Dreaded Carbon Ring

[Bill K]

I have a nice 20P and decided to load a different bullet. I wanted to seat it into the lands And then back off and kept sticking a bullet in the barrel. I kept back the bullet off and finally blacked .bullet and instead instead of showing lands I got a solid ring around the bullet. I bought a bore scope and it looks like a washer between he case mouth and the leade which is black also. So it seems the washer looking ring is.preventing the bullet from reaching the lands. I've been loading for 60 years and never had this happen before.

Any suggestions to repair and prevent.

I see so many having issues with a carbon build up, as mentioned here. I keep wondering why so many do not clean the bores well and often enough to stop the build up in the first place.
Too many rounds fired down a warm or hot barrel and then the rifle put away without a good and proper cleaning is the major cause of a carbon ring buildup.
Clean those bores well after each and every session and you will not have this issue.

 

[AWS]

I've never had a problem with carbon build up in the barrel, I clean everytime I put the rifle away. Mine was between the end of the case and the end of the chamber, letting the brass grow to near chamber length instead of book length is helping and spinning a bronze brush in the neck of the chamber has taken care of the problem.

 

[B23]

Mine was between the end of the case and the end of the chamber, letting the brass grow to near chamber length instead of book length is helping

IMO overly trimmed necks left short has a significant amount to do with carbon ring build up. I've only ever experienced carbon ring in one rifle, my 22-243 improved, and the necks were trimmed a fair bit on the short side after fireforming instead of letting them all grow to fit the chamber. After only doing load development the carbon ring was significant enough that when I was using my Hornady tool to find the lands the carbon ring was present enough that I'd have to push a little harder to get the bullet past it. Scoped it and sure enough carbon ring.

Also think certain cartridges particularly overbore ones and maybe certain powders can cause carbon rings to develop. Although, I have many overbore chambered rifles and my 22-243 imp is the only one I've ever had this issue with. I have talked to other 22-243 shooters and it sounds like this particular cartridge tends to have more issue with this problem then others.

I know this, the longer you go and it builds up the bigger PITA it is to get out.