Ruined Bartlein barrel?

[nosualc]

That is copper.

Buy your self a can of wipe-out foam. From the chamber, squirt it in until the foam exits the muzzle.

Let it sit there for a few hours, muzzle down slightly. Overnight won't hurt it.

In the morning you'll see a blue pool that used to be copper. Patch it out with rubbing alcohol. Done.

-nosualc

 

[Toolbreaker]

"And don't weigh your primers either! "

;D ;D ;D

 

[Panzer22]

KG-12 get the copper out better than sweets, and its safe to steel. A little trick I learned if you are using sweets, is a patch soaked with hydrogen peroxide will neutralize any the first patch left in there and it does. Dry patch after that and the barrel is clean. No ammonia residue either. Not all oils will neutralize or remove the ammonia residue. HP will. It's cheap and easy and works. Ballistol will and hoppes 9 will with a few passes.

The KG12 doesn't need it though. Also an overnight soak of ballistol or Hoppes will reveal how much copper and carbon you really left in there...
As for barrel break in, shoot it until you get tired of pulling the trigger or ran out of ammo for the day... Then clean it. When you get to 300-800 rds or so of doing this it will be broke in, 100%

 

[mikecr]

heh, totally agree. Break-in is a total myth, IMO. Just shoot it already.

You should follow & read the linked Bartlein description of barrel break-in.

 

[sigma2chi]

I know what it's like to think you've ruined your new barrel. I had an issue with a Kreiger when I got a patch jammed in the bore and had to beat the damn rod with a hammer to get the patch out. Now I trim all my patches even though Brownells says they are the right size. I even went so far as to send my barrel back to Kreiger to get it inspected. HOWEVER , the reason I went so far as to disassemble the rife and send the barrel back was I conducted a very important and very simple test that told me 100% that something was wrong. I SHOT THE RIFLE. My accuracy was not where it should have been. Eventually we figured out it was the Elisio stock letting my NF scope move around a bit and epoxied the shit out of that problem. Barrel was just fine.

That being said. Take it to the range. Skip the break in stuff and shoot three solid 5 Rd groups. If the groups look good, you're good. If not, then keep investigating.

 

[Jay Christopherson]

heh, totally agree. Break-in is a total myth, IMO. Just shoot it already.

You should follow & read the linked Bartlein description of barrel break-in.

I did. Quote from that page:

This is meant as guide lines only. There is no hard and fast rule for breaking in a barrel.

Translation: "Break-in is a total myth (you know it, we know it, and we know that you know it, but can't help yourselves), but superstitious shooters expect us to say something so here's a harmless procedure for you to follow that will do absolutely nothing, but will make you feel good if you actually believe in this stuff".

I'm not telling you NOT to do it - if it makes you feel good, fine. But, I'll be spending that time more productively, putting rounds downrange.

 

[NateHaler]

I can't resist one more thought for the OP:

Have you ever bought a brand-new car? Some people believe that new cars should be broken in, and part of that regimen is oil changes way in advance of the recommended initial odometer reading or timetable. Take an Audi S4, which had an MSRP of $58,200. Audi's first service (and it's "free") is at 5k miles. The next is every 10k miles or one year, whichever comes first, thereafter. And they base their warranty coverage on adherence to those service recommendations.

Or, go back several years when I bought a brand-new Nissan Xterra. Less than half the cost of the (hypothetical?) Audi. I changed the oil myself, at 500 miles, again at 1,500 miles, and again at 3k miles. Then every 7-8k miles thereafter. It takes me about 45 minutes, including setup, doing, and cleanup, and costs about $20 in oil and filter, and saves me maybe $15-20. But I know it was done right.

We all waste time and money doing silly stuff. Barrel break-in makes WAY less sense, when you think about it. The average person doesn't break in their car, for which they paid many thousands of dollars. But a $325 barrel? Damn it, where's my cleaning cradle? ;D

Don't do it. Just shoot it.

 

[Raythemanroe]

I can't resist one more thought for the OP:

Have you ever bought a brand-new car? Some people believe that new cars should be broken in, and part of that regimen is oil changes way in advance of the recommended initial odometer reading or timetable. Take an Audi S4, which had an MSRP of $58,200. Audi's first service (and it's "free") is at 5k miles. The next is every 10k miles or one year, whichever comes first, thereafter. And they base their warranty coverage on adherence to those service recommendations.

Or, go back several years when I bought a brand-new Nissan Xterra. Less than half the cost of the (hypothetical?) Audi. I changed the oil myself, at 500 miles, again at 1,500 miles, and again at 3k miles. Then every 7-8k miles thereafter. It takes me about 45 minutes, including setup, doing, and cleanup, and costs about $20 in oil and filter, and saves me maybe $15-20. But I know it was done right.

We all waste time and money doing silly stuff. Barrel break-in makes WAY less sense, when you think about it. The average person doesn't break in their car, for which they paid many thousands of dollars. But a $325 barrel? Damn it, where's my cleaning cradle? ;D

Don't do it. Just shoot it.

My mom bought a A4 1.8t and my suggestion would be just drive it..

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I've also given up on breaking in barrels. I don't do what Erik does though. After the first round down the barrel, I run a couple of patches through it to get the copper out that inevitably appears with the first shot. I then shoot 3 rounds of workup toward max and give it a look. If the copper is easily visible at the muzzle, I give it another quick clean (not to bare metal or no blue, or anything of the sort) with a powder solvent (2 patches) and KG12 (1 patch) followed by dry patches and my prelube stuff. After that, I finish the workup toward max and start shooting groups. By the time the barrel has 10 rounds through it, I should be seeing something in the accuracy department.

My latest barrel (a Dasher) went with both cleanings and started grouping at a total of 9 rounds. It took a full 5 rounds to settle down after the second cleaning. Upon getting home with another 29 shots through it and a load selected for initial use, the copper came out before I even got the copper solvent out. Basically, I cleaned it to bare metal with the powder solvent.

This is what I've done to the last 2 barrels after a horrible bit of work on the previous 3 barrels doing the "break in" thing. I'll never do that again!

I'm going to shoot this barrel in a match next weekend. I'll probably shoot 40-70 rounds through it before cleaning it again. What I hope to learn is whether my selected load is close to what I think it is, and how many rounds the barrel takes to settle down.

 

[PRECISIONWELDING01]

Breaking in is fine I do it you break in but if you don't you can't go back and start over .you have copper if you are accustom to .308 might surprise you I shoot 7mm rsaum it coppers quite a bit magnums will do that .to get rid of copper all I use is TM Solution and bore tech it will get it out and I have used it all .go shoot barrel is fine have fun remember just a barrel

 

[DennisH]

I have a bore plug.

I chamber it and fill the bore with liquid Wipe Out for the night on tough barrels.

If the barrel was fouled bad, I run a bronze brush thru it 3 to 5 times. I use cleaner and get the excess Wipe Out out and start running patches down the bore.

On Savage Barrels, I have seen the Wipe Out come out BLUE. I takes about 5 to 10 patches to finish the job. I use a cleaner oil on the 3rd patch and basically wipe it clean. When I starting using this product, I tried it a second time just to make sure the bore was clean. The fluid was clear, so I only soak once now.

On my Match Barrels, the norm is 5 patches to finish up.

The bore plug and soaking works great for me.

Wipe Out and Bore Tech products work for me.

Dennis

 

[jsmith8918]

Thank you, folks, for your encouragement and votes of confidence that all is well, that the barrel is not ruined, and that it's ok to just shoot the durn thing. I also think I'll be adopting the use of Wipe-Out overnight process. Thanks again, folks, for your patience and input!

 

[qbert]

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).

I wasn't a math major, but it doesn't look to me like your barrel has 5 lands.

 

[butchlambert]

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).

I wasn't a math major, but it doesn't look to me like your barrel has 5 lands.

qbert, I agree and I wonder why a McGowen team member use a Bartlien barrel.

 

[CaptainMal]

These guys are way, way smarter than me on this. Each time I get something like you show I just wet patch some Barnes CR10, follow it with some brush strokes and ...GONE.

Does not look unusual to me.

 

[jsmith8918]

qbert, I agree and I wonder why a McGowen team member use a Bartlien barrel.

Sorry. Not a member of any team. Just a casual shooter. As for the number of lands and grooves: you're right, it does look like it would come to more than five! I just went out and pulled out my build again to read again what it says on the barrel, but the markings are obscured by my handguard. Now I'm curious!

 

[chino1969]

Another vote for Wipe Out. Use the accelerator and leave overnight. I have several Bartlein barrels that are cleaned this way. You don't have to get the barrel surgically clean. Remove the fouling, carbon and clean after 20 rds.

 

[butchlambert]

qbert, I agree and I wonder why a McGowen team member use a Bartlien barrel.

Sorry. Not a member of any team. Just a casual shooter. As for the number of lands and grooves: you're right, it does look like it would come to more than five! I just went out and pulled out my build again to read again what it says on the barrel, but the markings are obscured by my handguard. Now I'm curious!

I'm sorry, I mixed you up with Dennis.

 

[Caliche Pit]

Kinda late to chime in, but could not resist. I shot a new Savage last year for MR and LR (6.5x284) and that factory barrel did exactly the same thing but was confined to only the last two inches of the tube. Borescope would confirm pristine cleanliness throughout the whole barrel but the last two inches at the muzzle would not release the copper. I foamed that section after every regular cleaning session and let rest and goodbye copper. Barrel proved to be a heck of a shooter in spite of its "condition". I, personally had never seen this before and it perplexed me as well.

 

[joejo]

Looks like most all of my barrels. I use 50bmg and bronze brushes. They get the copper out.