When is the barrel really clean?

[BoySetsTheFire]

Standard guidelines are to use a bore brush first, then a wet patch and a dry patch until the dry patch comes out clean. Sounds good. But when I get to the point where the dry patch comes out clean, I will run the bore brush again and then the patches come out pitch black again.

I know that too much barrel cleaning is not good for accuracy. So what are some good tips on how to clean and when do you get to enough is enough?

 

[Outlaws]

I run a wet patch, the brush, then a bunch of wet patches until it comes clean. Then a couple dry patches.

 

[ocabj]

When you run solvent wet patches through a dirty bore. It's going to come out black. After several solvent wet patches you're going to get blue stains (assuming copper solvent). If you run a bore brush through the bore several times, then another solvent wet patch, it's going to get black again. This is because you actually loosened up the powder/carbon/lead fouling that was stuck in the lands, grooves, and imperfections of the bore. Follow up with more solvent and dry patches (alternating) and the black will go away and you'll end up with blue stained patches signifying only copper fouling remains.