Houston we may have a problem!!

Sweets 7.62

I have been using Sweets 7.62 Solvent to quickly remove copper for a long time. The label on the bottle says it contains 5% ammonia(Don't know if that is excessive) and that it is harmless to steel. The label also instructs the user not to leave sweets in the barrel for periods longer than 15 minutes. I have unintentionally left sweets in a barrel for two days. A borescope examination revealed no damage to the bore. However, I might not have known what I was looking at.

If in fact, Ammonia causes damage to rifle bores,Solvent Manufacturers who use this chemical in their products are risking costly civil Lawsuits from consumers who can prove barrel bore damage.

For many years now,Iv'e heard talk of rifle bore etching caused by ammonia based bore solvents. If this is a fact,then why not show proof to the solvent manufacturers so they can address these issues.



Glenn

I`m with Glenn on this..... sw.7.62 has been the std. copper remover for over 25 yrs.....I`ve used it that long....
I did my own test some years back.....set a barrel on the bench..and for a week.... I poured some sweets 7.62 on the same spot.....at the end of the week.... the barrel showed no corrosion or even discoloration..... then I took it up to inspection on a Brown and Sharpe coordinate testing machine this is a 250,000$ machine that reads in .00001"`s and ran the stylus over it a lot......no descernable difference in readings in the area I kept sweets on for a week....?????...Now this was a stainless barrel...... not sure if the test would repeat on chrome moly.....
bill larson
 
A few years back I asked Arnold Jewell [of Jewell Trigger fame] about the use of Sweets 7.62, a heavy ammonia based product.

Somewhere during the discussion he mentioned that he had as an experiment [he always seems to be experimenting] sealed some 7.62 up in a small cut off section of a custom barrel. And then let it sit there for a year.

He said that when he opened it up, there had been no damage to the [custom] barrel. End of story. :)

I ain't Arnold Jewell, But I have a barrel sample in white ammonia for at least 10 years. It is not a sealed container. Still no corrosion or any damage.
 
Didn't they change the composition of Sweets a few years ago? I quit using it 8-9 years ago when it came out thicker and didn't burn my buddies nose anymore.............It didn't do crap for removing copper.

Later
Dave
 
I ain't Arnold Jewell, But I have a barrel sample in white ammonia for at least 10 years. It is not a sealed container. Still no corrosion or any damage.

White ammonia in a non sealed container for 10 years! I wonder if or how much it has decomposed much during those 10 years?
 
I ran my own test several years ago. It went something like this:
Two inch long barrel stub placed upright in 1 inch of white ammonia, in a bowl.
I don't recall the length of time, but it was maybe a week.
What I found was that the barrel stub was pristine below the "waterline" of ammonia...but AT the waterline was a rusted, pitted mess.

My assumption was that the ammonia stripped most or all of the oil from the metal, and where moisture and air were present...rust formed.
Not very scientific, but quite conclusive, IMHO.

Oh, my conclusion was that ammonia didn't hurt the barrel, but rather, it stripped the oil from it and oxidation took place above the waterline of ammonia.
 
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Come on, folks!

Clean the dang barrel, give it a little corrosion protection and party on. We've all been doing this since we were in elementary school.

Do not let OCD take you away from what's important.
 
Between targets I use TM to get the carbon out, 3 very wet patches, let sit for 5 mins or so, and 3 patches after, no brush. After the yardage I use IOZZSO, or whatever it is, a good solvent, my own, then JB, and after the JB I use a brush to get the JB out of the groves, then patch it clean. Use to do all of the above cleaning regiments and when it dawned on me that the copper was not the problem and that carbon was, I changed.
 
I was around 14 and my sister was 10..... I said "be careful with that ammonia bottle cuz if you spill it the smell will drive us out of the house!"

Plastic 1qt bottle.....

When she went to sniff the opening I yelled "DON'T DO TH.....!!!"

But it was too late.

She was already squeezing.....

POP!

She spilt the bottle.....

My Blessed Mother din't believe me....

Cuz both our eyes was watering, And I barely got a sniff! :)

LOL
al
 
The subject of bore brushes reminds me of an old story I read one time (no, I wasn't there). This was a time before toilet paper was invented. These folks then used corn cobs. Seems that they had more red cobs than white ones so they would use two red cobs then a white cob to see if they needed more red cobs.

Along that thought line, if we wet the bore then used a bronze brush for the initial scrubbing. The bronze brush would not allow embedding of the gritty powder residue in its bristles like a nylon brush would. Then a wet patch to flush then scrub with a nylon brush which would finish removing any remaining powder fouling. Using the nylon brush would not leave any "green" like an ammonia-solvent soaked brush does. We see tons of green patches on at the cleaning tables from barrels we know are not coppering.

This setup would need to have 3 cleaning rids instead of the traditional 2, but we probably could afforn another rod??
 
Or just

The subject of bore brushes reminds me of an old story I read one time (no, I wasn't there). This was a time before toilet paper was invented. These folks then used corn cobs. Seems that they had more red cobs than white ones so they would use two red cobs then a white cob to see if they needed more red cobs.

Along that thought line, if we wet the bore then used a bronze brush for the initial scrubbing. The bronze brush would not allow embedding of the gritty powder residue in its bristles like a nylon brush would. Then a wet patch to flush then scrub with a nylon brush which would finish removing any remaining powder fouling. Using the nylon brush would not leave any "green" like an ammonia-solvent soaked brush does. We see tons of green patches on at the cleaning tables from barrels we know are not coppering.

This setup would need to have 3 cleaning rids instead of the traditional 2, but we probably could afforn another rod??

use a good nylon brush and an aluminum or S/S jag. No more false indication of copper.

David
 
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