Did I somehow ruin my brand new Bartlein barrel? Here's the story (and photo). Last September, I completed an LR-308 build which includes a Bartlein barrel.
I finally got a chance to start the break in process last weekend. I cleaned the barrel before I went to the range. Once there, I bore snaked the barrel and then I shot six of my own handloads through it, doing a thorough cleaning between each round. The cleaning consisted of patches saturated with MPRO7 cleaner for the carbon until light gray or white (with some nylon brushing thrown in), followed by patches saturated with Sweet's (no brushing) until no more blue. The saturated patches were all one direction only (breech to muzzle) on a TCS O-Ring Cleaning Jag, while the infrequent brushing was back and forth slowly and carefully with a new nylon brush. The reason I only shot six rounds is because it took me all day to do just these six rounds (about 5 1/2 hours at the range). In fact, for that last round, I fired it, put a few patches of MPRO7 down the bore, one patch of MPRO7 oil, and then packed it up to finish at home.
Got home. No time that night to finish cleaning. Waited until next night to finish cleaning. Took out rifle, two dry patches for the oil, and then resumed with MPRO7 and Sweet's as above. (Pretty much gave up on the brushing as it didn't seem to give me any darker patches afterwards.) Finally, after the Sweet's part of the process, after getting no more blue from copper in the bore from that sixth round. I put a patch of the oil down the bore and was getting ready to put her away when I noticed what you see in the photo. Is this copper that my cleaning is just not touching, or :'( rust?
I took the photo, put her away until next night, and began online search for some answers. Next day, decided to try the Sweet's and Hydrogen Peroxide tactic that I had read about. Two patches of Sweet's. Second patch had hint of blue consisting of five equally spaced dots (dots the size of ink pen tips) around the patch (matching the 5R rifling spacing). But when I sent the patches of hydrogen peroxide SLOWLY down the bore, I got no foam. Not even a little. Tried again with same results. Followed up with dry patches, followed by patches with alcohol for good measure in cleaning out the peroxide, followed by more dry patches, followed by more Sweet's (no blue), followed by more dry patches, followed finally by two passes of patches with MPRO7 oil and put her away.
So I've come here seeking help. Am I looking at copper that won't budge, or (hopefully not) is that the start of rust? I know the Sweet's says don't leave longer than 15 minutes. Did I violate that by continually using it, one patch after the next, for half an hour or an hour at a time? Did the fact that it was raining on the range during this process somehow contribute. Did I wait too long to do that initial cleaning of the barrel from when I got the barrel until the night before I left for the range? Maybe you've seen this before and I'm just being paranoid as it is my first really high-end barrel. Do I continue cleaning as before, try something different (like ??? polish with bore paste or use the finer grits of a Superior Shooting Systems Final Finish
), or just shoot the dang thing?
By the way, it took the first three rounds just to get on paper at 100 (to be expected as it's a new build and hadn't been sighted in yet). Those last three I got on paper and even shooting only somewhat deliberately that barrel gave me rounds five and six touching about 1/4 inch below round three
... which tempts me to just shoot it.
I finally got a chance to start the break in process last weekend. I cleaned the barrel before I went to the range. Once there, I bore snaked the barrel and then I shot six of my own handloads through it, doing a thorough cleaning between each round. The cleaning consisted of patches saturated with MPRO7 cleaner for the carbon until light gray or white (with some nylon brushing thrown in), followed by patches saturated with Sweet's (no brushing) until no more blue. The saturated patches were all one direction only (breech to muzzle) on a TCS O-Ring Cleaning Jag, while the infrequent brushing was back and forth slowly and carefully with a new nylon brush. The reason I only shot six rounds is because it took me all day to do just these six rounds (about 5 1/2 hours at the range). In fact, for that last round, I fired it, put a few patches of MPRO7 down the bore, one patch of MPRO7 oil, and then packed it up to finish at home.
Got home. No time that night to finish cleaning. Waited until next night to finish cleaning. Took out rifle, two dry patches for the oil, and then resumed with MPRO7 and Sweet's as above. (Pretty much gave up on the brushing as it didn't seem to give me any darker patches afterwards.) Finally, after the Sweet's part of the process, after getting no more blue from copper in the bore from that sixth round. I put a patch of the oil down the bore and was getting ready to put her away when I noticed what you see in the photo. Is this copper that my cleaning is just not touching, or :'( rust?
I took the photo, put her away until next night, and began online search for some answers. Next day, decided to try the Sweet's and Hydrogen Peroxide tactic that I had read about. Two patches of Sweet's. Second patch had hint of blue consisting of five equally spaced dots (dots the size of ink pen tips) around the patch (matching the 5R rifling spacing). But when I sent the patches of hydrogen peroxide SLOWLY down the bore, I got no foam. Not even a little. Tried again with same results. Followed up with dry patches, followed by patches with alcohol for good measure in cleaning out the peroxide, followed by more dry patches, followed by more Sweet's (no blue), followed by more dry patches, followed finally by two passes of patches with MPRO7 oil and put her away.
So I've come here seeking help. Am I looking at copper that won't budge, or (hopefully not) is that the start of rust? I know the Sweet's says don't leave longer than 15 minutes. Did I violate that by continually using it, one patch after the next, for half an hour or an hour at a time? Did the fact that it was raining on the range during this process somehow contribute. Did I wait too long to do that initial cleaning of the barrel from when I got the barrel until the night before I left for the range? Maybe you've seen this before and I'm just being paranoid as it is my first really high-end barrel. Do I continue cleaning as before, try something different (like ??? polish with bore paste or use the finer grits of a Superior Shooting Systems Final Finish
), or just shoot the dang thing? By the way, it took the first three rounds just to get on paper at 100 (to be expected as it's a new build and hadn't been sighted in yet). Those last three I got on paper and even shooting only somewhat deliberately that barrel gave me rounds five and six touching about 1/4 inch below round three
... which tempts me to just shoot it.
