Most bore cleaners are corrosive most say remove withing fifteen mins. Clean with good oil Ammonia ones are scary to me. I stick with hoppes smells like kerosene probaly what it is.
ATTN: CLR users...
- Thread starter ridgeway
- Start date
I used to clean with Hoppes, but it's not enough to properly clean a barrel. I experimented by cleaning a barrel with Hoppes until the patches came out clean and then I switched to CLR and it was like I never even used the Hoppes! Honestly, CLR is awesome on stainless barrels.
Great story
I was very disappointed in the unreasonable price jump of my favorite carbon cleaner KG-1 and decided to try CLR. Well, my results were GREAT!!! I ran 6 patches and let it soak for 10 minutes following with 4 IPA /ha-ha/ patches. Next was to see if KG-1 would get some more crud out, so I soaked the bore for 15 minutes, to my pleasant surprise all the patches came out clean. The CLR patches came out super dirty.
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I will probably get an ear full over this but how are you guys running into these carbon problems? I shoot some pretty big overbore calibers and have been for years and never really had a carbon problem. I clean every 30 to 40 rounds I use a bronze brush to start with about 10 to 12 passes through the bore I take the brush off when it comes out the muzzle I do not pull it back through. To remove copper I use KG copper remover on patches and let that sit for a few minutes and most of the time its clean.
If I do see some carbon left which rarely happens a patch or two of JB bore brite or KG bore polish gets it gone like right now. For guys that are scared to run the bore brite or polish the KG carbon remover works pretty good. Its really not a science on cleaning a barrel.
If I do see some carbon left which rarely happens a patch or two of JB bore brite or KG bore polish gets it gone like right now. For guys that are scared to run the bore brite or polish the KG carbon remover works pretty good. Its really not a science on cleaning a barrel.
I think you answered your own question. if you are cleaning your barrel every 30 or 40 rounds, I’d sure hope you don’t get any carbon buildup. I clean about every 200.
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If I shoot a match it's going to be 60-90 rounds/day for 2 or more days. The barrels shoot just as well after 200 rounds as they do after 10, so I'm not going to waste my time cleaning it 2x/day or more, and I generally don't see anybody else doing that either. Especially when CLR takes the carbon right out. Do you change the oil in your car every 1000 miles too?Thats why you are getting carbon. To the guys out there doing this quit being lazy.
Good luck finding the time to clean between relays during a F-class or HP match. Laziness has nothing to do with it...unless your too lazy to go out and shoot such a matchThats why you are getting carbon. To the guys out there doing this quit being lazy.
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Id be willing to bet a coke that it doesnt shoot as good at 200 as it does at 10. Ill buy that it may still meet your accuracy standards, but there isnt a barrel ever made that shoots as good dirty as it does right after fouling. In the pure accuracy games (not to be confused with precision games) theres a reason those barrels get cleaned after every target.
It shoots as good as it's capable of being shot, so cleaning 3 times as often has no effect. How about that?
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Thatll work for sure
jelenko
Gold $$ Contributor
What discipline do you compete in?Thats why you are getting carbon. To the guys out there doing this quit being lazy.
Since I started building rifles I do not shoot as much as I used to maybe 1000 rounds a year. Before that I was shooting over 5000 rounds a year of centerfire alone and most of that was with magnums. Add in what I shot competing in rimfire and I was well over 10,000 rounds a year easy. I always made time to clean my rifles.
It takes about 10 minutes to clean a rifle with the method I mentioned. If you dont want to clean thats your choice but your rifle does not shoot as good with 200 rounds as it does clean that I do know. So if you want carbon problems by all means bang away and clean less.
It takes about 10 minutes to clean a rifle with the method I mentioned. If you dont want to clean thats your choice but your rifle does not shoot as good with 200 rounds as it does clean that I do know. So if you want carbon problems by all means bang away and clean less.
What if we bang away, clean less, and don’t have carbon problems?
You’d better start a new topic to let all of the Highpower and f-class shooters know that they need to start cleaning their rifles twice a day at matches, because that isn’t really happening currently. Important info like that could easily get lost in a thread this long.
It’s amazing that any good scores are ever fired after noon.
Whether I shoot 40 rounds or 200 rounds over a day or weekend the key is to get the carbon out before it has time to harden in the bore. I clean after each match, usually at the end of the day or at the end of the weekend. I have shot 20-40 practice rounds over 2-3 weekends without cleaning then shot a 2 day match and I can tell you I had to fill the bore with solvent to get the hard streaks of carbon out.
For me, time is the key, not letting the carbon stay in the barrel too long, whether its 10 rounds or 200 rounds.
Martin
For me, time is the key, not letting the carbon stay in the barrel too long, whether its 10 rounds or 200 rounds.
Martin
Retired Grunt
F Open Shooter
I have been shooting since I was a kid, an active duty career and was always told if you shoot it, clean it. I was talking with the Match Director at a practice about always shooting a mid 180's in my first string, he gave it some thought and asked me if I clean after I shoot it, I said yes that's what I was taught to do. Well he said start cleaning every 300 rounds or so. I didn't clean it after that practice and went to the last match and shot a 198-12 X 1st string. It definitely boosted my confidence.
I tried the CLR on my match .223 AR and I never saw any carbon come out. Either it didn't work or I cleaned the carbon out the last time. The last time was with Hoppes followed by JB bore paste. May have used SLP 2000 also.
jelenko
Gold $$ Contributor
My question wasn't about the number of rounds but about the experience you have with shooting in non small bore competition matches. [I'm assuming you didn't clean the barrel during the small bore matches.]
It's just difficult to imagine how we're going to take time out to clean a barrel when our time is fully occupied with shooting, scoring or pulling pits. Matches are generally run as fast as competitors can go - not much time to clean. And, in several disciplines, the firing lines move from yard line to yard line. With all the equipment needed just to support shooting, dragging along more stuff would be problematical.
It's with these conditions in mind that I and others see as impractical the idea of cleaning every 30-40 rounds or even less than a full match worth.
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