Maintaining a copper equlibrium...

[RemingtonAI]

Hey guys, just wondering how many of you break your barrels in and maintain your rifle to achieve a copper equilibrium that is consistent for the longest period of time. In other words not using the benchrest methodology, where your rifle is the most accurate when clean, but allows the copper to build over a long period of time and remaining to be accurate for longer durations before building in excess and having to clean.
I use this method and have had great results and wondering how many other shooters use or are even aware of this methodology. You are basically knocking just the carbon out of the rifle after firing but leave the copper due to the way the barrel has been set up to foul. In this method, a full barrel cleaning only comes once ever 500-600 rounds, and until that time comes, bore conditions remain to be very stable, providing for great cold bore shots and consistency. Am I alone on this? I realize this is more of a tactical or field rifle cleaning regime but wasn't sure how many target shooters employ this method. Happy shootin'. Jesse

 

[wolley]

Caveat. I don't own a borescope and I don't shoot F-class or benchrest. Knuckle dragging sling shooter that shoots only Service rifle(223)and 308 for long range.
Copper. I never see copper in my barrels until towards the end of the barrel's life when the fire cracking begins to get bad. Every barrel that I've ever shot out let me know that it was on the short timer list by showing copper. Hand lapped match barrels just don't copper past the initial 1st few rounds.
I clean the long range rifle every two matches. Approximately 140rds.
I clean the Service rifle about every 500rds. The bolt gets stripped and detail cleaned every 250rds or so.

 

[ShootDots]

Caveat. I don't own a borescope and I don't shoot F-class or benchrest. Knuckle dragging sling shooter that shoots only Service rifle(223)and 308 for long range.
Copper. I never see copper in my barrels until towards the end of the barrel's life when the fire cracking begins to get bad. Every barrel that I've ever shot out let me know that it was on the short timer list by showing copper. Hand lapped match barrels just don't copper past the initial 1st few rounds.
I clean the long range rifle every two matches. Approximately 140rds.
I clean the Service rifle about every 500rds. The bolt gets stripped and detail cleaned every 250rds or so.

Wes may be a "knuckle dragging sling shooter" as he stated above. However, he is an EXCELLENT shot for a "knuckle dragging sling shooter"!! >> Make no mistake about that!!

 

[noload]

Hey guys, just wondering how many of you break your barrels in and maintain your rifle to achieve a copper equilibrium that is consistent for the longest period of time. In other words not using the benchrest methodology, where your rifle is the most accurate when clean, but allows the copper to build over a long period of time and remaining to be accurate for longer durations before building in excess and having to clean.
I use this method and have had great results and wondering how many other shooters use or are even aware of this methodology. You are basically knocking just the carbon out of the rifle after firing but leave the copper due to the way the barrel has been set up to foul. In this method, a full barrel cleaning only comes once ever 500-600 rounds, and until that time comes, bore conditions remain to be very stable, providing for great cold bore shots and consistency. Am I alone on this? I realize this is more of a tactical or field rifle cleaning regime but wasn't sure how many target shooters employ this method. Happy shootin'. Jesse

Rem you are not alone>>>I'm a F Classer and I also do basically the same as you...If I do a semi good cleaning, I will foul with 40 rounds before the match.

 

[mac86951]

I'm with wolley, though not famous yet... I rarely see copper unless something is wrong past 100 rounds down the tube.

I'll adjust to add my factory 30-06 rifle has plenty of copper and I like to put 3-5 foulers before group shooting.

 

[NewLiberty]

Hey guys, just wondering how many of you break your barrels in and maintain your rifle to achieve a copper equilibrium that is consistent for the longest period of time. In other words not using the benchrest methodology, where your rifle is the most accurate when clean, but allows the copper to build over a long period of time and remaining to be accurate for longer durations before building in excess and having to clean.
I use this method and have had great results and wondering how many other shooters use or are even aware of this methodology. You are basically knocking just the carbon out of the rifle after firing but leave the copper due to the way the barrel has been set up to foul. In this method, a full barrel cleaning only comes once ever 500-600 rounds, and until that time comes, bore conditions remain to be very stable, providing for great cold bore shots and consistency. Am I alone on this? I realize this is more of a tactical or field rifle cleaning regime but wasn't sure how many target shooters employ this method. Happy shootin'. Jesse

That's about how I do it. I shoot untill the accuracy falls off then clean. I believe cleaning is a little hard on the bore. My bolt action .223 has never coppered up on me, even during break in.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I would want to know why my barrel was coppering in the first place. If its a lapped barrel and was boken in properly, coppering should be very minimal if at all.

 

[gotcha]

Factory bbl.'s and hand lapped customs are two different animals. .......... The factory bbl.'s tend to copper more and the customs (hand lapped) tend to suffer from hard carbon build up rather than coppering. After proper break-in I clean after each range trip until I've established my most accurate load then clean only after accuracy deteriorates........ I've had the odd factory bbl. that absolutely drove tacks and wouldn't shoot worth beans for 40 or 50 rounds after a thorough cleaning. So if it ain't broke why fix it until it NEEDS cleaning.