Just how much copper can live in a barrel?

[Mulligan]

what kind of cleaner an how many rounds through the barrel

Mostly Butches bore shine with an ocanisional hopes elite scrub. I have also used shooters choice copper remover on it.
The barrel has a total round count of 309.....its chambered in 30-06.

 

[savagedasher]

Mostly Butches bore shine with an ocanisional hopes elite scrub. I have also used shooters choice copper remover on it.
The barrel has a total round count of 309.....its chambered in 30-06.

All my barrel has seen is hoppe's JB Brass brush And plenty of cleaning and 4 years
Larry

 

[Mulligan]

It seems to be an M96. Am I right?
Fill it completely with ammonia. Place a cork in one end and fill it to the other end.
Stirr with a wire to eliminate all bubbles, and let it overnight. Yes, overnight.
At the other day, drop the ammonia and clean deeply with patches and oil for barrels, say Ballistol Kleber or similar.
The let us know how has it gone.

700 remmy

 

[mic2377]

Bronze brushes for carbon buildup, nylon if they are being used with a ammonia based cleaner. Reason being is the ammonia cleaners actually start reacting to the bronze brush!

Has anyone used Barnes CR-10? I have found it to be even more potent than Sweets, and it takes out other fouling too...

 

[4xforfun]

Bronze brushes for carbon buildup, nylon if they are being used with a ammonia based cleaner. Reason being is the ammonia cleaners actually start reacting to the bronze brush!

Has anyone used Barnes CR-10? I have found it to be even more potent than Sweets, and it takes out other fouling too...

Yes, I've tried it. I don't see a difference between CR10 and Sweets. I do like the fact the Sweets is a lot thicker and seems to "stick" to stuff and not run like water. You want potent...A friend of mine (ours......DovanM) gave me a small bottle of "Warthog" copper cleaner. That sh!t will curl your toe nails!!! I don't know if it is made commercially.

 

[boltfluter]

Bronze brushes for carbon buildup, nylon if they are being used with a ammonia based cleaner. Reason being is the ammonia cleaners actually start reacting to the bronze brush!

Has anyone used Barnes CR-10? I have found it to be even more potent than Sweets, and it takes out other fouling too...

I have used CR10 and it a very good product.

Paul

www.boltfluting.com

 

[Shynloco]

Let me tell you something I have forgot more than you know about a gun barrel

What's your problem Mr. tanners.? Get a life and learn some manners youngster or climb back into whatever hole you climbed out of. Your attitude isn't welcome here.

 

[geo.ulrich]

I have to say I do not have a dog in this fight BUT George I would say knows more about cleaning barrels and copper removal then most all on this forum.

 

[ridgeway]

I have to say I do not have a dog in this fight BUT George I would say knows more about cleaning barrels and copper removal then most all on this forum.

I'd say he deserves a medal? Made outta copper...ehh?

 

[geo.ulrich]

maybe copper and stainless

 

[ptf18]

Fellows: Have a Lother-Walther barrel on a Swedish m96 rifle. The gun has about 800 rounds thru it. The bore has always been hard for me to get clean and I dont have any idea why.

I "broke" the barrel in via the 1 shot/clean, 2 shot/clean, etc till I had 10 rounds thru it. If I remember correctly I then shot 3-4 rounds then cleaned it again.

I dont shoot the gun much but what i found was that I would get the gun home after a range visit where I might have fired 15-20 rounds thru it and clean the bore. I've used a couple different methods but the last one is this.

I used Hoppes #9 on 3 or 4 patches to get what I could out of the bore. With the bore still wet I used a brass brush and made 3-4 passes thru the bore. Then swabbed out the bore with a couple wet patches and then a couple dry patches.

I repeated the above and find that my "drying" patches come out black.... as if the bore is still fouled with .... carbon.

With the bore dry. I filled it with Wipeout, waited 20 minutes and patched the bore out. The patch comes out with just a faint dark color to it just a touch of blue.

I thought great the bores finally clean.... until I repeated the Hoppes #9 procedure. The "drying" patches come out black. Again they look as if I haven't even cleaned the bore.

So... with the bore dry. I swabbed the bore with Sweets per the bottles instructions. When I "dry" the bore out I only get a very faint blue color on the swab.

I'm really getting disheartened cleaning this rifle. I just dont understand where this "black" stuff that I see on my "drying" patches is coming from. I dont think its from the bronze brushes as I'm not getting blue or green on the patches.

This "issue" has been going on for a couple years. I got to the point where after shooting the gun I would run 3-4 patches of Kroll thru it then 3-4 patches of #9 thru it and then hang the gun up.

The gun seems to shoot OK but this " I cant get the black stuff to quit coming out of the bore" issue has me shaking my head.

Any thoughts?

ptf18

 

[yotehater]

It sounds like layers of carbon under the layers or copper. I switched to the Hoppes Elite and let it soak overnight. Clean out without any brass jags or bronze brushes or cleaning rod. You may not be letting the solvents have enough time to loosen the fouling. A neglected barrel can take days to clean. Wipe out is good but using their accelerater really helps cuts through tough jobs.

edit to add you might need to work some JB bore paste through there to really clean it.

 

[M-61]

Bronze brushes for carbon buildup, nylon if they are being used with a ammonia based cleaner. Reason being is the ammonia cleaners actually start reacting to the bronze brush!

Has anyone used Barnes CR-10? I have found it to be even more potent than Sweets, and it takes out other fouling too...

Yes I do. Found it to be very good cleaning copper.

 

[Zero333]

You think you're is bad ??? you ain't seen nothing.

This is what one of my 243win's looked like at one point when it was fairly new.



It stopped coppering like this after the first few hundred shots. Now it doesn't copper barely at all. Now, even after 80+ shots I can't find any copper with my Lyman borescope.

 

[NewLiberty]

You think you're is bad ??? you ain't seen nothing.

This is what one of my 243win's looked like at one point when it was fairly new.

View attachment 994150

It stopped coppering like this after the first few hundred shots. Now it doesn't copper barely at all. Now, even after 80+ shots I can't find any copper with my Lyman borescope.

The above has been my experience. Once my barrels are broke in I rarely have to clean them. In fact I don't clean untill accuracy goes to hell. Somewhere around or past 600 rounds or so, sometimes twice that many rounds. My guns shoot right at 1/2 MOA. once they consistently shoot past 1/2 MOA it's time to clean.
The picture above looks identical to my barrels before they are broke in, visible copper.

 

[painter]

What happened to home made blue goop ? used in the 70s seem to work for benchrest shooters.

 

[strut64]

My LGS(Local gunsmith) sells and highly recommends Bore Tech Eliminator. I tried it and found it is very effective. Just follow the recommendations and use nylon brushes. It is not ammon ia based and can stand eing left in the bore to soak for extended periods. Give it a try.

 

[powderbrake]

I recommend Bore tech Carbon remover, and Dewey copper eliminator rods(non brass) and plastic brushes, FIRST. Get the carbon out, then attack the copper. Bore Tech C2 copper remover with the same non brass brushes/jags will remove all copper.

 

[RemingtonAI]

I don't have decades long experience with copper fouling but It seems to me that the amount of copper a barrel will accrue over time will depend on the method in which is was broken in. The way I understand it, the benchrest method, using harsh chemicals will basically smooth the surface roughness to a degree that copper has a hard time sticking because of the lack of microscopic nooks. As a result, as copper is deposited it will reach a critical level sooner since it has nowhere to hide, and thus has ill effects on accuracy. Kinda like why you shouldn't shoot non-jacketed lead bullets in Polygonal barrels like the Glock and HK .45acp barrels. Lead has nowhere to go so its builds fast and becomes an issue. Personally, I don't do any chemical assisted polishing and let copper build into those pores. So it takes a while to fill those nooks, maybe 20 rounds, but the copper doesn't become excessive so soon. When I clean my barrel, accuracy goes to hell but comes back after 20 rounds or so and doesn't seem to be affected until around 600 rounds or so which is when I bring it back to new again. Sure I can't clean my barrel and expect a decent cold bore shot, but I can expect the rifle to behave the way it did the last 10 times I had it out and don't have to really maintain anything for long periods of time. Of course I'm not shooting benchrest matches either, and it is a .308, but I have no problem hitting the 5" gongs out at 600 yards consistently with my 16" barreled rifle that hasn't seen a patch in 400 rounds. (I do always run a dry patch to clear any debris before shooting). Call me a Neanderthal but it works for my purposes, and I'm curious how many of you just read the above and are still shaking your heads.
However, Boots Obermeyer just emailed me about my new SS 5R barrel and I'm wondering if I will make any changes to my routines with the new one. I'm just glad I finally heard back from him! Let me know if my understanding is way out of whack. Jesse

 

[ptf18]

My LGS(Local gunsmith) sells and highly recommends Bore Tech Eliminator. I tried it and found it is very effective. Just follow the recommendations and use nylon brushes. It is not ammon ia based and can stand eing left in the bore to soak for extended periods. Give it a try.

Strut64. Not being a chemist myself (or a smart a@#$) do you have any idea how Bore Tech removes copper without ammonia?