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ruger american

Spike A

Gold $$ Contributor
I recently got a ruger american in 450bm, I must say this is the worst copper fouling rifle i have ever seen or had to deal with. i had to scrub and brush and scrub.. it was crazy bad. So i am just curious if any one else has had any problems with rugers copper fouling as this is my first one.
 
I own 4 Rugers, none in the American series and I personally haven't had any issues with copper fouling. Mine range from 7mm to 204 Ruger. A buddy has a few Rugers too and he has never complained about fouling issues.
 
Is that bore cleaner abrasive per say? I heard a while back about people using tooth paste is that a thing?
 
I did some loading for my brother in laws Ruger 77 30-06 last fall. It's a 15-20 year old rifle that has seen almost no use. I have never seen a barrel foul like that one. Five shots and the muzzle was red big time. I used Montana Extreme in it and it worked well. If it were mine it would be replaced. Barlow
 
I have 2 Ruger hunting rifles with factory barrels. The old one a M77 in 30-06 is still accurate enough for my hunting needs, about 1.25" with my hunting load, but it has always been prone to copper fowling and about 20 shots and accuracy goes to pot. Copper Killer and effort results in restored accuracy. The newer Ruger is an American Predator in 6.5 Creedmoor and it is a hammer. It shoots a load with 129 gr Nosler Acubonds into about 0.8" but again after about 15 shots the copper fowling causes accuracy to fall way off and out comes the Copper Killer. Since all I do now is hunt with these two rifles, and would never expect to fire enough shots for copper fowling to become an issue before I could clean them, I have no plans to rebarrel. The 30-06 has over 3,000 rounds thru it since 1974, but now only gets about 5-10 a year more.
 
Is that bore cleaner abrasive per say? I heard a while back about people using tooth paste is that a thing?

No and the "cleaner" doesn't smooth anything. It does, however, do a super job of getting rid of the copper. JB does in fact make a product called JB Bore Bright and it is very mildly abrasive and does smooth the bore, but it is more like a very high, fine polish.
I have a Ruger American and I too had a lot of trouble with it. Here is the link to what I did....

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/lead-lapping-a-barrel.3902284/

The first page is just discussion, read thru it and you will see, it is easier than it looks when you actually do it. You might want to get the bore scoped...I have seen a few that were so bad they weren't worth trying to lap. Some are really first rate shooters and you couldn't ask for more, sadly, many do not make the cut.
 
I recently got a ruger american in 450bm, I must say this is the worst copper fouling rifle i have ever seen or had to deal with. i had to scrub and brush and scrub.. it was crazy bad. So i am just curious if any one else has had any problems with rugers copper fouling as this is my first one.
Question #1 should be: how is the accuracy? It is a mass produced factory barrel that costs Ruger maybe $25 to make. If I have a production rifle that clusters 3 shots to my satisfaction- under benign shooting conditions-consistently...... I don't worry if the final patch still comes out blue. More than likely the bore needs some copper to fill in the irregularities to perform well. Too many reading the internet equate their production rifles with competition rifles with custom barrels that cost 20 times more.
FWIW, it is not uncommon for some custom barrels to show signs of copper fouling after a series of patches........and still shoot lights out.
 
I have used a cloth backed abrasive from 3M to polish rifle bores. I read an article (hard to believe) years back on this subject and the author recommended this product and explained how to use it. It 30, 15' 9' 3' 2' and 1 micron in 8.5 by 11 sheets. It's available from Precision Surfaces Int. 922 Ashland, Houston, Tx. 77008-6734. They also have a website. Barlow
 
this is all interesting, to be honest i have not tested accuracy yet, just a few factory rounds when i got it to mess around with.. have not done any reloading yet, i know most new barrels copper foul some and ive only shot pb 10 rounds out of it... it just surprised me is all compared to my aftermarkets, savages, and brownings. A friend did suggest to try lapping it just havent got that far yet, or decided what to do yet.
 
I have used a cloth backed abrasive from 3M to polish rifle bores. I read an article (hard to believe) years back on this subject and the author recommended this product and explained how to use it. It 30, 15' 9' 3' 2' and 1 micron in 8.5 by 11 sheets. It's available from Precision Surfaces Int. 922 Ashland, Houston, Tx. 77008-6734. They also have a website. Barlow

Maybe for a deep brush gun. That kind of thing is most likely going to round off your lands and possibly wash out the crown. If all you will ever need is minute of whitetail at 40 yards, knock yourself out. If you may want to put several bullets on the same target someday, borescope- lead lap- try different bullets. For a shotgun bore, judicious use of the cloth backed stuff is just fine.

I haven't really done any research on it, but I suspect that the .450 BM may be more prone to copper fouling due to using .452 (pistol) bullets. Then again, maybe not. I do know I used to get a bit more fouling in a .35 Remington when I loaded pistol bullets. Of course, they were going significantly faster than the heavier rifle bullets.
 
Winchester and Marlin and Remington, Smith Wesson gun makers have all been very responsive to any complaint I have ever had. If I had a new gun that fouled excessively I would first call the maker.
 

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