Does The Bore Ever REALLY Get Clean?

[Treo]

I went to the range yesterday, put maybe 100 rounds through my carry piece. Came home last night cleaned it, put it up & went about my business. ( stick W/ me I'm going somewhere).

Ok long story short I took a second look at it today & it looked dirty so I cleaned it again, filthy.

I also pulled a couple of 1911s out of the safe and cleaned them haven't shot them in months , filthy.

So what's the deal does the cleaning solvent continue to pull carbon out of the barrel after you put the gun up? (like the Army says)

or is there nothing that really get the carbon out?

Or am I just a lousy gun cleaner?

PS I used Hoppe's & Otis ultra bore

 

[Wildfire]

Lead.

Hey There;
Sounds more like lead fouling to me. Unless you are useing jacketed ammo only. But if you used any lead ammo, it is like lead fouling. If so it can be removed. Solvents are not always the best way to remove lead.
There is a currly looking brush made of stainless. It is for removing lead. Works very well. If not use a bronze brush and just keep brushing. It will come out sooner or latter. 50, 60 or more strokes is not too many.

If it is not lead. And all you use is jacketed ammo. There really should be no reason for any thing other then copper fouling. Same deal. But there, a good copper solvent will help a lot. Some times soaking over night will help if it's really bad.

 

[another okie]

It's hard to get a bore clean without a brush.

 

[Treo]

Bronze brush, copper jacketed bullets letting it them soak in Hoppe's right now

BTW according to the manual that came W/ my M-16 CLP/Breakfree will continue to draw carbon from the "pores" of the metal after you clean it ( of course the also told me I'd have free medical for life) any truth to that?

 

[geekWithA.45]

Guns are like that.

To get them returned to "nothing but metal", you need several applications of something noxious like brake cleaner over the course of a couple of days.

Few people see the value in going to such lengths.

 

[Wildfire]

Don't worry.

Hey There;
If it is clean , it is clean. Don't worry too much about it. A really bad build up can be a not so good thing but in the right lighting you should be able to see if there is any copper fouling in that bore. Copper solvents will keep drawing out any copper left behind.

 

[Grizfire]

does the cleaning solvent continue to pull carbon out of the barrel

If you let it sit, and there is still some layer of solvent, and carbon left in the barrel after you put the gun up, then the solvent will continue to work on the carbon in the barrel and break it up. So when you cleaned it again, more came out. You could clean your barrel first, set it aside as you clean the other parts, then come back to your barrel.

 

[Sir Aardvark]

You could try the Outers Foul Out electric bore cleaner.
It will get out all the lead and copper.
Here's a write-up done on it by Brownells:

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/GunTech/NewsletterArchive.aspx?p=0&t=1&i=593

 

[sm]

Barrel Cleaning Information

http://www.schuemann.com/

My Personal Practice has become to never clean the bore of my barrels. I do use a brass rod to scrape the deposits out of the chamber. But, I've learned to leave the bore alone and it very slowly becomes shinier and cleaner all by itself. Years ago I occasionally scrubbed the bore with a brass bore brush. But, doing so always seemed to cause the bore to revert to a dirtier look with more shooting, so I eventually stopped ever putting anything down the bore except bullets...

Good luck,

Wil

 

[Treo]

Nope I aint buying that SM I use Otis Ultra Bore & my bore looks really shiny but when I punch it the patch comes out black & not just black but BA-LACK.

BTW generic factory reload gunshow ammo.

 

[Wildfire]

Wow>

Hey :
is there any greenish blueish color to it ? If so that would be copper.
But just Black . Thats weird you keep getting it. I have fired a lot of .45 acp and never had that happen. Copper yes.

 

[Treo]

OK here's what I got 2 Guns 1 is a CZ75B in .40 S&W 2 is a RIA in .45 ACP.

Both copper jacketed FMJ rounds

Both used both approx. 10 years old (bought both used have no idea how they were maintained before me)

When I shine a light down both bores they appear clean

but when I put a patch down the Bore it come out black & I can see some copper in the bore & the patches have green on them.

I am leaving both really wet W/ Hoppe's tonight & clean them again tomorrow

 

[Wildfire]

Yes.

Hey there:
That's it. Copper. It will take you a while too get it all out. Keep doing what you are doing. it will come out . Lots and lots of brushing will help.
There are many copper solvents out there , some are very strong and others are not so strong. Faster is not always better.
that copper may have been in there long before you got then guns.
i am not a big fan of the really strong solvents. I'd rather brush more. But soaking over night a few times will help.
you are getting there.
have fun and shoot straight.

 

[10-Ring]

Patience, elbow grease, your favorite solvent and patches...lots & lots o' patches

 

[For Freedom]

Yes it does.

 

[Omnivore]

Brush with lots of #9-- get it good and wet, then soak for 20 min or more.

The soaking is what does it. It took me years to learn this.

Clean the brush - copper solvents attack the copper in the brush too (bronze brush).

Brush again.

Patch with solvent a few times. Use a jag/patch combo that's good and tight in the bore.

Clean the brush.

Patch dry. The patches will now in fact come out reasonably clean after just a few swipes. If not, you have a really fouled barrel or one that's pitted. A pitted bore never seems to come clean. I had a CZ-52 barrel that was pitted. Replaced it. No more trouble. Shoots straighter too.

Schillen recommends not trying to remove all traces of copper fouling from their rifle barrels, on the theory that your first shot or two are going to put that copper right back (precision rifle shooters are known to fire a "fouling shot" prior to shooting for the money, as it puts their POI/POA where it will be for the next several shots. The first shot from a clean bore will shoot to a different POI). They and others have said that overly intensive cleaning is more often the cause of undue wear than is under-cleaning. My Springfield M1A user's manual says that too.

 

[BlackBearME]

Heh, I saw the thread title and thought to myself "I wonder how many posts it takes for sm to come in here and say 'what's bore cleaning?'"

 

[EBRDude]

I use a cotton mop with Remington Bore Cleaner. It is like a very mild abrasive I guess, but it removes all fouling and dirt.

 

[Stump Water]

I'll have to agree with what sm said/quoted... for rifle barrels anyway.

Sure, I run an oily patch down the barrel if the rifle is going to be put away for any length of time, but using all of those solvents to completely strip a barrel will reverse the break-in that I so painstakingly did.

 

[Treo]

I soaked both barrels in Hoppe's all night I could actually SEE the green in the .45 before I swabbed it. the .40 looked ok but I could still see some copper in the grooves.

I think at this point I've got every thing I can get out of those barrels, with out damaging them.So I'm gonna call it good

 

[grimjaw]

I just use a nylon brush, don't bother with brass. No gun that I actually LIKE stays clean in my house for long, anyway.

jm

 

[Guntalk]

You might want to try some M-Pro 7. Very good solvent.

 

[the naked prophet]

How clean does the bore ever REALLY NEED to get? As long as you aren't trying to do 500+ yard precision shots, just keeping the layer of gunk off the barrel is fine. A few scrub-a-dubs with a brass brush and solvent, then some dry-oiled-dry patches, and you're good.

 

[RTFM]

Hey TOM!
Love your shows sir - all of em - Keep up the good work.

I use Mpro-7 and it is good stuff. But try this, get your gun as clean as you can with Mpro-7 and then run a patch with the Otis cleaner down the hole.

Like you never cleaned it once.

Told the boys at Mpro and Otis my findings at the SHOT show 07 and it baffled them both. Although the Otis guys liked it more....

It does not work in reverse though, clean a bore with Otis then go to Mpro... and it stays clean.
Start with Mpro and got to Otis... black black and more black.

 

[nplant]

I don't see why you'd want to remove every last trace of any fouling in a barrel. What's the point? Are you going to be that much more accurate? I'd argue that for every minute past ten that you spend cleaning your bore, you're wasting your time. At worst, you could be actually microscopically destroying your bore, and at best, you change your point of impact a tiny fraction of an inch at 25 yards, and then after two shots, it will return to where it was before you spent ten hours cleaning it.

So really, what is the point?