how many rounds before you see copper......

[joejo]

this year was my first full custom build. i had dave bruno put this gun together for me. i love the gun and it shoots pretty good, i did a 3/4 inch 5 shot at 300 yeaterday, and a 4.75 inch 10 shot at 1000. a question that i have is the gun seems a bit incosistant. i have noticed a good bit of copper fouling after just 15-25 rounds. i can actually see copper on the lands near the muzzle. is this at all normal? i never noticed this going on in my semi custom 22-250. i broke the barrel in as per krieger instructions so ....? will this eventually go away? i have about 300 rounds down the tube so far.
it's a 260 with a krieger 28 inch hv contour, shooting 130 grain bergers at 2960-3040 depending on what loads i tinker with. lapua brass weight sorted and rl 17 or 4350 for powder.

 

[K22]

There is no definitive answer since it varies considerably between rifles given the condition of the bore, the caliber, the load, etc.

I'm a varmint hunter and demand 1/2 moa from my rifles. On new barrels I clean every five to ten rounds until I get about 50 rounds through then I go to my normal cleaning procedure which is every 30 - 40 rounds. I'm shooting primarily 223's. I'm able to retain very good accuracy using this method. I use Shooter's Choice solvent.

I've never followed the tedious barrel breakin procedures recommended. I'm not saying that this is right, I just don't have the patience for it. Whether it's blind luck or something else, I've never seemed to have a problem getting my 1/2 moa's or near to it. Of course my standards are not as severve as a benchrest shooter or competitive shooter.

You can try some Sweet's solvent. That should take out any cooper or most of it just becareful using it and follow the instructions. However if you're satisfied with the accuracy I wouldn't worry about a little copper tracing unless your accuracy starts to fall off.

 

[Shootinstick]

Guess I never looked to see exactly how many rounds before copper was visible on a broke in barrel. New barrels will show copper after a single shot. I do know that some caliber seem to copper more. The 6.5s with an extremely long bearing surface seem to have more problem. A fellow XC match shooter who doesn't own a bore scope seems to have copper build up problems with three different 260 barrels. After about 3/4 of a season he will be coppered up that pressures rise. He then tries to scrub it out good and then brings it to me to have a look with my borescope. I always find more copper and send him home to clean some more. He shot 308s for years and just doesn't understand that the 6.5s javelin bullets shed more copper more than the stubby 308s do. As previously mentioned, if it still shoots, don't worry about a little copper, but when you do clean, try to get it all out with a good chemical copper remover. I normally use Butches bore shine for normal cleaning, but get out the Barnes CR9 when Butches doesn't remove all the copper from my normal cleaning procedures.

 

[jonbearman]

I use montana's 50 bmg formula and it works the best of any I have ever tried. Do not leave an amoniated solvent in any bore for longer than 20 mins. It attracts moisture and will really to bad things to a good barrel. You must patch it out and I use brakeclean to wash any residue out. It does a fine job. Then oil it with a good quality bore oil and dry that out just before shooting again.

 

[280man]

One

 

[clowdis]

Every 6.5mm and 7mm barrel that I've ever owned has been a serious copper fouler, and I've owned barrels by several different manufacturers. I've given up on trying to find out why, I've broken them in by mfgs. recommendations and by my own, but still they foul. So, I just get out the Sweets 7.62 and swab the copper out and get ready for the next match.

 

[Rustystud]

Any time one has a jacketed bullet go down the barrel it will leave some trace of copper. Some barrels are worse than others.

Montana Copper solvents are amorphous amonia (oil based) not water (aqueous based) amonia like most of the the rest.

Danny Huffman the Co-inventer of the Montana copper solvents told me you could store Montana copper solvents in your barrel and it would not hurt anything.

Nat Lambeth