Copper Removal

[RavenVT100]

I'm in the process of cleaning my CMP Garand's bore, which is absolutely coated in copper.

I've treated it three times now with Shooter's Choice, a 20 minute soaking each time. The rifling is still coated in copper and the patches continue to come out bright blue. Is there a better product that I could use that will eat this copper out of the bore?

 

[Snorkel Bob]

Ive never used Shooters Choice, but I o use Barnes CR10 and its amonia based. It really cuts the copper. Works good for me. that or Sweets 7.62

 

[Snake Jenkins]

I use Butch's Bore Shine for cleaning my barrels.

Snake

 

[Darkside852003]

I'll add another vote for Butch's Bore Shine.

Jeff

 

[50 Shooter]

I'll second Barnes CR-10, I also use Boretech's copper solvent. I have their new copper solvent called "Eliminator" that's ammonia free and suppose to work better then the others. Haven't used it yet so I can't tell you how good it works.

I did try Blue Wonder, don't waste your time with it as it didn't do anything. There's also two different types of spray foam that you squirt into your barrel that remove copper. If you feel brave, go to your local pool supply or printing supply store an pick up some aqua ammonia. At around 28% ammonia it will strip a barrel of copper in nothing flat, you'll also need to do it outside because the fumes can lay you out. Find a small glass bottle and fill it up, add a cap full of dish washing liquid to it, that will help it stick to your barrel when cleaning. A gallon of aqua ammonia costs around $15 and will last a very long time, a gallon of regular copper solvent will cost you about $50.

There's also JB compound and along with Butch's you need to use them sparingly, both are abrasive.

 

[Mike Hull]

Try this. It's supposed to be the best thing going for tough copper removal(50BMG).
http://draccessories.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=DA&Category_Code=MX

 

[rbernie]

Not to sound silly or anything, but don't forget to use a brush after letting the cleaners soak in for a while. Just go slowly with the brush and let it follwo the rifling.....

 

[SMLE]

Sweet's 7.62 is a good copper remover, but use in a well ventelated place.

 

[Mark whiz]

I'll 2nd the recommendations for Barnes CR-10 or Sweets 7 .62................. those are about the best dedicated copper solvents readily available.

But in your case I think I would get a little more agressive with the cleaning in order to save a lot of time and effort. Get some J-Bs bore paste (or similiar product like Iosso, USP, Flitz, etc) and work that bore with patches coated in the stuff. Work 1 patch with it agressively and quicky and then follow with 2 dry patches worked the same way. Do this at least 6 times and then hit the bore with the Shooter's Choice or one of the other copper solvents to see if you get any more blue patches. Once the "blues" stop, you're clean of copper - then clean the bore good with your standard solvent to get all the paste residue out........................the paste patches will come out BLAAAACK BLACK - that's just what they do so don't worry about it....................just make sure you get all the black out with regular solvent.

Oh one more thing about using a copper solvent............... do NOT use bronze brushes or jags with them........... the ammonia will disolve them and give you false blue patches even after the copper has been removed.

 

[ocabj]

I use Butch's Bore Shine. I used to use Sweet's every now and then, but Butch's Bore Shine will do as good a job as Sweet's without harming the bore.

Sweet's just works faster.

If you use BBS and want to take care of copper, the key is running a wet patch through the bore and letting it soak in for 10-15 minutes. Wipe it out with a dry patch and repeat. After a few cycles most of the copper will be out. Of course, this assumes you cleaned the carbon/powder fouling before this (through wet patches and wet brushing).

Some people think Butch's doesn't work well on copper, but the reason why they have bad results is that they don't let it sit in the bore long enough (they dry patch it out too quickly).