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Does CFE really erase copper fouling?

And how would I know? I still get blue patches. The marketing blurb says....

CFE 223​

This spherical propellant was designed expressly to provide top velocities in fast cartridges.
CFE 223 contains our Copper Fouling Eraser ingredient, originally used in military propellant, which greatly deters copper fouling and contributes to longer periods of top accuracy with less barrel cleaning time.


Other than loss of accuracy, what are the signs of copper fouling? How frequent / problematic is it? WHAT is it?

Your wisdom / experience appreciated.
 
which greatly deters copper fouling and contributes to longer periods of top accuracy with less barrel cleaning time.
I believe your answer is in the description.

While the marketing folks like to exaggerate with words like "erase" their lawyers tend to bring them down a notch with the rest of the words.

Getting a number or even a qualitative description on the words "greatly reduce" would be interesting.
 
I shot it in my 6bra. It seemed just as dirty as varget. And this was a bartlien barrel not an ar barrel.

I don't know how you would know whether the copper was diminished or not unless you were shooting a weapon that didn't get cleaned very much at all prior to ever using CFE 223 and it coppered all up to the point of affecting accuracy. Then you started using cfe223 and it didn't copper all up in the same amount of time\shots.
This isn't cfe. It's a barrel all coppered up. The cracks shave copper off the bullet and barrel starts getting smaller id, more copper, barrel gets more smaller id.
View attachment 1344424
And since BB approves this message, its all good......
 
I believe your answer is in the description.

While the marketing folks like to exaggerate with words like "erase" their lawyers tend to bring them down a notch with the rest of the words.

Getting a number or even a qualitative description on the words "greatly reduce" would be interesting.
And 'longer' can be one more shot.
 
And how would I know? I still get blue patches. The marketing blurb says....

CFE 223​

This spherical propellant was designed expressly to provide top velocities in fast cartridges.
CFE 223 contains our Copper Fouling Eraser ingredient, originally used in military propellant, which greatly deters copper fouling and contributes to longer periods of top accuracy with less barrel cleaning time.


Other than loss of accuracy, what are the signs of copper fouling? How frequent / problematic is it? WHAT is it?

Your wisdom / experience appreciated.e
What kind of jags are you using? Many jags can give false positives for copper. I suggest the Bore tech proof positive jags. Copper fouling should not be an issue after the first 50-70 rounds max on a quality hand lapped barrel.
 
I asked about a cleaner than RE-7 powder for the 221 FB.

The answer was ro try CFE BLK. The CFE did shoot cleaner
and accuracy was good.

Thank you Smokin' Joe
 
Try Tubb dust.

Alliant Tz powders have a decoppering agent that actually works. Other than that I havent seen any that meet their claims.
I believe you are right I have an old model 70 push feed that I bought in 1965, hunted and cleaned as a hunting rifle, it has been sitting for years, got it out to shoot just for fun scrubbed the barrel found some light scaring from Improper storage, this barrel coppered badly using H-4350 I decided to try R-16 coppering is now almost nonexistent.
 
The answer is no. The decoppering agent in some powders (bismuth) coats the barrel and tends to keep copper from building up in theory. Nothing so far will keep you from cleaning properly
Tin and Bismuth have been in powders for ages as a chemical to bind with the copper. It then becomes part of the residue in the barrel. Whether or not it will remove copper already deposited is hard to say. I believe tin was the deciphering agent DuPont used to go from Military Powder to Improved Military Powder (our IMR powders).

As for the Eraser claim by Hodgdon I would put in the same bucket as most of their marketing claims.
 
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Whether or not it will remove copper already deposited is hard to say.

Was it supposed to? From my exposure to the marketing claims, I thought it was supposed to reduce copper deposited in the barrel, not get rid of what was already there. The additives supposedly work by binding with the vaporized copper in the combustion gases, preventing it from condensing out on the barrel steel.
 
I
Was it supposed to? From my exposure to the marketing claims, I thought it was supposed to reduce copper deposited in the barrel, not get rid of what was already there. The additives supposedly work by binding with the vaporized copper in the combustion gases, preventing it from condensing out on the barrel steel.
Seems like the Loading Manual article back at introduction implied it. I can’t get to it right now but the CFE stood for Copper Fouling Eraser.
 
What kind of jags are you using? Many jags can give false positives for copper. I suggest the Bore tech proof positive jags. Copper fouling should not be an issue after the first 50-70 rounds max on a quality hand lapped barrel.
Get a bore scope
I’ve got a 6.5 Creedmoor Hawk Hill barrel and a 6mm ARC Shilen barrel. Both copper fowl. The Shilen much less I believe due the 5R (ratchet) groove design.
 
In my experience, if you clean on a regular basis with a solvent, method, and frequency you have found to be effective to maintain your desired level of accuracy then all these theories, assertions, and concerns go away.

Maintaining a rifle is really not complicated or magical nor does it require Aunt Marabell's secret formulation.
 
Get a bore scope
I’ve got a 6.5 Creedmoor Hawk Hill barrel and a 6mm ARC Shilen barrel. Both copper fowl. The Shilen much less I believe due the 5R (ratchet) groove design.
LOL Brewmiester….I have actually owned three different borescopes in the 647 days since I wrote the post that you replied to above. I get it, it’s tough to keep up with the forum, but perhaps you don’t have enough time to because you are cleaning all that copper “fowl” from your barrels. Good luck with your shooting and better luck with your cleaning, hope we can talk again in 2 years when you read my posts from this week. lol.

Dave (proud owner of three borescopes and 11 barrels, none of which copper foul after the first 40-70 rounds)
 

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