For normal cleaning the brush is passed back and forth through the length of the barrel, and the brush is sized to the groove diameter of the barrel, not the chamber neck diameter. By going up a caliber in brush size and using a twisting motion while the brush is in the part you want to clean, you can get some benefit from the brush for removing a carbon ring at the end of the case neck part of the chamber. If your rod guide will let the larger brush pass, you can use it, but it is really not needed because the rod never gets into the throat for this operation. What you want is a rod that is of a convenient length that has a handle that is fixed to the rod rather than having bearings. There have been plenty of posts about what sort of cleaning liquids or abrasives different shooters prefer. Do you own a bore scope?
This is the kind of evidence (before and after) performance results that is meaningful, at least to me. Thanks for posting.
In my experience, if a bore cleaning product “works” by removing that hard carbon from throat forward 6” then it is most likely an abrasive bore cleaning product. I say this because I know of no liquid solvent that will remove that hard glazed carbon build-up. Brushing a lot…and I mean a lot with something like Free All may put a a dent in the hard carbon but you will be in the 100’s of brushing cycles to notice a difference. Why not just judiciously remove that crap the most efficient way and that is with an abrasive bore product such as Iosso, Thorroclean (which I believe to be a liquid type of Iosso), Flitz Bore Cleaner, JB (the gray JB with blue cap), KG2, Montana Extreme Copper Cream, or in extreme neglected cases - Holland’s Witches Brew. I prefer Iosso or Thorroclean using Iosso Blue Nylon brushes according to Iosso’s instructions. That never fails me in rather quickly removing all traces of any fouling. It really is a simple and effective solution without aimlessly hoping for and trying all sorts of liquid solvents that are not going to cut it.
Could you elaborate on this a little. TKS
Yes, please explain
I use a old arrow that I cut the broad head insert off, sand the shaft until it fits snug in the neck of the chamber, I used to use Rem 40x on the shaft but now I use a small amount of Thorroclean, insert shaft into chamber neck and work it back and forth and spin it around in the neck. This will break up most of the carbon if it’s not too hard but as previously mentioned you have to stay on top of the carbon ring and not let it get out of hand.
People who have not competed in short range groups matches lack the experience to understand fully why those that do clean differently than they do. If the match has a single relay, a shooter may only have 30 minutes to attend to loading the ammunition for his next match and getting his barrel clean enough to shoot sub .2 groups if the conditions allow. This situation is unique to this sport. In competition barrels are consumables. As someone once said to me, that is why they have threads. If one is not operating under these constraints, then a different approach may be used.
What powder are you using and how often do you clean?
This is exactly my process as well.
Might be the #1 or #2 reason I could never get into SR Benchrest!
I'm using vv130 with light pass with 3 patches every 10 rounds . And a good cleaning before I leave the range .
