I have a Savage 12FV that I just never could get a load worked up for. Every time I would start to shoot, I'd get some pretty good shots but 15-20 shots in, it would start to scatter them like a shotgun. After buying a Lyman borescope, I determined it was copper fouling pretty badly. So, I gave it the Sweets treatment and cleaned it up........but it would foul again in no time. Finally, I just gave up and bought a new Shilen barrel which looks promising.
Today, I was bored, so I decided to section part of this barrel and see what it looked like, since I could not bring myself to palm it off on someone else. I started out on the chamber end and after removing 6", I didn't see anything alarming. However, once I started to section the muzzle end, I saw severe copper fouling. Now I was really curious, so I cut the whole dang thing in half. Attached are pictures of what I found.
About 4-6" out, it would start to foul and then fouled severely as it progressed down the barrel. This barrel probably only had 25-30 shots fired down it since it was completely cleaned with Sweets. I took pictures of the muzzle end before and after cleaning with Sweets after sectioning. You can see the heavy fouling and, with the copper removed, you can see that the bore looks like the top of a Lyman M5 Scale Beam. Rough. No wonder it copper fouled, so badly!
Also, I took a picture of the chamber end where you can see slight erosion and also the starting of the carbon ring. This was educational for me and I hope it will be with you. If you've got a barrel that copper fouls, you may as well give it up. Unless you develop some serious lapping skills, it will always foul.
One other thing that surprised me was how quickly Sweets took the copper out. 15 minutes and 2 applications had it dissolved. That stuff is powerful!.....in more ways than one. Sniff! Sniff!
Today, I was bored, so I decided to section part of this barrel and see what it looked like, since I could not bring myself to palm it off on someone else. I started out on the chamber end and after removing 6", I didn't see anything alarming. However, once I started to section the muzzle end, I saw severe copper fouling. Now I was really curious, so I cut the whole dang thing in half. Attached are pictures of what I found.
About 4-6" out, it would start to foul and then fouled severely as it progressed down the barrel. This barrel probably only had 25-30 shots fired down it since it was completely cleaned with Sweets. I took pictures of the muzzle end before and after cleaning with Sweets after sectioning. You can see the heavy fouling and, with the copper removed, you can see that the bore looks like the top of a Lyman M5 Scale Beam. Rough. No wonder it copper fouled, so badly!
Also, I took a picture of the chamber end where you can see slight erosion and also the starting of the carbon ring. This was educational for me and I hope it will be with you. If you've got a barrel that copper fouls, you may as well give it up. Unless you develop some serious lapping skills, it will always foul.
One other thing that surprised me was how quickly Sweets took the copper out. 15 minutes and 2 applications had it dissolved. That stuff is powerful!.....in more ways than one. Sniff! Sniff!
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