Cleaning Carbon Fouling

[Regen]

I have been using SLIP 2000 Carbon Killer with what I thought was good results, but lately it seems not to be removing all the carbon build up in my bore.

Yesterday, I was cleaning a particularly dirty gun, and had to keep scrubing the bore to get the carbon out. It was sort of strange, I run a patch through, and it would show a little carbon, then I scrub some more, and run a fresh patch through and it would show a ton of carbon.

I tried soaking the barrel in CLP and scrubing, same results.

I switched brushes, just in case the brush was contaminated, same results.

I've sprayed the barrel with Gun Scrubber and it did not help.

I'm out of Hoppe's #9, but I was going to try that next.

Any suggestions?

 

[Fisherman_48768]

Get some RB17 it will remove carbon.

 

[Walkalong]

Carbon and copper are often in layers. Sometimes you have to get one to get to another, and then do it again. All the more reason to not let it go too long. If it has gotten real bad, a little JB may be in order.

You need to use a product that will go after both, or use two products. TM Solution is real good at getting powder fouling and carbon. Eliminator is real good at getting copper. For general regular bore cleaning I like Butches Bore Shine or Shooters Choice.


I really like Slip 2000's Carbon Killer, but not by itself as a bore cleaner. It is great for straight powder fouling/carbon on cylinders, AR bolts, etc, where there is no copper.

 

[TX1911fan]

You may already know this, but I learned the hard way to clean the barrel extension and chamber of my AR BEFORE I clean the barrel. I was having the same problem as you, and then realized that the fouling was not in the bore, but in the chamber and barrel extension. I was just pushing it into the bore. Once I cleaned that area, the bore came clean real quick. Don't know if that is your problem.

BTW, I love Carbon Killer.

 

[heritageguy]

How long have you had the Carbon Killer? It can lose its effectiveness as it ages. I had some go bad. I had it for two years but I don't know how long it sat on the shelf before I got it.

The symptoms are as you described -- what used to work really well suddenly stops working.

Bought a new jar of Carbon Killer and it works great.

On the other hand, if the gun was really dirty it may take several cycles of soaking and cleaning to get it clean.

 

[Deanimator]

Shooters Choice

I use nothing but Shooter's Choice as a bore cleaner. I find it's first rate at removing all types of fouling. I don't use many jacketed bullets in my handguns. When I did, I used the SC copper solvent, which got rid of copper fouling quite easily.

For 99% of my gun cleaning Shooter's Choice followed by ClenzOil lubrication and corrosion prevention does the job. For cleaning my AR15, I use carburator cleaner when necessary.

 

[Regen]

The carbon killer is less than a year old.

I had fired 230 rounds of UMC since the last cleaning. Pretty dirty stuff, but I wouldn't expect it to be as bad as it was.

My normal cleaning sequence is Gun Scrubber, followed by one cycle of carbon killer, followed by one cycle of Breakfree CLP.

This time I did several cycles of carbon killer and then several cycles of CLP, including soaking for ~20 between scrubbing.

 

[ProficientRifleman]

Hoppe's Copper Solvent, Sweets, Shooter's Choice, and the new Extreme Clean (by Shooter's Choice) foaming solvent should all work well for you.

 

[bogie]

What kind of powder? Do you know? Are you brushing? Use a bronze-core bronze brush, give it about 10 strokes, then let it set, patch out after a while, soak it down, give it about 10 strokes, etc., etc...

If it is really stubborn, try Iosso.

 

[jcwit]

I have a 357 revolver that I shot alot of 38's in somewhere 2/3 thousand rds. Tried everything to clean the carbon out, goy most but not all, ended up trying Gumout fuel injector cleaner, worked like a charm.

 

[Regen]

Don't know what kind of powder Remington uses for UMC, I imagine whatever is cheapest (and dirtiest).

I do use ten stroke with a bronze brush every cycle, but I generally don't let it sit before running the patch.

Also at the suggestion that it might be copper over the carbon in layers I'll run some SLIP 2000 copper cutter and see if that helps.

 

[avan47]

Try Hoppe's Elite or M-Pro 7. (They are the same Thing) It's designed for disolving carbon. It's also odorless, biodegradable, and non-toxic. You'll like it.

 

[strat81]

M Pro 7 cut through carbon that Hoppes #9 had trouble with. Good stuff, M Pro 7.