How to remove carbon from your bore?

[jonbearman]

I have soaked and brushed and get nothing on the patch.The stainless bores remain dark in color but with light at one end,it looks like a mirror. Does stainless discolor from the powder burn? I jave looked at national winner barrels and just looking down the barrel from the crown end in sunlight,it looks dark.I checked evry barrel I have and all my friends and see the same staining once the gun has been fired.Is this normal?

 

[BoydAllen]

One fellow that I know does one shot and clean till he gets that color in his whole barrel. He uses KG 1 and KG 12 (I think) between each shot, to remove all powder fouling and copper. He believe that the color that you speak of is needed to reduce copper fouling. Understand that I am just reporting what someone else does.

 

[bozo699]

James, I certainly cannot argue with the Col. and his years of experience.

Boyd, nor do I argue with the good folks at Hart's.

I wonder, though, if some of their thinking is from the ultra-competitive world of shoot it 700 times and throw it away? Even trusted and knowledgeable gunsmiths and barrel makers are not unanimous on this issue.

And then there's always the guy (whom I won't name for risk of his embarrassment) who regularly wins IBS matches at our range and around the Northeast with rifles that were cleaned sometime last season and not since.

I sure enjoy the exchange of info and ideas on here and I enjoy the search for better accuracy and consistency.

Reed,
Great post my friend, very well written, very humble, I wish I were more like you, some people like myself are far to opinionated and need to read a post like yours once in a while
Wayne.

 

[Nomad47]

Hmmm, Wayne. I guess I'm going to have to go back and read more of your posts - I didn't think you were opinionated.

 

[bozo699]

Hmmm, Wayne. I guess I'm going to have to go back and read more of your posts - I didn't think you were opinionated.

uh oh I am going to have to start deleting posts
Wayne.

 

[Heavies]

I have soaked and brushed and get nothing on the patch.The stainless bores remain dark in color but with light at one end,it looks like a mirror. Does stainless discolor from the powder burn? I jave looked at national winner barrels and just looking down the barrel from the crown end in sunlight,it looks dark.I checked evry barrel I have and all my friends and see the same staining once the gun has been fired.Is this normal?

I don't know if this is the same idea, but this is what I think.

Being a welder by trade, stainless steel, when heated will turn dark, and remian stained that dark color. It is an oxidation on the surface of the metal. If the metal is brushed off while still fairly warm then the color can be easily removed, returning it to the silvery color of natural stainless. If the metal cools to room temperature then the dark color is almost impossible to get off without some serious grinding /brushing/polishing.

At what temperature this change occurs, and if the firing of a round produces enough temperature, I am not sure. Perhaps, next time I have some stainless welding to do, to satisfy my own curiosity, I'll try an experiment. ;D

Added:
I do not believe the dark color has any adverse effect on the bore, or accuracy.

 

[jonbearman]

Wayne and the rest of you fellas,could you look into the bores at the crown with a flashlight on an angle towards the interior of the bore and report back as to the color of the metal(stainless steel). I could settle my mind to know if it is what all or most barrels do after repeated firings over time.

 

[bozo699]

Wayne and the rest of you fellas,could you look into the bores at the crown with a flashlight on an angle towards the interior of the bore and report back as to the color of the metal(stainless steel). I could settle my mind to know if it is what all or most barrels do after repeated firings over time.

Jon,
It sounds like Heavies knows what he is talking about but I will be glad to do that for you although just going off memory I believe mine all looks the same as yours Jon (BLACK)
Wayne.

 

[wapiti25]

I have several (4 or 5) and they are all dark.

 

[arpythehun]

re: what I use as a cleaner. I now go to an automotive shop and look for fuel additive which contains amines and or oleic acid. It works as good as anything Ive bought at a gunshop when it comes to removing carbon except JB, which I use only if Im shooting in a match. I stumbled onto a web site listing all compounds that break carbon down and those were the ones that I remembered. Shooters choice to remove copper fouling. I'll try to find the page,it was technical in nature

 

[260Ravage]

The past year I have been using The KG products for cleaning...Do they remove the carbon and copper? Dunno bout that. I do know my guns look clean and shoot really well. The KG1,carbon remover, seems to clean the carbon better than Hoppes or Gunslick foam. I do not own a borescope so I simply have to gauge my opinion on the patches,,but they can fool me too. I keep thinking that one day my gun will quit performing and I will imagine this large deposit of carbon at the throat that I cannot remove. Look underneath your kitchen sink and admire all the housecleaning products your wife stores there. There are bottles of this ,,,and bottles of that,,,but she only uses one or two. That's the way my gun cleaning drawer looks like. Next year I'll be unto something more "new and Improved'' for gun cleaning. I am glad Jon introduced this subject. I will try to determine what I should try next.

 

[DennisH]

FORD Motor Company produces/sells a very strong carbon agent! It's made for cleaning carbon from top of intake valves and cleaning gum/carbon from fuel injectors and works perfect.

I is similar to the product GM use to offer.

I am going to try this and see how effective it is in a gun, it's gotta do the same! And this stuff is quick.

 

[Leaddog]

I use USP paste and the oil that comes with it. I don't use it at every cleaning, but only after about 300 rounds since the last time. Works very well and is not as abrasive as some of the other methods mentioned here.

 

[boltman13]

For carbon, Butches Bore Shine works great for my rifles.

 

[deadlyswift]

BoydAllen, summed things up in his first post. I'm a Fclass shooter and ran into carbon worries of my own. In the beginning I would not clean my barrel for the intire match. Due to worrying about disrupting accuracy. When I shoot LR matches we have unlimited sighters. So I can foul my barrel until I see fit. Mid range is different and only having two sighters. So I just deal with it.

I use to worry about cleaning my barrel even tho I had just put 60+ rnds down the barrel and shooting 20rnds well under 30min. In the summer you don't want to touch the barrel!! This is where I found my carbon problems. When shooting at 1000yds and having unlimited sighters. As soon as I finish my last relay. I run a few patches of Montana Extreme bore solvent down the tube. To remove powder residue. With the barrel still hot! Once back to the hotel. I will scrub with a bronze bush wet with Montana bore solvent. Patch things dry...Then give a light coat of butches gun oil just to protect things from moisture and so on.

In the past. I found myself having to really scrub my barrel with JB paste to remove the carbon build up. Again In the beginning I would have to use JB aggressively to get rid of carbon. By cleaning on a more regular bases, and not letting carbon build. I now only have to use JB bore paste after 3 matches. witch is close to 550 to 600 rounds.

I do believe that carbon is 10 times worst than copper, and must be kept at bay!

I will add that this is backed by what I see with a bore scope, not by what comes out on my patches.

 

[johara1]

I clean with Warthog and every 2-300 rds.use Iosso lightly. Carbon never was or is a problem and i almost never use a brush. If i clean everything out it will not shoot as good as leaving a light gray on the patches. If i clean everything out perfect it take about ten rds. to shoot again, this has worked in 5 different barrels, Brux, Bartlein and Kreiger all react the same......jim

 

[Longtrain]

Butch's Bore Shine and every 300 rounds I use Rem-Clean (now 40-X Bore Cleaner), to clean the throat area. Compass Lake recommends cleaning the throat with JB every 2-300 rounds, I've taken their advice, having used JB as well as Rem-Clean and never had a problem. My barrels exceed normal accurate anticipated service life regardless of the naysayers.

 

[22XC Guy]

Years ago, a well known gunsmith/benchrest shooter mentioned mixing 60/40 of Butch's Bore Shine and Kroil for cleaning. I used his formula for cleaning my hunting rifles for years. I went back to the old formula and I do use JB and Kroil after 300-400 rounds, if needed.

Like Longtrain mentioned about Rem-Clean, I like to know what was in that original formula, besides the mix marble.

Steve

 

[artbosco]

What is your favorite carbon cleaner?

JB Bore Cleaning Compound!!!

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1160/Product/J-B-reg-NON-EMBEDDING-BORE-CLEANING-COMPOUND

 

[racesnake]

When Moly coating first got popular I started using it on my AR 223 bullets. I believed the hype at the time about not having to clean very often and all of a sudden accuracy went south. Scoped the bore and found a large deposit of Moly. I tried several things and decided that Rem-clean worked best and I went to work. Over the course of cleaning I left some of the dirty patches on the workbench. The next day I was using a carbide scribe, which had a strong magnet on the other end, and when I finished using it I happened to lay it down close to the patches. When I picked it up again one of the patches stuck to the magnet.
You guessed it - the Rem-clean removed enough barrel metal to make it magnetic. I quit using abrasives right then and there!!