Bore picture questions

[jmkasza]

I have some newbie questions about bore pics from my 30-06. The gun is 22+ years old and has seen approximately 400-500 rounds over its life. I took these pics after cleaning and need some input. Maybe there is a condition in the bore that is poor or maybe my cleaning practices need to improve (that's what I'm hoping).

Pic 1 & 2 both look good to me, but maybe from the light being better closer to the chamber.

I get to Pic 3 and it looks much different

On Pic 4 a second dark line appears.

Pic 5 shows a break in the discoloration at the muzzle. Definitely questioning my cleaning at this point.

Pic 6 has what looks to me like pitting? The only spot I noticed when running the borescope.

Any suggestions? It's pics 3 & 4 that have me puzzled. I used Hoppes No. 9 on patches and I also ran a light dose of Butch's bore shine too.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I have some newbie questions about bore pics from my 30-06. The gun is 22+ years old and has seen approximately 400-500 rounds over its life. I took these pics after cleaning and need some input. Maybe there is a condition in the bore that is poor or maybe my cleaning practices need to improve (that's what I'm hoping).

Pic 1 & 2 both look good to me, but maybe from the light being better closer to the chamber.View attachment 1213651View attachment 1213652

I get to Pic 3 and it looks much different
View attachment 1213653
On Pic 4 a second dark line appears.
View attachment 1213658
Pic 5 shows a break in the discoloration at the muzzle. Definitely questioning my cleaning at this point.
View attachment 1213659
Pic 6 has what looks to me like pitting? The only spot I noticed when running the borescope.
View attachment 1213660
Any suggestions? It's pics 3 & 4 that have me puzzled. I used Hoppes No. 9 on patches and I also ran a light dose of Butch's bore shine too.

Not much you can do about the pitting, otherwise the bore looks good except a little dirty due still due to the carbon an copper fouling. What works really, really well for me to get rid of this kind of stuff from my barrels is Flitz Bore Cleaner. I soak a bronze brush with it and a few swipes along the whole barrel, patch out the residue and the bore become clean, bright and shinny.

 

[jmkasza]

Not much you can do about the pitting, otherwise the bore looks good except a little dirty due still due to the carbon an copper fouling. What works really, really well for me to get rid of this kind of stuff from my barrels is Flitz Bore Cleaner. I soak a bronze brush with it and a few swipes along the whole barrel, patch out the residue and the bore become clean, bright and shinny.

Thank you for the reply. I'll start by giving it another cleaning with what I have on hand see how it looks. Never tried Flitz before, but I'm open to trying it if I can't get it clean enough with what I have.

 

[divingin]

That pitting looks pretty normal for a factory barrel. My Rem700 factory barrel looked much worse.

The first couple of pics are acceptable, but still show a bit of carbon (especially in the corners of the land/groove junctions.) 3 and 4 have a ton of copper, and the dark lines are more carbon.

At least that's my take on it.

 

[josh shrum]

The pitting is what it is, not much you can do about it.

From your pics it looks like copper and carbon fouling.

I like to use Boretech C4 carbon remover and Boretech Cu2 Copper remover. There are plenty of other products out there that work just as well.

The Boretech is my go to because you can let it soak without worrying about damaging the steel. Again, there are lots of other products that can do this.

Go after one (copper or carbon) before you try to tackle the other. Usually I find that I can get the carbon out using just wet patches, without needing to brush. I like to get the carbon first, as I feel I can see when the copper cleans up better if my patches are not coming out grey/black. After you do the carbon you can go after the copper, your patches will come out blue as the copper is broken down. Once you stop seeing blue you are copper free.

If you are already familiar with this I apologize, I would rather overwhelm than underwhelm when it comes to info!

Josh

 

[billlarson]

Thank you for the reply. I'll start by giving it another cleaning with what I have on hand see how it looks. Never tried Flitz before, but I'm open to trying it if I can't get it clean enough with what I have.

Years ago I spent 700$ on a Hawkeye.A friend of mine with a Hawkeye told me if I was satisfied with a rifle don,t look at it...Did you know you can get a bore too clean,and smooth....???? Especially a factory barrel.If you,ve used the gun 20 yrs.and was satisfied...I would check it,s accuracy if it has,nt changed i.e.gotten worse leave it alone.
OMHO
bill

 

[jmkasza]

Years ago I spent 700$ on a Hawkeye.A friend of mine with a Hawkeye told me if I was satisfied with a rifle don,t look at it...Did you know you can get a bore too clean,and smooth....???? Especially a factory barrel.If you,ve used the gun 20 yrs.and was satisfied...I would check it,s accuracy if it has,nt changed i.e.gotten worse leave it alone.
OMHO
bill

Thanks for the reply. To build on it, no, I am not satisfied with the accuracy. I bought it the summer after high school graduation so I could finally have my own Left Handed bolt action. Fast forward 22 years and I want better accuracy. The better of the loads I’ve tried come in 1.5-2” at 100 yards.

I’m making this my next project, with the goal being consistent accuracy of 1” or less at 100 yards. So, I wanted to scope the barrel to make sure there are not any obvious flaws in the barrel before investing further time/money in it. It definitely would benefit from a new trigger, and that will happen soon,, but before that I want to shoot some more groups once I get the barrel cleaned sufficiently.

And as a key takeaway from the comments so far I need to keep working on my cleaning skills/process. I’m still learning

 

[INShooter]

A good bedding job will no doubt help if it has not been done.

 

[243Lapua]

I wouldn't worry to much. Pictures show minimal carbon and copper. Pitting is nothing. Keep on shooting it.

 

[Straightshooter1]

Thanks for the reply. To build on it, no, I am not satisfied with the accuracy. I bought it the summer after high school graduation so I could finally have my own Left Handed bolt action. Fast forward 22 years and I want better accuracy. The better of the loads I’ve tried come in 1.5-2” at 100 yards.

I’m making this my next project, with the goal being consistent accuracy of 1” or less at 100 yards. So, I wanted to scope the barrel to make sure there are not any obvious flaws in the barrel before investing further time/money in it. It definitely would benefit from a new trigger, and that will happen soon,, but before that I want to shoot some more groups once I get the barrel cleaned sufficiently.

And as a key takeaway from the comments so far I need to keep working on my cleaning skills/process. I’m still learning

If you get your bore "too clean" as mentioned (that'd be the "shiny" clean I mentioned), just be aware that it'll then take a couple of fouler shots to get the barrel "seasoned" (for lack of a better term). Once the fouling shots are done, you should be able to see how well the barrel does with the particular cartridges you're firing. And if you want 1" or less, you'll want to be sure to use factory match grade ammo or some well tuned hand loaded ones.

 

[338 dude]

I have some newbie questions about bore pics from my 30-06. The gun is 22+ years old and has seen approximately 400-500 rounds over its life. I took these pics after cleaning and need some input. Maybe there is a condition in the bore that is poor or maybe my cleaning practices need to improve (that's what I'm hoping).

Pic 1 & 2 both look good to me, but maybe from the light being better closer to the chamber.View attachment 1213651View attachment 1213652

I get to Pic 3 and it looks much different
View attachment 1213653
On Pic 4 a second dark line appears.
View attachment 1213658
Pic 5 shows a break in the discoloration at the muzzle. Definitely questioning my cleaning at this point.
View attachment 1213659
Pic 6 has what looks to me like pitting? The only spot I noticed when running the borescope.
View attachment 1213660
Any suggestions? It's pics 3 & 4 that have me puzzled. I used Hoppes No. 9 on patches and I also ran a light dose of Butch's bore shine too.

It looks pretty good for a rifle of that age I would just hit it with a little JB all in all it looks great cleaning doesn’t look too bad it’s just adding up little by little possibly like I said try some JB bore bright

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Just a bit of hard carbon and copper. Bronze brush between soaks and a bit of flitz or jb and itll look new. Its not bad at all

 

[kelbro]

Most stock 700LHs in 30-06 will shoot better than that if you develop your own loads. Don't let that pencil barrel get overheated.

 

[bobm]

Here are some pictures taken yesterday of my 30 yr. old Win. M70 push feed stainless .30-06. This rifle has exactly 3571 shots fired with only one load. Right away 56.0 grs. I4350 with 180 gr. Sierra Game Kings delivered outstanding accuracy. All shots have been with this load only. It has taken many game animals and gets out to the to the range frequently for offhand practice shooting. It still shoots this load very well. But, a few days ago I had a couple of unexplained flyers when shooting at 300M from a bench rest.

In 30 years I have never made an attempt to fully remove the copper from the bore, but did so yesterday. My usual cleaning routine is a dozen passes with a Hoppes BR #9 wet bronze brush, used in both directions, followed with dry patches. Accuracy always stayed the same.

This time I used Montana Extreme copper solvent, the .50 cal. full strength stuff. I highly recommend using this solvent outdoors. Don't use this stuff indoors. I cleaned the rifle in my garage with all doors open. The ammonia smell is very strong. I followed the container directions using a stiff nylon brush. I also used JB compound on wet patches between applications. The result was all traces of copper were removed with three cleaning cycles.

Note the lack of throat erosion for a barrel fired more than 3500 shots.


Before cleaning random location pictures.

 

[bobm]

......after cleaning random location pictures.

 

[kelbro]

Uh-oh, you cleaned the MoJo off that one!

 

[bobm]

.....I am confidant the accuracy will return in only a few shots.

Back awhile I got a wild hair to shoot a few silhouette matches with this rifle. I put a spare Leupold 20X on and made a dozen test rounds. This was a keeper target. I shot some great scores with it but as expected the recoil was too much. In about a month I'll have it out to fill a cow elk tag.

To the OP......start using a bronze brush when cleaning.

 

[msinc]

Well, no one has mentioned it....but based on what I am seeing if the accuracy has depleted I'd have a good look at the throat. That bore, if indeed factory, looks fine as far as the rifling is concerned. Most factory barrels show a lot more tooling marks then that one. Don't get me wrong, I am seeing some copper fouling caked on the lands and that can cost you some accuracy too.
The biggest difference between products like JB Bore Cleaner, Flitz or Remington Bore Cleaner {the one that looks like gray mud and has a little rattle ball in the container} and solvent types like Shooters Choice is how fast they work. If you want it out right now use JB, if you don't mind doing some soaking Shooters Choice is excellent. Bottom line, lets see that throat and then get the copper out and try again. Best of luck!!!

 

[bobm]

I was out again this morning with the M70. It's back to shooting good even in windy conditions. Video shows hits on my 18" gong from the bench at 300 meters. I fired as fast as I could get the 10x Leupold centered. I fired 90 shots total practicing basic field positions, sitting , standing, kneeling. Just finished cleaning the gun, copper buildup is light.

 

[INTJ]

I agree that there is no need to get a bore bare metal clean because it will likely need a few shots worth of fouling before its shooting well again. However, I do think it's good to occasionally take a bore to bare metal to make sure all the hard carbon is out. Like every 500 rounds, or maybe if you get an old rifle that hasn't been cleaned in a long time. This is the time to use the abrasives on a bronze brush or maybe even Iosso on hard nylon brushes.

Other than that, mostly clean is fine. By mostly clean I mean no carbon on the lands, just a little in the grooves, no carbon ring, and no excessive copper.