Barrel Cleaning: A Discovery

[Gargoyle]

The discovery:

Patches will forever come out black after bronze bore brushing, even when the barrel/bore is whistle clean. I attempted for hours to get the black to stop. It never will.

Methods/solvents:

Hoppes #9 foaming cleaner:

- 1 hour sit. Wet/dry patched dry with alcohol till dry patches white
- Flitz suspended in CLP using long & short strokes. Wet/Dry patch with alcohol till patches white
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white...

Wipeout foaming cleaner with same procedure in same barrel and:

- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white...

I ensured that the black wasn't a false read from potential carbon fiber scraping off the rod. Rod was not making contact in the barrel. Bore scope showing clean. Feel of the oiled patch smooth as velvet going through bore. Alcohol patches howling.

So, what is the black coming out of a clean barrel after bronze brushing? I don't care. I am doing 1 foam, one flitz, micro layer of CLP in bore and go on with life.

 

[whatsupdoc]

Post some pictures of the patches.

 

[cwebster]

Bronze brush filings. Get a scope

 

[JEFFPPC]

I don't have an answer except now you own a smooth bore.

 

[shoot4fun]

@Gargoyle how do you clean that bronze brush between uses?

 

[6BRA]

How many rounds were through it? Sounds like it still isn't clean. Bronze brush ok/ cleaning agent probably not the best. They will come out clean patches when the bore is clean. You may be amazed as to how much comes out. I clean with boretech eliminator..then dry patch. Then wet patch twice with kroil...let sit for 1 to 2 days..then back at it...follow with JB ..you may be shocked after the Kroil 48 hour soak...jmo

 

[Gargoyle]

Bronze brush filings. Get a scope

Get some reading glasses!

 

[Gargoyle]

I don't have an answer except now you own a smooth bore.

Rifling looks quite sharp still in all barrels. You really think this stuff is gonna smooth bore a rifling, or you just being facetious?

 

[Gargoyle]

@Gargoyle how do you clean that bronze brush between uses?

Alcohol and even tried new brushes.

 

[Gargoyle]

How many rounds were through it? Sounds like it still isn't clean. Bronze brush ok/ cleaning agent probably not the best. They will come out clean patches when the bore is clean. You may be amazed as to how much comes out. I clean with boretech eliminator..then dry patch. Then wet patch twice with kroil...let sit for 1 to 2 days..then back at it...follow with JB ..you may be shocked after the Kroil 48 hour soak...jmo

I did this with a 416R stainless, 416R stainless nitrided, and a 4150 CMV. Same results each one. Hundreds of patches used. All will show black after brushing.

Two of the barrels were cleaned with free all soaked overnight & flitzed. Free All is too strong of smell to use indoors, or to even use at all. It didn't seem to free anymore carbon than the Hoppes and Wipe-Out foam cleaners.

 

[INTJ]

I used to have this issue all the time. I fixed it by pulling the bore guide after scrubbing and cleaning out the chamber. I find solvent/crud collects at the front of the bore guide and is often picked up by the patch. Usually a couple patches wrapped on a large nylon brush, wetted with alcohol, is all it takes to clean the chamber.

I went from never getting all the dark stuff off the bore patches to taking only 2-3 to get a clean patch.

 

[CSLR grandpa]

Gargoyle does the rifle have a muzzle break on it, if the patch is showing dark at the tail end?

 

[Gargoyle]

I used to have this issue all the time. I fixed it by pulling the bore guide after scrubbing and cleaning out the chamber. I find solvent/crud collects at the front of the bore guide and is often picked up by the patch. Usually a couple patches wrapped on a large nylon brush, wetted with alcohol, is all it takes to clean the chamber.

I went from never getting all the dark stuff off the bore patches to taking only 2-3 to get a clean patch.

Good points. I thought about this and made sure any false positives were out of the equation. A soaked patch would come out soaked with nothing but solvent. Brush it 10-15 strokes, that same soaked patch come out black.

 

[Gargoyle]

Gargoyle does the rifle have a muzzle break on it, if the patch is showing dark at the tail end?

One of them did. two did not have brakes. I thoroughly cleaned that muzzle brake too. That took some scrubbing and soaking too. Eventually, I got the brake clean by letting Wipeout sit on it a coupe hours. I let wipe out clean my bolt carrier groups too. Works great on nitrided bolt carriers.

 

[JEFFPPC]

You have your answer. You bronze brush and you will get black. Just the way it seems to be. If you use Iosso and Hoppes mixed you can make it shine. As far as the carbon with chemicals, keep the bore wet with Hoppes/ Kroil for a week then patch it out. There are a bazillion or so cleaning treads, use the search function and you can read for months.

 

[Gargoyle]

You have your answer. You bronze brush and you will get black. Just the way it seems to be. If you use Iosso and Hoppes mixed you can make it shine. As far as the carbon with chemicals, keep the bore wet with Hoppes/ Kroil for a week then patch it out. There are a bazillion or so cleaning treads, use the search function and you can read for months.

In all those bazillion or so threads, not one mention that its impossible to get a white patch after bronze brushing. Flitz in a CLP suspension must work like the Iosso & Hoppes you mentioned. I couldn't even use my borescope light the bores are so shiny. ABSOLUTELY ZERO copper fouling after all this! LOL!

 

[jelenko]

The discovery:

Patches will forever come out black after bronze bore brushing, even when the barrel/bore is whistle clean. I attempted for hours to get the black to stop. It never will.

Methods/solvents:

Hoppes #9 foaming cleaner:

- 1 hour sit. Wet/dry patched dry with alcohol till dry patches white
- Flitz suspended in CLP using long & short strokes. Wet/Dry patch with alcohol till patches white
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white...

Wipeout foaming cleaner with same procedure in same barrel and:

- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white.
- CLP on bronze brush 10-50 strokes. Wet/dry patched with CLP/alcohol till patches white...

I ensured that the black wasn't a false read from potential carbon fiber scraping off the rod. Rod was not making contact in the barrel. Bore scope showing clean. Feel of the oiled patch smooth as velvet going through bore. Alcohol patches howling.

So, what is the black coming out of a clean barrel after bronze brushing? I don't care. I am doing 1 foam, one flitz, micro layer of CLP in bore and go on with life.

Wow. That was a piece of work!

I've done the same except rubbed the bronze brush on the clean outside of the barrel. Wiping with a clean cloth shows the same black that you got out of the bore.

 

[Beiruty]

The barrel life went down by 2% (random number).
Seriously. Bullet would not care much, it is travelling at supersonic speed 0.4ms in the barrel.

 

[mikecr]

I would stop using Flitz

 

[jelenko]

The barrel life went down by 2% (random number).
Seriously. Bullet would not care much, it is travelling at supersonic speed 0.4sec in the barrel.

I think the bullet is in the barrel for ~ 1-2 millisecond - i.e., .001 sec.