Mosin Nagant barrel cleaning help.

[slash415]

I have been cleaning the barrel of my Mosin out the the last couple days, I just can't seem to get it clean. I am using a .30 caliber brush and Hoppes cleaning solution. I have gone through about 150 cleaning patches (both sides) but I can't seem to get this black substance out of the bore.


Thanks for any help!

 

[rcmodel]

Then J. B. Bore paste.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1160/Product/J-B-reg-NON-EMBEDDING-BORE-CLEANING-COMPOUND

rc

 

[morcey2]

Gunslick foaming bore cleaner. Do a couple rounds of that before the jb bore paste. I've got one mosin that I've yet to get a clean patch out of. it still shoots great.

Matt

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Which Hoppes product? Hoppes 9 is fine for powder fouling and light copper fouling in a new firearm. For a Mosin with enough copper that you could measure its value in whole dollars and probably a bit of corrosion to boot, you will need something stronger.

Hoppes 9 "Benchrest" copper solvent or the Hoppes Elite Bore Gel are much better. I've also been using the Tetra Gun plastic/copper solvent lately. It is really noxious but effective. The last two are great because they are designed to set in the bore for a bit. So you can set a timer and come back in a bit. Even the Hoppes Benchrest works well with a few minutes to do its work. Work smarter, not harder

Biggest thing to remember is that there is SO MUCH fouling in there that you just aren't going to get it all out. At least not all at once. My older Mosins will always blacken a patch after a good brushing. Even some of them with shiny bores still hold a surprising amount of fouling from years of service. I just settle for knowing I removed more crud than I put in when I shot it and keep working towards the goal. I've heard the rule is one cycle of the brush for each shot fired, but my arm just isn't good for that much at once!

 

[gunner69]

Combo technique..... Use a Tornado Brush in .303/7.7mm it is the same size as your Mosin Bore. Black Powder Foaming bore cleaner stuff first, let sit 20 minutes or so. Follow with a good brushing of Hoppies at least 100 (back and forth) strokes. Use boiling water in a bucket barrel down with bolt out, stroke another 100 times. Foam for 20 more minutes and then stroke for 50 times. Run patches until clean. Oil the bore and weapon.....

You may have to do this a couple times, especially if you are using military corrosive ammo, to get the job done. Good Luck, mine took a couple cleaning like this.

 

[ball3006]

Use a 35 or 357 caliber brass brush. The longer bristles get down in the grooves better. Do a wet patch. Let sit for a few minutes then wet your brush and scrub about 10 passes. Then a dry patch. Repeat as necessary. Finish off with a wet patch of Breakfree or LPS2. Put the gun in the safe and have a beer......chris3

Forgot to mention. I cut my patches in strips one inch wide and two inches long. That way I just lay a patch over the brush. The brush forces the patch down in the grooves better than a patch alone......chris3

 

[GunnyUSMC]

If your shooting surplus ammo.
First, swab the bore with a wet patch. This cleans out the sats from the military primers.

I have never seen why people try so hard to clean a rifle bore until the patches come out spotless. Heck, onse you fire one round I will be dirty again.

 

[Powerglide]

Plug the bbl at the crown.Pour in Eds Red and a dab purple Power.Let sit for a few days.Then clean as regular.

 

[Shadow 7D]

If your shooting surplus ammo.
First, swab the bore with a wet (with water) patch. This cleans out the sats from the military primers.

[edit] RIGHT, but I'll go with the WWII and WWI method of good old fashion water
to remove the salt, soap to cut through oil/carbon then clean with solvents and oils

as the solvent and or oils won't lift the salt, and then you'll wonder what's eating your bore. SO, water lots of water, brush with soap and more HOT water down the metal and clean as normal, will also make it easier to clean.

You have a point about stock damage, I actually drop the action and do the bath cleaning with just the metal although I'm looking into a funnel set up like the old Enfield, a tube set to a funnel or bag with a stopper type device for the chamber to keep water out of the stock.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I have been shooting surplus weapons with surplus ammo for over 20 years.

After I am dune shooting, I ponch the bore with two wet patches. Just water.
I then punch it tith a dry patch, and then a patch with CLP Break Free.
Then I pack up and go home. When I get home I just clean it like any other gun.

The flushing with hot soapy water was dune in the rear with the guys with the gear, not on the battle field.
I have seen the finish on stocks messed up by guys that like that hot soapy water.
If you like to do it that way, be careful.

 

[Tempest 455]

There are a bunch of methods I'm sure. However, here is what I settled on that will get it clean in less than 20 patches.

I first use Windex sprayed down the bore from the chamber to remove the corrosive salts. I brush w/ a .30 cal brush numerous times. I run one or two patches through to remove most of the Windex. Then, brake parts cleaner numerous times from the chamber with the rifle inverted. Keep doing this until it comes out clear.

I follow up with patches soaked in CLP and then a dry patch or two. Done right, I can always get it clean in less than 20 patches.

 

[BCRider]

First off all you are talking about what to do after shooting it. But maybe he's just trying to get the cosmoline out of it as part of his first cleanup before firing it.

If so then the Ed's Red solvent trick mentioned up further should do the job. What I did for the cosmoline was instead of using patches I put some Ed's solvent (mineral spirits AKA "low odor paint thinner" does well for this also) into a bucket and stuck the end of the muzzle in the solvent. Then I used a bore brush up and down the barrel. This worked as a well pump and sucked solvent up and down the bore nicely to clean away the cosmoline.

After what seems like a reasonable time try some patches. But if they won't come out clean then stop, finish the rest of the gun and go shoot it. The ammo rubbing down the bore will clean away whatever minor corrosion or other stain or build up that is in there. As long as you can look down the bore and see rifling you're OK to shoot it.

If it's for post shooting cleanup then go with the method that uses water or Windex. You need to flush out the water soluable salts before the rest of the work. Not many of the regular gun solvents will clean away the corrosive salts left by the surplus primer material when it burns. Water works well so start with that then go to the solvent stuff to clean out the water and anything that the water couldn't remove. Done this way I don't think I've ever used more than 10 patches in total. And usually it's more like 7 to 8.

 

[jhnrckr]

I hope you dont expect eat off an ancient Ruskie rifle. pretty much every modern gun I ever had never came 100% clean. I can scrub and scrub with brushes and solvents and oils and I will never have a totally clean patch, there is always some black residue. Your gun has been dirty for near 100 years and you arent going to improve it with any cleaning. shoot the crap out of it and enjoy it for the $100 piece of history that it is.

 

[BrocLuno]

Sticking the muzzle in a bucket with the rifle held straight butt up and some Purple Power in the bucket - brush up and down the bore 20 times or so. 1st Purple Power (to break through the "binder"), then clean water and a dry patch or two. Next, KG12 overnight with the muzzle plugged. Pop the plug and catch the KG12 in container (too expensive to let go). Now brush up and down with KG12 wet brush until mostly clean - fresh water and blow out with compressed air. NOW, start with the regular cleaning products as the rifling and all the groove walls will be 90% debris free.

Same problem with old Enfields and Arisakas that shot corrosive ammo and cordite powders. They build up layers of power fouling, copper, lead, lube, and cosmo all sort of like a paint finish baked in by the heat of firing. You need multiple chemistry to get through it all and strong brushes. BUT, they do come clean if you swab enough

 

[Murphy4570]

I just pour some cold water down the bore, then scrub with a brass brush soaked in hoppe's a few times, maybe a dozen passes? After that I run a couple dry patches down, then a patch wetted in hoppes, then 3-5 dry patches, when the patch comes out mostly clean. I call it good after that. Haven't had any issues with my Mosins from doing it this way. I also remove the barreled action from the stock when I do this, and wipe everything down, to keep water from getting in some nook or cranny and rusting something.

 

[The Sarge]

I have dozens of Mosin Nagants. I tear them down to bare wood and refinish all of them.
The barrel gets a plug and stood on its end. I take a funnel and pour Ed's Red down it until it is filled. I walk away and come back in about 12-14 hours. I clean as normal from there with Ed's Red and then Janitors Ammonia mixed with Ivory Dish Soap (50/50). Run the Ammonia/Ivory Soap through about 20 times. It suds's up and cleans the Russian snot out of the bore. Then back to Ed's Red for a few more patches and your golden. All my Mosin barrels are shiny as can be. I always use .38/.357 brushes and patches.
Some are stubborn and require JB Bore paste.
Shiny as a new nickle.
All get a trigger job and front sight job. I sight them in for 100 Yards for the hog hunters. Some I have removed the sight and put a scope on (LER) for the older folks wanting to hunt (and myself).....Shoot nothing but corrosive surplus through all of them. Few thousand rounds a year of it.

 

[Shadow 7D]

my problem with KG12 is that it's a STRONG copper remover, and I don't want to scrub with my brushes, and I don't have nylon, so, I need to get some equipment, but yeah a little goes a LONG ways.

 

[35 Whelen]

Go to the Surplus rifle forum and read the posts on Homemade electric / electronic bore cleaners. Simple to make in fact you probably have everything you need laying around the house.

I've used one of these on several Mosins and Mausers and you can't BELIEVE the garbage that comes out of the bore...typically blackish yellow gunk. The nice thing is the procedure is harmless to the bore.

35W

 

[Shadow 7D]

Um, if you know about chemistry, you will realize that all metals DO not plate at a consistent rate, but it is measurable
secondly, you are using a corrosive material and will etch your bore as you are pulling from the barrel onto the electrode.
The professional (one at the store) uses a specific voltage/wattage to maximize copper removal and lead removal. Shoving current down your bore till it bubbles
Yeah, um, no thanks

OH, and Iron Oxides are black, so that ain't just carbon you are pulling.

Now that said, note that I didn't say they don't work.

 

[35 Whelen]

Um, if you know about chemistry, you will realize that all metals DO not plate at a consistent rate, but it is measurable
secondly, you are using a corrosive material and will etch your bore as you are pulling from the barrel onto the electrode.
The professional (one at the store) uses a specific voltage/wattage to maximize copper removal and lead removal. Shoving current down your bore till it bubbles
Yeah, um, no thanks

OH, and Iron Oxides are black, so that ain't just carbon you are pulling.

Now that said, note that I didn't say they don't work.

Ah yes, we have the first of many naysayers who've never even tried it. I never said I was pulling out carbon, now did I? Nor did I make mention of the consistency with which metals attach to the bore. I only described what attached itself to the rod.
The "corrosive" material I'm using is diluted ammonia, same stuff as in most commercial copper removers such as Hoppe's Copper Remover. I was reading the label on the bottle of Hoppe's Copper Remover a couple of days ago and their instruction tell you to swab the bore and leave the "corrosive" material in the bore overnight.
Like I said, I've used one alot and it never harmed my bores.

35W

 

[Shadow 7D]

It's not the ammonia that is corrosive, it's the current, Large ships protect their metal hull by running a current through the hull, when some of the iron want's to oxidize (rust) the charge is moved via the current to a zinc sacrificial electrode, where zinc atoms are transferred to the ocean to balance the current, my point is rust, corrosion is a electric process.
You need specific current to target (well pull more off than the barrel steel) the electrical valence of the lead and copper (and the electrolyte solution is important on this)
where the current carries the copper and lead atoms, not one of the constituent atoms of your barrel's steel (chrome and nickle I believe, but it's been awhile since I read the paper on this).

AND
I never said it doesn't work, just that some of the guys who grab any ol DC transformer and pour something down the barrel and come back 3 hours later so happy to have a nice shiny bore that worse than a sewer pipe, well, maybe its NOT the cleaning of the crud that did, maybe it IS the cleaning.

There is a lot of chemistry involved, the stuff where you are talking electrical charges of atoms and how many atoms cross the electrolyte in a give amount of time at a given current. It's not something you pull any old thing out and it will work. And personally I haven't done it cause I don't want to do the problem, I'm happy with my old college chemistry books collecting dust right where they are.

 

[dagerv]

I like to just pour lots of boiling water down the barrel after using corrosive ammo. I believe that's what shadow 7d said to do originally. I do agree though that I've yet to get a perfectly clean patch out of the bore.

 

[HEAVY METAL 1]

I bought and used an Outer's Foul Out on all my milsurps when I first got them. After removing the crud I now only need to clean in a regular fashion. I never would trust a homemade unit because I do not understand the chemistry variables well enough. I figure that Outer has employed chemists to develope the product so it would not be harmful to a gun bore when used as directed. It worked for me.

 

[tmccray45]

I'm with "35 Whelen" about this topic. I have a 1943 Mosin that, no matter how I cleaned, and no matter what product I used, I kept getting dirty patches out. I made one of the Surplus Rifle electronic bore cleaners out of an old 4.5 volt power supply I had. Plugged the barrel, poured in the recommended concoction, and came back in a couple of hours. (I wiped the NASTY crud coming out of the barrel several times during that time.)

I pushed down several more patches and, LO!, they started coming out clean!!

The proof was in the puddin'. My groups suddenly went from 4 inches down to 1.5 to 2 inches. Looking down the barrel is not the horror show it once was.

 

[Scimmia]

Sometimes you have a bore that seems like it just won't respond to anything. I have an Arisaka that was so fouled it couldn't stabilize a bullet. I'd ran numerous patches through with multiple solvents and wore out two bronze bore brushes, and wasn't getting anywhere. After a few runs with a home made electronic bore cleaner, I can actually see the edges of the lands now! Haven't had a chance to get it back to the range, though.