BluegrassDan
Member
I decided to "break in" my Kimber 84M in .308 today. My reason was because it had a lot of copper fouling in the barrel which I had been cleaning and cleaning with dozens of patches soaked in copper solvent, and still couldn't remove it all. I had probably put 250-300 rounds through it over the last 8 months and cleaned it regularly. The copper streaks and black buildup were too much for me to look at anymore.
So I pushed patches and a brush through and through. Got it pretty copper free, so much that I could begin to see the tool marks in the bore with just a orangish hue. Shot a bullet, cleaned, shot, cleaned, shot cleaned, etc.
The bore may have been somewhat smoother, but I did not experience the "fouling will settle down after 'X' number of rounds." It just kept laying down the copper streaks.
However, I did notice that my point of impact gradually rose from the bullseye (where I originally had it sighted-in) to about 1.75" high at 100 yards.
My questions:
1. Was I actually smoothing/polishing the bore enough that the velocity increased, printing the bullets higher?
2. Is there harm in running a mop down the barrel with Simichrome polish to smooth things out a bit?
(Kimber boasts a "match" barrel, but it certainly has tooling marks which are visible even from the muzzle without a bore scope)
3. Should I stop being so anal, and quit worring about the dang copper and bore imperfections?
These photos are after my session today. I had cleaned it 5 rounds prior.
Thanks in advance!
So I pushed patches and a brush through and through. Got it pretty copper free, so much that I could begin to see the tool marks in the bore with just a orangish hue. Shot a bullet, cleaned, shot, cleaned, shot cleaned, etc.
The bore may have been somewhat smoother, but I did not experience the "fouling will settle down after 'X' number of rounds." It just kept laying down the copper streaks.
However, I did notice that my point of impact gradually rose from the bullseye (where I originally had it sighted-in) to about 1.75" high at 100 yards.
My questions:
1. Was I actually smoothing/polishing the bore enough that the velocity increased, printing the bullets higher?
2. Is there harm in running a mop down the barrel with Simichrome polish to smooth things out a bit?
(Kimber boasts a "match" barrel, but it certainly has tooling marks which are visible even from the muzzle without a bore scope)
3. Should I stop being so anal, and quit worring about the dang copper and bore imperfections?
These photos are after my session today. I had cleaned it 5 rounds prior.
Thanks in advance!
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