Lapua40X
California Hunter Education Instructor
Using a bore scope can reveal a lot of interesting realities. I was certain that my rifle was clean; carbon free/copper fouling free. I was mistaken.
Oh, for certain, the rifling was akin to like new factory fresh. No copper, no carbon. Then I looked at the deep dark corners of the chamber. The area where the second shoulder (end of the case neck) of the chamber meets with the freebore had carbon deposits that weren't being removed with conventional bore brush cleaning. After a VERY lengthy conventional cleaning exercise wasn't producing the results I wanted, I discovered that running a bore brush over that area meant the bristles had to work over a "step" and that prevented them from getting down into the critical area.
I fashioned a bore brush, larger in diameter than the throat (.30 cal. for the 6BR, .38 for the .284) attached to a length of scrap cleaning rod from an old pistol cleaning kit and attached it to a battery powered screwdriver (less than $10 at Target). To make sure I didn't run the brush too deep I placed a wooden dowel from the muzzle back to the chamber and used it to monitor the deptch of the brush in the chamber.
The rotating brush worked like a charm. Thirty seconds and the deposits were gone.
From now on I use a horizontal brush stroke to clean the bore and a rotary stroke for the chamber.
Oh, for certain, the rifling was akin to like new factory fresh. No copper, no carbon. Then I looked at the deep dark corners of the chamber. The area where the second shoulder (end of the case neck) of the chamber meets with the freebore had carbon deposits that weren't being removed with conventional bore brush cleaning. After a VERY lengthy conventional cleaning exercise wasn't producing the results I wanted, I discovered that running a bore brush over that area meant the bristles had to work over a "step" and that prevented them from getting down into the critical area.
I fashioned a bore brush, larger in diameter than the throat (.30 cal. for the 6BR, .38 for the .284) attached to a length of scrap cleaning rod from an old pistol cleaning kit and attached it to a battery powered screwdriver (less than $10 at Target). To make sure I didn't run the brush too deep I placed a wooden dowel from the muzzle back to the chamber and used it to monitor the deptch of the brush in the chamber.
The rotating brush worked like a charm. Thirty seconds and the deposits were gone.
From now on I use a horizontal brush stroke to clean the bore and a rotary stroke for the chamber.