How to remove carbon from your bore?

[6shooter]

I used to own a gunshop and tried most products on the market. I now only use Ed's Red. I use the ammonia based one for bore cleaning and the normal one stays in the barrel until i shoot again.
http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm
I can explain more about it if anyone is interested.

 

[hawghunter]

Please tell more.

 

[Nomad47]

Welcome 6SHOOTER,
I think you will like this forum as well as the wssmzone.

 

[johara1]

For those of you that can walk on the nearest lake in the winter,try a little test take your bore cleaner and sit it outside and you will soon see what is in the bottle. Some will freeze......jim

 

[6shooter]

Thanks for the welcome, Bill.
The original formula was invented by C.E. Harris and has been used by the FBI and the Army Marksmanship Unit.
1 litre Acetone
1 litre Dexron III transmission fluid
1 litre White spirit (dry cleaning fluid)
1 litre K1 kerosene (low odour kerosene)
In Australia this costs me $33 dollars and makes 4 litres. I decant it into 200ml Amber glass poison bottles or HDPE plastic bottles (must be the thick HDPE).
The transmission fluid dissolves carbon and contains detergents, the acetone dissolves plastic wad fouling in shotguns, the kerosene is a penetrant and helps lift lead fouling, and the white spirit is a solvent.
Pour in the transmission fluid first followed by the kerosene - at this point you can take out 4 ounces per quart of this mix for use as a general gun oil and anti-rust for wiping over outside metal and for wiping the bore before storing firearm. Ed's Red can also be left in the bore, wiping out before firing next time.
Also, Ed's Red is very penetrative and makes a superior penetrating oil for loosening rusted parts. In fact in some testing by a machinist's magazine a couple of years ago it beat all the commercial products by a wide margin. A historical note about Ed's Red. When Ed Harris first cooked it up, it exceeded the then current Mil Specs for bore cleaner and CLP. Ed and a cohort were able to test it at a defense contractor's quality lab after hours with chrome-moly and stainless samples provided by Kreiger Barrels.
Ed's Red with ammonia has the same 4 ingredients as above but in these quantities:
700ml of Ed's Red bore cleaner
120ml 10% ammonia
120ml water soluble cutting fluid
60ml Murphy's soap oil
Mix oil soap and ammonia in seperate container. Add cutting oil to the Red Neck then add the ammonia/oil soap mix.
ALMOST ALL barrel makers recommend using ammonia based bore cleaners (check their websites).
Sweets is 5% - this is 10%. With all copper solvents don't use bronze brushes as they will give your patches a green colour from the bronze dissolving.
In the above quantities this brew costs me $13.50 per litre. The contents settle out quickly so shake bottle each time you put some on a patch. It also starts out a pink colour but turns brown after a short time.
These are the only gun cleaners my local gunsmith and gunshop use.

 

[BoydAllen]

Great post...really, but just one little unimportant correction (given that how the stuff works is all that really matters); if you add up the volumes of the Red with ammonia, it equals 940 ml. The 10% is of 120 ml of that. I get about 1.3% of the total volume. This actually makes the mix more attractive to me than if the number was a lot higher, since I tend to shy away from solvents that lean on a high percentage of ammonia to do all the work. I like the idea of a balanced approach much better. Again, thanks for the information, I have copied and pasted it into a Word document which will be saved for future reference. The next step being finding the exact ingredients.

 

[6shooter]

BoydAllen - and others that may read this - check out this website for heaps of homemade recipes. As they are not trying to sell you anything it is just good, unbiased information.
http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm

 

[jonbearman]

Home made or not,Which one is the better one to try????????

 

[jonbearman]

Thank you Lawrence and merry Christmas.

 

[Eddie Harren]

I went through the "Ed's Red" ordeal 25 years ago. I now use 2 parts GM Top Engine Cleaner to 1 part Kroil. I use Sweet's 7.62 for copper.

 

[Geronimo Jim]

Is that the current GM top engine cleaner that you can now buy?

 

[Eddie Harren]

No. I was lucky enough to have a customer, who is the parts man for a local dealership, and he notified me of the discontinuation of the original. I purchased all I could get at that time. I have heard that the new 2 part is just as good but have not verified.

 

[Nomad47]

"2 part"? Do you mix it? I assumed it was an aerosol.

 

[caroby]

Recently I did some general cleaning with Pro-Shot Copper Solvent IV, and was impressed with how it worked on powder fouling. Some of the shots were with Reloader 10X. I have also tried CarbOut with a bronze brush and believe that it does a pretty good job. As far as hard carbon in the throat goes, I think that the trick is to not let it build up until brushes and solvents won't touch it, and Iosso is required.

Yes on the #4 ProShots.......
Reasonable shots between cleaning and this solvent will keep your barrels carbon "foot print" easily managable....

8 years and alot of barrels SS and CM.... Have had ZERO need to go-to an "abrasive" paste to get stubborn carbon rings..... Cause they ain't there..

Tight patch and bore scope varified...

Those whom have not tried this solvent... Need to.
For those with the tough carbon... Yes, your gonna need oil and pastes....

cale

 

[lpreddick]

thought i was doing a good job cleaning my bores. white patches with a modified ed's red, then a copper cleaner. i noticed very fine line black streaks with the blue and realized i was seeing carbon from the land/groove juncture! the cooper cleaner was doing what i thought my powder residue/carbon cleaner was doing. the carbon fouling at the lands/groove juncture is a problem i probably overlooked, but not now. appreciate everybody's input.

 

[260Ravage]

I have been using brand 'X' liquid for carbon removal and my patches come through clean. I noticed my groups opening a bit. So. I just bought some 'Bore-Tech' C4 Carbon remover. I followed their instructions and boy did I get black junk out of the barrel, so I gave it another dose of the same till the patches came out clean. I then applied "Bore-tech" barrel paste and worked the rod back and forth about 20 times. Then, gave it the C4 treatment. I got a little more black out but not much. Now i'm satisfied,,,untill someone here shoots holes in my theory of finding a good product. Feel free to respond. Thanks. I am not a Bore Tech rep. I'm simply one of the guys.

 

[bozo699]

Over the years I have used a number of bore solvents. I will buy a new solvent and use it for a while thinking it is the best solvent I have ever used. Months will go by and the new miracle solvent seems to lose its effectiveness. So I buy the next latest miracle solvent and find it works better than anything I’ve tried before. A few months later it no longer does the job as well as it did initially and I try something new again. This cycle has gone on and on for years with me. How can this be? I believe that many solvents degrade quickly over time and lose their effectiveness. Solvents tend to volatilize quickly, no matter whether they are in a little sealed bottle or not, especially under warm temperature conditions. If you go through a lot of solvent in a short period of time, then you are getting the most use out of that chemical. But if you use that chemical sparingly over a longer period of time I believe the product becomes less effective due to extended evaporation/degradation. Some appear to “keep” a little longer than others. I have reached the conclusion that many solvents are most effective only when they are relatively fresh or preserved. In general, the older they get the less effective they become.

You might have picked the C4 bottle with the least amount of dust on it.

In any case, I hope it works out for you in the long run.

LE Hanson

I would tend to agree with this statement.
Wayne.