Flitz Bore Cleaner

[Ruger15151]

I purchased a bottle of this last year and it set on the shelf until last weekend. I have a 7mm barrel that has about 1700 rounds down it and is getting much harder to clean. I'm sure it's at or very near the end of its useful life.

Having nothing to lose, I tried Flitz Bore Cleaner for the first time. It worked amazing well on the powder fouling, copper, and hard carbon. This barrel has required an abrasive like Iosso as the last step for every cleaning for about the last 400 rounds.

The Flitz bore cleaner removed everything and brought the barrel back shiny bare metal in about 40 strokes with an Iosso nylon brush. I have tried just about everything from Boretech, Montana, Patch out, Butches, Iosso and JB bore paste, etc and nothing has worked as well or as quickly as the Flitz bore cleaner.

My question... does anyone have any experience with this bore cleaner? It says that is does not have abrasives and yet still removed the hard carbon quickly. I am concerned that if I use it with every cleaning on a new barrel that it will shorten the life of the barrel like aggressively using Iosso paste can.

I'm referring to long range competitors and their competition barrels.

Would love to know your experience with this stuff.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I purchased a bottle of this last year and it set on the shelf until last weekend. I have a 7mm barrel that has about 1700 rounds down it and is getting much harder to clean. I'm sure it's at or very near the end of its useful life.

Having nothing to lose, I tried Flitz Bore Cleaner for the first time. It worked amazing well on the powder fouling, copper, and hard carbon. This barrel has required an abrasive like Iosso as the last step for every cleaning for about the last 400 rounds.

The Flitz bore cleaner removed everything and brought the barrel back shiny bare metal in about 40 strokes with an Iosso nylon brush. I have tried just about everything from Boretech, Montana, Patch out, Butches, Iosso and JB bore paste, etc and nothing has worked as well or as quickly as the Flitz bore cleaner.

My question... does anyone have any experience with this bore cleaner? It says that is does not have abrasives and yet still removed the hard carbon quickly. I am concerned that if I use it with every cleaning on a new barrel that it will shorten the life of the barrel like aggressively using Iosso paste can.

Would love to know your experience with this stuff.

I use it regularly on all my barrels as I get the same kind of results you get. Though most of the time, I try not to remove all the fouling so that first cleaned barrel cold bore shots are where they're supposed to be. I like Flitz Bore Cleaner a lot.

 

[Ruger15151]

I use it regularly on all my barrels as I get the same kind of results you get. Though most of the time, I try not to remove all the fouling so that first cleaned barrel cold bore shots are where they're supposed to be. I like Flitz Bore Cleaner a lot.

Have you experienced any reduced barrel life with it?

 

[ricco1949]

I used regular Flitz fiberglass polish for years before they came out with the Flitz Bore Cleaner.

It did a better job than anything cleaning the last carbon from my barrels after a hard 300-400 round day prairie doggin'.

Tried JB and Isso but Flitz always worked the best. Carbon the others left in the bore the Flitz removed.

 

[jelenko]

I've found it more effective than Iosso and a LOT more effective than JB.

When they say it doesn't have abrasives, it depends on what you mean by 'abrasives'.

I think what they claim is it's 'non abrasive' - which I take to mean it won't hurt my barrel. But, guaranteed it has what I call abrasives to remove that hard carbon.

 

[Straightshooter1]

Have you experienced any reduced barrel life with it?

Nope. Though I haven't don't any comparison testing, I feel I get some pretty good life out of my barrels. Like my 6.5 PRC has 1760 rounds through it (got a new barrel waiting to mount when this one starts not shooting under .5"). And my last .308 barrel had over 5500 rounds with a lot of hot loads (and probably could have gone longer).

 

[mauser284]

Well old guys like me know of Flitz as a metal polish not a bore cleaner per-say. Gun guys have been using Flitz metal polish for decades. Normaly me and my friends would use it once a year. Most us used either a mop or a brush with a patch around it.

The Flitz I use comes in a metal tube like a toothpaste tube from the past. It was treated about like JB's in that you did not use it every time you cleaned it was more of an anaul thing or when copper fouling just refused to come out.

 

[CaptainMal]

That's a very expensive product - appx $20 for 8 ounces. You are supposed to use it with a bronze brush. then I read where it is thick and kind of hard to get out.

Wondering if it is the brush doing the work. Sure hope it works on carbon and does well without the brush. Then it would be worth it.

 

[PopCharlie]

My experience with Flitz was less positive. I was unable to get hard carbon out using it. I did finally get the carbon out using other products. Now I use the Flitz to re-constitute corncob tumbler media, which works well. So, all good.

PopCharlie

 

[rwj]

My question... does anyone have any experience with this bore cleaner? It says that is does not have abrasives and yet still removed the hard carbon quickly. I am concerned that if I use it with every cleaning on a new barrel that it will shorten the life of the barrel like aggressively using Iosso paste can.

This is the ingredients list for Flitz Bore Cleaner. It contains aluminum oxide which is very hard. Being listed as a “polishing agent” suggests small particle size and concentration. I have used Flitz metal cleaner (nearly identical ingredients) to clean barrel throats/leades based on visual inspection - that being after approximately 300/500 rounds. I’ve never seen the need to use it (or any abrasive cleaner) every cleaning nor for the full barrel length.

 

[jelenko]

That's a very expensive product - appx $20 for 8 ounces. You are supposed to use it with a bronze brush. then I read where it is thick and kind of hard to get out.

Wondering if it is the brush doing the work. Sure hope it works on carbon and does well without the brush. Then it would be worth it.

I use it with a patch wrapped around a parker hale.

I did try it on a nylon brush. Worked pretty good but what a mess on the brush. I was uncomfortable reusing it.

 

[One Eye Pete]

I use Flitz bore cleaner approx every 300+ rounds on my 7mm F-open rifles as needed. First I clean the bore thoroughly with a bronze brush and carbon remover. Then I soak a 30 cal VFG felt pellet with the Flitz cleaner and run it back and forth approximately 24 strokes. Generally I do more strokes in the throat area and less towards the muzzle end. I never push the pellet out past the crown. After the Flits I thoroughly clean it out of the bore with patches and a cleaner such as M Pro7. Using the Flitz in this manner is very effective. I always check with a bore scope and the bore is almost always shiny and clean with no signs of grooving from the abrasive. I believe the Flits does contain a very fine abrasive as even in a perfectly clean bore the pellet will come out black indicating metal removal. I would say the Flitz is more effective than any non abrasive bore cleaner and generally contains a finer abrasive than many of the other cleaners containing abrasives. I would not recommend using any cleaner containing an abrasive every time you clean.

 

[CaptainMal]

I use Flitz bore cleaner approx every 300+ rounds on my 7mm F-open rifles as needed. First I clean the bore thoroughly with a bronze brush and carbon remover. Then I soak a 30 cal VFG felt pellet with the Flitz cleaner and run it back and forth approximately 24 strokes. Generally I do more strokes in the throat area and less towards the muzzle end. I never push the pellet out past the crown. After the Flits I thoroughly clean it out of the bore with patches and a cleaner such as M Pro7. Using the Flitz in this manner is very effective. I always check with a bore scope and the bore is almost always shiny and clean with no signs of grooving from the abrasive. I believe the Flits does contain a very fine abrasive as even in a perfectly clean bore the pellet will come out black indicating metal removal. I would say the Flitz is more effective than any non abrasive bore cleaner and generally contains a finer abrasive than many of the other cleaners containing abrasives. I would not recommend using any cleaner containing an abrasive every time you clean.

Did not know that that "black" indicated metal removal. I get that all the time using Iosso. Also get black good, guess carbon, using SLR and even a little with Bore Tech products.

As for using a bronze brush with carbon cleaner of some kind, if that works you probably do not need the Flitz bore cleaner.

Always looking for the magic potion to get rid of nasty carbon from all my BR-based cartridge rifles. No matter the powder they pack with carbon every couple hundred rounds or less. Then near up velocity increases 100 fps or more with pressure signs.

 

[Bronsin]

I use it on a patch around a nylon brush after every agg, about 40 rounds or so. It only takes 5 strokes to get all the carbon out. Experiment with it. I used to do far too much cleaning with it, but even then the barrel life was good. I tore the throat right out of a barrel with another abrasive product, but Flitz has worked better for me than anything else.

 

[Chaotik]

I use Flitz bore cleaner routinely, and have been for several years. I use it early in my cleaning process, usually after letting the barrel soak in Free All. It's messy when used on a brush (which I routinely do), but it works well. I shoot long range competition benchrest, and can't say that it has contributed to shortening my barrel life. But then you have to define typical barrel life for use in longrange competition, and they are lots of varied opinions on this topic.

 

[urbanrifleman]

I use Flitz at every single cleaning. I recommend it to all my customers. A bottle of Bortech Eliminator and a bottle of Flitz with a good tight patch is all you need to clean a barrel

 

[foxguy]

I use Flitz bore cleaner routinely, and have been for several years. I use it early in my cleaning process, usually after letting the barrel soak in Free All. It's messy when used on a brush (which I routinely do), but it works well. I shoot long range competition benchrest, and can't say that it has contributed to shortening my barrel life. But then you have to define typical barrel life for use in longrange competition, and they are lots of varied opinions on this topic.

What kind of brush are you using?

 

[foxguy]

I use Flitz at every single cleaning. I recommend it to all my customers. A bottle of Bortech Eliminator and a bottle of Flitz with a good tight patch is all you need to clean a barrel

Would you share your cleaning process? Please.

 

[Chaotik]

What kind of brush are you using?

I usually use a worn bronze brush, or sometimes a nylon brush.

 

[ricco1949]

Would you share your cleaning process? Please.

I have always applied it to a patch wrapped around the full length of a Parker Hale type jag and short stroked it to the muzzle working the first third of the barrel the most. I never pull it back in through the crown.