cleanning a REALL dirty barrel

R

rocky_lange

Guest
I've tried 3 times of swabbing and scrubbing but still can still see visible fouling in the barrel. I've used Barnes CR-10, Birchwood Casey and Gunslick copper clean.

What is the most agressive cleaner to use for copper and powder residue?

I told to fill a small bucket with ammonia and put the muzzle is the bucket and use a brush to scrub the barrel. Good idea?

The gun I am working on is a Spanish Mauser that has been sporterized with the original barrel I am beginning to believe that the previous owner never completely cleaned the cosmoline or what ever preservative that was used prior to shooting. Maybe used corrosive ammo. I don't reaaly know, I just want it cleaned so I can practice some gunsmithing on the rifle.

Thanks,
Rocky
 
I have found a good scrubbing with J B Bore cleaning paste and a new brush work quite well... it wears the brush out though... then use any of the copper eating solutions...
 
try wipeout foaming bore cleaner, use the accelarator first, almost too simple but it works, I've got a 300 win mag, always took 3-4s day to clean copper out after hunting season(12-20 shots per season) tryed wipeout, let it sit overnight,then dry patch out,oil down and put away
 
I have found that if some impurities are cooked/sealed onto the bore, I could only get them clean by using a stainless steel bore brush. I haven't had them damage a barrel yet. I wouldn't use on in a match barrel, but then wouldn't need to either.
 
gunsmithing

Rocky, a part of gumsmithing most individuals dont grasp is knowing when a good cleaning will make an old rifle shoot. i recall when i thought my 22-250 was shot out, groups opened to over 1 1/2 inch at 100 yards. i took it to a smith (whitetail in jersey shore pa, they are great people) and he checked the throat with a hawkeye borescope. of course it was black and crackly but the big culprit was the grooves looked like copper mines. that was when i was introduced to wipe out bore cleaner. it took 3 days of cleaning to get it out and i thought my bore was squeeky clean when i took the rifle there, how embarrasing. well my cleaning regiment has changed drastically. i dont drag a brush back thru a bore as that oblongs the muzzle. i use kroil to get out the powder and carbon, then i use wipe out with the accelerater to remove copper. occasionally i have a factory rifle that is really rough when new so i use kroil and jb to smooth it out some. then right back to the kroil and wipe out regiment. Greg Moyer
 
If I have a real bad old gun that hasn't been cleaned I use a brush the next size down and wrap it with 4 0000 steel wool put kroil on it and start scrubbing it will get everything out.It looks like mud coming out on a real bad one,then i use patches untill clean and then a little jb and it looks and shoots great .I just did a 300 savage for a guy and it was shooting 6 inch groups at 100,the man told me it used to shoot good,so i checked and the bore was full of copper so i cleaned it the way i described and had it shooting 1 inch groups and under.
 
I remember reading years ago (maybe in Brownell's first book) that the smart gunsmiths used to clean old fouled, rusted, clagged military rifles with a sulfur cutting oil. I tried that on an old South African .375/2½ I picked up. By putting on plenty of oil with a bristle brush & leaving it over night, I ended up with a mirrir bright bore - in which you could see every pit & streak from a century of farm use.
 
Hoppes #9 will not really have much effect on carbon fouling without a LOT of scrubbing and almost none on the carbon ring. The Hawkeye verified this.
 
Recently I cleaned a really dirty 7 Mag. After I had removed the jacket fouling, there was a lot of solid black in the grooves. I wet the barrel with Carbout (made by the same outfit as Wipeout) let it soak for 20 minutes, and then, contrary to the directions, used a bronze brush for about 20 cycles. I then patched it out, and repeated. After that it borescoped clean. (I don't think that it had been properly cleaned once in 14 years.) I really don't think that I will be needing abrasives any more! I understand that a well known Benchrest shooter came to the same conclusion about what kind of brush to use, and, after trying it, bought a case of the stuff.
 
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