton graphite cleaning rods will avoid damaging the bore.

 

[BowStreetRunner]

Naval Jelly........

 

[dakotasin]

i don't use brushes, either - just patches.
patch out the bore w/ hoppes, and do that a couple times until the patches are pushing out relatively clean. then use barnes cr-10: wet patches and sit for 10-15 minutes followed by a couple dry patches. when the patches push out clean, run a few dry patches to make sure all the cr-10 is out. then, a couple wet patches of hoppes #9. let it sit overnight to draw stuff out of the expansion cracks. then repeat the barnes cr-10 process. another overnight w/ hoppes and you'll be about to naked steel. repeat the process as often as you care to... but, after a deep cleaning like this, it will take a few shots before accuracy comes back to normal.

 

[HankB]

I'm a strong believer in use of a bore guide, a good cleaning rod, and a solvent-soaked bronze brush. Fouling in a barrel is a layered mix of powder residue and metal fouling, and products that attack one may not attack the other. Use of a bronze brush helps to score through the various layers so the solvent will eat through the fouling.

I've migrated from original Hoppe's to Hoppe's BR-9, and now I've found that Butch's Bore Shine outperforms both. I'll usually finish with a couple of passes using a patch and some JB paste, rinse THAT out by alternating squirts of brake cleaner and a couple of clean patches, and finally an oily patch to preserve the bore. (BTW, be sure to promptly rinse the solvent-soaked brush, or you'll start dissolving it.)

Naval Jelly........

Great for removing rust and blue, not so great for metal fouling.

 

[Waffen]

Wipeout

If you don't want to use a brush use this. I personally will buy the can back from you if you are not happy with it. Just apply the cleaner, let it sit for 4-5 hours. Come back, patch out. Cleaning done.

 

[entropy]

Muriatic acid. Oh, you want to clean just the bore.....

 

[Zak Smith]

KG-12 and KG-3 with VFG pellets.

 

[50 Shooter]

You said normal gun store so I won't offer 26% aqua ammonia, which will strip out everything from your barrel.

I haven't tried Wipeout but I hear it's a good product. I use Boretech's "Eliminator" brand copper solvent. This stuff really strips copper out of the barrel and doesn't use ammonia. I use brass brushes, best line I ever heard was "sometimes you have to ruin a few brushes to get it clean". Besides, they won't hurt your barrel and they don't cost that much.

I don't recommend using JB compound (all the time) or anything that "micro" polishes your barrel. If it's doing this it's removing metal, over time that's not good. If you're just smearing it on a patch wrapped around a brush, do you really think it's going on/in even down the whole barrel length?

Use a good bore guide and clean chamber to muzzle, if you go from the muzzle end use a crown protector and very little solvent. That way you don't get all that crud in the trigger, either that or remove your trigger group.

 

[Slimjim]

Were it mine, I would run a patch saturated with Hoppe's 9, Sweets 7.62 or any good powder and copper gun solvent down the bore. Let it sit for 10-15 min. Then one or two dry patches. Repeat both steps untill you get clean patchs.

IF you let it sit that long with a ammoniated borecleaner in the barrel, you might as well buy a new barrel, because of the amount of craters that are gonna be in the metal.

You want a Non ammoniated gun cleaner. Ive seen a brand new target barrel that was eaten by an ammoniated cleaner left in it too long. Use wipeout, or something with no ammonia.

 

[Preacherman]

No question - for a really foul barrel, there's nothing like Outers Foul Out III. I've used it, and been astonished by how well it works.

 

[bogie]

Guys, it's harder to get more "into" cleaning than the average benchrester...

If the thing is really grotty...

Use a bore guide, and a good quality one piece cleaning rod.

Soak it down GOOD with Butch's Bore Shine. Then run a SOAKED patch through about every 10-15 minutes for a while (this makes a good weekend activity). You can also let it soak overnight. Let the chemistry do its thing.

Use a "benchrest bronze" brush. If you see anything that looks like "steel" on the brush, give it to someone you don't like. With the bore guide in place, give it about 10 or so strokes. Add Butch's as you go. Let it set about 15 minutes, then patch it out with wet patches. If the 2nd-3rd patch shows a lot of color, brush it again, and let it set, etc., etc... Overnight soakings can get into the stuff tho, and don't require a lot of effort.

Use a bore guide.

 

[Wiley]

As redneck2 said: "read the directions"

Slimjim: The Sweet's 7.62 bottle says: "Harmless to steel, non-acid with 5% ammonia." No mention of a time limit. I'm not sure if a wet patch thru to coat the fouling and let sit for 10-15 min to soak in will have a bad effect on the steel. And atek3 did say it was really fouled.

I go by 'The more agressive, the less use.' I have only used J-B compound when breaking in a new barrel. And Sweet's for a clean after shooting with no soaking (patch in, patch out).

[Side note to BowStreetRunner: The jelly in my navel has too much lint in it to be usefull. ]

I would go with any readily available cleaner, plenty of patches and, time.

 

[jondar]

I read this somewhere, maybe on another forum that for a home made cleaner, mix 50/50 liquid carburetor cleaner and Marvel Mystery Oil. I haven't tried it. The poster said that all that would be left was shiny steel. Anyone tried this??

 

[Slimjim]

Slimjim: The Sweet's 7.62 bottle says: "Harmless to steel, non-acid with 5% ammonia." No mention of a time limit. I'm not sure if a wet patch thru to coat the fouling and let sit for 10-15 min to soak in will have a bad effect on the steel. And atek3 did say it was really fouled.

And the bottle of bore scrubber said "Safe to leave in overnight" Yea right, i took a look down it with a bore scope and was horrified at the barrel.

 

[Gewehr98]

I never understood why people did that.

Use a "benchrest bronze" brush. If you see anything that looks like "steel" on the brush, give it to someone you don't like. With the bore guide in place, give it about 10 or so strokes. Add Butch's as you go. Let it set about 15 minutes, then patch it out with wet patches. If the 2nd-3rd patch shows a lot of color, brush it again, and let it set, etc., etc...

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, sometimes with zinc. If you have a copper solvent and use a bronze brush to slosh it around in a rifle bore, of course you're gonna get the familiar blue patch, whether there was copper fouling in the bore or not. You're extracting copper from the brush!

I use nylon brushes. I also have an Outer's Foul-Out II, and use Rem-Clean (diatomaceous earth in an oil suspension) with an occasional application of JB Bore Paste. I usually save the latter treatment for when I'm too lazy to moly coat the Sierra MatchKings in my 6.5-300 Weatherby handloads, and leave copper streaks beginning a couple inches from the muzzle.