Cleaning patch colors

[Grimstod]

Was cleaning today and noticed patches from one gun were coming out blue. The other they were coming out green. Same Hops9 oil in both guns.

What does this mean? ???

 

[fredhorace77]

means the blue one is dirtier. or u let it set longer. blue/green is from the copper. either from ur jag or the copper from the bullets

 

[jonbearman]

If you want to see blue Grimstod try sweets 7.62 solvent and then you will really get the copper out.

 

[Grimstod]

I am actually not interested in removing the copper fowling. So I am going to far with my cleaning?

 

[K22]

I am actually not interested in removing the copper fowling. So I am going to far with my cleaning?

You should be since if you allow it to accumulate it will adversely affect accuracy.

 

[Patch700]

.... Rough bore...

 

[Lapua40X]

I am actually not interested in removing the copper fowling. So I am going to far with my cleaning?

No, you're not going too far with your cleaning. While carbon fouling tends to find a home in the grooves, copper fouling loads up the lands. Neither is something you want. While I have used a variety of the specialized copper fouling remover products I simply rely on Hoppes(9) to do the job for me. My bore scope tells me that the copper is gone; that's all I need to know. If I get a hint of color when the bore scope reveals no copper fouling I simply attribute that to the cleaning rod, jag, etc. or that some microscope copper particles with a population small enough not to stand out in the bore scope are too small to be of concern.

 

[Grimstod]

I generally fallow this line of thinking when it comes to copper fowling.
Thanks for the replies. Now I know the difference between the blue and green.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/_KRUAv3Byp4[/youtube]

 

[Patch700]

I generally fallow this line of thinking when it comes to copper fowling.
Thanks for the replies. Now I know the difference between the blue and green.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/_KRUAv3Byp4[/youtube]

....Wow... lol , just going out on a limb here but if that fellow had a "Quick tutorial" on milking a cow I would guess it to be an 11 part series before he even sat on the stool.

I didn't realize there WERE different lines of thinking regarding fouling... Rough bores tend not to shoot well until there is a layer of copper smoothing out the imperfections to a certain point then the accuracy degrades (how many shots is it until that happens? who knows , that's why accuracy minded gents who want repeatable results don't favor poor quality barrels , because they have no idea when exactly the barrel is fouled to the point where it does shoot well and on the other end of the spectrum , when exactly to stop and clean before the accuracy is going to fall off )

If there is any color other than black on a patch it is copper , how much do you know to remove if you don't remove it all until the patches are clean?

I have some old pull off factory barrels that would shoot an honest 1\2 minute (after lapping) and would fluke off some 1\4 minutes but they had to be heavily fouled (more than 20 shots or thereabouts) and the accuracy would hang in there sometimes to the 35 shot mark sometimes less sometimes more. The only thing that was repeatable about them was that they would not shoot till they were fouled a good amount , not a measurable amount but a good amount lol.

 

[Grimstod]

Your right patch700 this particular gun has a ruff bore. My other ones do not but I only shoot crappy ammo through my crappy guns So when I was cleaning rather aggressively my old beater I noted the colors and got me curious.
My better guns don't really need a lot to get clean so I never see the green or blue come out of them. Three maybe five patches and they are done cause they don't have all those cracks for dirt to stick.

 

[Witchhunter]

Cleanliness is next to.... well, I like mine clean.

 

[ebb]

Rather than live with a bad bore why don't you fix it? Ive polished the inside of several barrels and got good results most of the time, when it didn't work it didn't get any worse either.

 

[GerryM]

Try cleaning it with a good bore paste,

It gets all of the crud out. it also polishes the bore.

Iosso and JB bore compound are the two that i know work.

Hard carbon is a killer for accuracy

 

[25AI260]

after your gun s are squeeky, U think, clean run a bronze brush down the pipe once or twice followed by a dry patch an see what you find...

boy was isurprised..

 

[VaniB]

Though this place is named accurateshooter.com, you guys need to consider that some folks own different rifles to serve different needs. Some folks may have a deer rifle designated to the chore of delivering fist sized groups at 100 yards into 1.5" - 2" DOA (deer of angle). It does not require a great bore.

If you go to the public firing range, you will rarely see anybody with a bolt action shooting groups tighter then that......never mind the 6"- 12" groups you see fired with an AR.