Thanks, you know the barrel will not be competitive but still makes a great groundhog or crow gun!! You can sure buy my used barrel a lot cheaper than buying the barrel and gunsmith work to hunt GHs!
This is what I try my best to do.
It's been my experience - even before using Thorroclean. I think a lot has to do with how hard you are pushing the loads and how fast you shoot your strings of fire. I have no evidence to back this up, but I believe even if you baby your barrel as much as possible, you're not going to see THAT much of improved barrel life. Of course you can take this to extremes and burn out a barrel in one sitting, but I'm talking about normal competitive use.
My understanding is that 'rapid fire' - shooting more than a round a minute - will erode the throat ~ 2X.
I have found this scenario to be true over three rifles this year. My theory is the heat damaged metal in the throat and lead are softer than the rest of the barrel and are peeled off with each stroke of the abrasive. I thought it was crazy that after using thorroclean my touch moved .015 after 100 rounds in a dasher. That was a polishing session that took the barrel back down to new looking. So Alex is it best to use abrasives once groups open up or some other scenario?
Alex, thanks for taking your time to weigh in.. much appreciated. I believe I read that Montana Extreme Copper remover and bronze brushing works good… that may have been from you. Is that true? I am working my way through my first barrel 6BRA and bought a bore scope around 500 rounds and wow did I ever have hard carbon. Bought Thorrounclean and it really worked. Just retired and shooting 150-200 rounds at 1000 per week….. Ive upgraded much of my reloading practices.. competents etc. Adjusting the cleaning process as the barrels ages seems to make the most sense. Appreciate any response in advance. Gil
Hey Alex,
I use it every other cleaning which means once every 100-120 rounds. That seems fine to me as it’s on the cusp of letting carbon build too long vs. over-use of abrasives…and I’m not sure that there is any harm in using every cleaning so long as good rod technique and a good 2 piece tight fitting bore guide is used. In my opinion, it’s not these mild abrasive bore cleaners that cause damage but rather improper technique while stroking bore or non-use of a good bore guide, etc. the damage that some claim to have suffered at the hands of abrasive bore cleaners possibly would have seen the same damage if no abrasive was used. YMMV
In other words with your particular abrasive used coupled with good rod technique, the throat is not advancing faster with your abrasive use.
Borescope pics can be a little difficult to read, but, it does like there's lots [and lots] of carbon left. It's the dark areas in the grooves I'm thinking of.
Pic 3080 looks like my barrels.....until I use JB or Iosso which I do every 100 rounds or so (FTR) to remove the black lines, almost ridges, of carbon. WipeOut/PatchOut gets me to about the same place as your Pic 3080, then I need to use JB if not Iosso.
We need to remember that picture through a bore scope is magnified a LOT, I've never been about to get the carbon out of the groove corners, the throughclean does an excellent job, I've started using it after a match, I tested some bullets the other day, cleaned at the range and when I got home looked at the barrel through the scope and couldn't believe how bad it looked, 45 minutes later using the through clean the barrel looked "almost" new (it is a new barrel with 201 rounds).
I've found using Iosso/Flitz on a really tight fitting patch on a parker hale jag will get all the way into the corners. I use a lubricant to help the patch get into the bore.
Mine looks like it’s all scratched to hell from the bronze brush.
Agree. There was a video some time ago about this, I think one of Speedy Gonzales', - allow the new clean patch to extend past the end of the PH jag by about 1/3 its length, smear the inside of the patch that extends beyond the tip with Iosso/JB then fold it back over itself and the jag, roll the patch in the normal way around the jag and smear the outside of the patch. The top 1/3 forms a sort of bulb that gets down into the grooves and corners.
