Cleaning method for barrel?

[paid2shoot]

Hey Guys-
I am new here. I shoot a lot. Please pardon me for not having any 6mm's. I am here to learn from you. I can see by your website that everyone here cares about accuracy and many of you know some good info about barrels. So here it goes...

Me and the guys at work spend a lot of time talking about barrel cleaning. What is a good method for barrel cleaning? Say I fire 20-40 rounds of non-moly SMK's out of my .308 Win.
-What kind of solvent?
-What kind of brush?
-what kind of jag?
-what kind of patches?
-what kind of rod?
-how many strokes down the bore?

Currently using: Kroil and JB, sometimes hoppes #9 after, regular wire brushes Sinclaire phosphor bronze, .30 cal. wrap around jag- Sinclaire cotton patches, dewey nylon coated,sinclair bore guide, one stroke for each round.

Also very interested in a method that gives a repeatable cold, clean bore first shot

How many rounds should I expect for barrel life with Federal Gold Medal Match 168 grn. factory .308, 20" bbl., 6 groove, 1x10, rem 700? Not sure if it is stainless, quite possibly not.

 

[Forum Boss]

Well you've sort of opened Pandora's box here. There are as many cleaning methods as there are rifles. And each barrel is different. A hand-lapped Lilja 3-groove will show a fraction of the copper fouling as will a Savage factory tube. Using moly bullets ordinarily reduces fouling considerably, but moly requires a different cleaning method altogether,not covered here). And powder brands make a difference.

That said, our first take is that you are over-cleaning. You have good cleaning tools but you are brushing too much, and Kroil is not a particularly effective copper solvent. One brush stroke per shot fired is over-kill. Get the right products, remove carbon first THEN copper, and let the chemicals do the work.

Take a look at this page created to answer your Question:

Bore Cleaning Method for Reduced Barrel Wear and Less Labor

 

[paid2shoot]

I knew I would be opening the flood gates on this topic. I could not resist to ask. This field of interest is full of people who are full of bad information. So I just wanted to see what you guys actually do.

Thanks for the good information.

 

[Riverine]

Just wanted to add that I've used the Wipe-Out and it works really well on factory barrels if you give it sufficient wait time. I also recommend you just stick a plastic straw on the end of the applicator. This helps get more foam further down the barrel.

Reading the article I learned there's a new "accelerator" for Wipe-Out that's supposed to speed up the cleaning. I've ordered some and I'll let you know if it works as claimed.

 

[paid2shoot]

I have discovered that I probably clean "too much" on my precision long guns. Too many strokes down the bore and I have been dragging the brush backwards after beeing pushed out the muzzle. I think I will get some nylon brushes and go to a definite 2 stage cleaning. First with Mpro7 for carbon and then Bore-tech Eliminator for copper fouling. I will have to try out the whole graphite idea....never done that before.

Thanks to everyone.

 

[6BR4U2]

HI,

just wanted to ask why in the world are brass jags soo long. When you shove a patch down the pipe via your bore guide the flex in your coated rod is going to allow the jag to make contact and scuff your bore!!!! no good. I have a buddy that cut his jag down so that the patch he uses almost covers the whole jag. I don't know.... any thoughts!!
thanks

 

[jb1000br]

HI,

just wanted to ask why in the world are brass jags soo long. When you shove a patch down the pipe via your bore guide the flex in your coated rod is going to allow the jag to make contact and scuff your bore!!!! no good. I have a buddy that cut his jag down so that the patch he uses almost covers the whole jag. I don't know.... any thoughts!!
thanks

You are worrying too much...it's brass, not steel. BTW--I dont think ANY rod can flex THAT much within the confines of your bore.

YMMV,
JB

 

[LeeinOH]

I like to remove carbon with Shooter's Choice. Follow the directions and there isn't much of a wait. Next, Butch's,safer) or Montana Extreme if I'm at the range,faster). I like to clean copper until the patches are just very light blue. If you clean out ALL of the copper, you've re-opened the pores and any tooling marks that you worked so hard to fill in with copper during the break-in process.

That's how I do it anyhow.

 

[philpapa]

Let's say that I've got a new Hart barrel and I take it to the field and get caught up with the varment action and shoot more than 25 shots before I clean. Is that going to really injure my barrel or just make it harder to clean when the action stops?

 

[Wild_Bill]

You must remember Phil that you have to Zero your rifle if you use the ammo to sight in your rifle cleaning betweeen shots your rifle should be run in and dont forget load development use these rounds to run in your rifle and it will be done before you know and before you find any live targets..
just my opinion

Cheers Bill
Australia

 

[Forum Boss]

Let's say that I've got a new Hart barrel and I take it to the field and get caught up with the varment action and shoot more than 25 shots before I clean. Is that going to really injure my barrel or just make it harder to clean when the action stops?

Not a problem unless you're shooting so fast the barrel gets really hot.

For a complete run-down on bore-cleaning elixirs and methods see:

http://www.6mmbr.com/borecleaning.html

Add "TM" carbon remover from Tommy Meredith to the list of recommended solvents. Joel Kendrick, 2004 Shooter of the Year at 600 yards, says it works real well on carbon.

 

[caihlen]

Calling Lou Murdica....

 

[JEFFPPC]

All those questions you asked......put the key word in the SEARCH function and you can read for days. Ok wrong, you can read for weeks.

 

[jelenko]

Buy a borescope. Check what the bore looks like before and after cleaning.
Watch what happens to accuracy based on the way the bore looks => decide how you want the bore to look. Clean it so that you get what you want.

 

[ckaberna]

Hope OP has figured it out, post is approaching 17 years old

 

[rwj]

Hope OP has figured it out, post is approaching 17 years old

Until self-cleaning barrels, or barrels that don’t need cleaned, are created… related threads will never end!