The Infamous Carbon Ring

[memilanuk]

witches brew, cost way too much but will strip all the carbon away

Huh. That stuff didn't appear to be doing much in my barrel(s), at least nothing visible to my Lyman bore scope. Switched to the VFR abrasive felt pellets from Brownell's, soaked in Kroil, and worked some JB into the felt. About 10-15 strokes and the carbon streaks in the grooves were *gone*. Now, maybe some Witches Brew in the VFR felts instead of JB / kroil... then again, JB / Kroil are way easier to find locally.

 

[dewey7271]

Witches Brew is good stuff. Works well.
Best stuff I know of to take out carbon is fuel injector cleaner.

 

[ericbc7]

In an interview on Precision Rifle media, Josh Kunz of Patriot Valley Arms described his process for removing carbon rings - he uses a nylon brush wrapped with a patch soaked with automotive injector cleaner. Let the patch& brush sit in the chamber and throat for 15 min (after you clean normally if you want to see what it gets out). Then push the brush & patch out muzzle and run some patches through. The podcast episode is #PRM 048 and it's worth a listen (and I recommend getting the instructions first hand since I haven't actually tried it yet)

 

[Jeff A]

Oh boy, so many ways! Here's mine. Using a chamber cleaning rod (Fixed, non rotating handle) install a brash brush one size larger than you would normally use. Wrap a patch around the brush. Apply JB Bore Cleaning Paste to the patch along with a few drops of Kroil. Insert in the chamber until it stops and rotate the handle. Works like a charm. Don't forget to clean up the chamber and bore afterward.

BTW, I do use the felt cylinders (Non abrasive type) on the special Jag with JB & Kroil to really get the bore clean every 300-500 rounds. Your normal patch will tell when you need to do this. If the patch starts to grab, it's time. Stroke it (with a bore guide in place) until it starts to make a bunch of black crap on the rod, usually 25-50 strokes. Keep the rod wiped clean. Hooray for those who have a Bore Scope, even the Lyman. You will never know if your bore is clean without one.

 

[GTyner]

my 6BR had just over 2000 rounds down the tube and I had the chamber recut and I had only used wipe out on the barrel since new (Hart barrel NY) the 3 inch stub showed no carbon build up in the lead or throut what so ever so I guess is the wipe out is doing a good job.Gary

 

[R.Morehouse]

In an interview on Precision Rifle media, Josh Kunz of Patriot Valley Arms described his process for removing carbon rings - he uses a nylon brush wrapped with a patch soaked with automotive injector cleaner. Let the patch& brush sit in the chamber and throat for 15 min (after you clean normally if you want to see what it gets out). Then push the brush & patch out muzzle and run some patches through. The podcast episode is #PRM 048 and it's worth a listen (and I recommend getting the instructions first hand since I haven't actually tried it yet)

Neat idea.........Anyone tried this yet?

 

[swd]

I do something very similar but it takes longer. Hoppes BR solvent, a patch on a plastic jag inserted in the carbon ring area. Let it sit overnight and the next day the carbon ring will wipe right out.

 

[whysman]

I've never had much issue removing the carbon ring once I tried bore tech C4.

All it takes for me is what you see in the first pic. In this case, I am cleaning a .284 Shehane, so I use .30 ramrodz (great for chamber cleaning...I use even larger ones for that purpose). I use a chamber rod (plastic black thing at the bottom), insert one of the ramrodz in the included holder (the green thing seen in picture 2) and saturate the cotton swab in C4. From there, I just run it up the barrel where there is resistance (given this is a .284, that resistance is right in the area we are interested in), I snug it in there and leave it for about 30 min maybe a little longer.

Picture 2 shows the results and borescope confirms no carbon ring remains.

 

[INShooter]

I am another fan of Bore Tech C-4. It does a great job of removing carbon. Following label directions and confirming with the Hawkeye. Works well in the barrel and the ring at the front of the neck. I do use the appropriate size brush in the neck.

 

[CharlieNC]

Neat idea.........Anyone tried this yet?

I've used Seafoam for years for general barrel cleaning, it does a job on C. Only brand I use in all my engines as well, esp the outboard.

 

[K22]

I could be off of this but it's one of the reasons I don't use Bore Tech Eliminator because you can't use a bronze brush with it. Instead I use Bore Tech C4 Carbon remover with a bronze brush followed by their Copper Remover with a nylon brush. I believe the mechanical action of a bronze brush on a regular cleaning basis prevents the carbon ring from forming. However all I know for sure is that I haven't had any carbon ring problems that I'm aware of or at least has shown up as a performance issue with my rifles.

For many years I used Shooter's Choice with a bronze brush and would still be using it if the smell didn't drive wifey crazy so I switched to Bore Tech products because they are odorless.

 

[Richard Coody]

Well i got the parker hale jag and some losso paste. Have boretech C4 ordered. Hope it can do the same thing a little more gently.

I really thought my barrel was clean. I clean after every range session. I was shocked what came out short stroking that throat. As you can see from the pics the begining of.the lands were getting buried in carbon. Now that is in a new barrel with maybe 200 rounds through it. I can imagine what it.would look like after 600. Since that is the first.place that the bullet engages the rifling it seems to me having the begining of the lands buried in carbon is not conducive to accuracy.

As you can see from the before and after cleaning made quite a difference.

 

[Joe R]

Well i got the parker hale jag and some losso paste. Have boretech C4 ordered. Hope it can do the same thing a little more gently.

I really thought my barrel was clean. I clean after every range session. I was shocked what came out short stroking that throat. As you can see from the pics the begining of.the lands were getting buried in carbon. Now that is in a new barrel with maybe 200 rounds through it. I can imagine what it.would look like after 600. Since that is the first.place that the bullet engages the rifling it seems to me having the begining of the lands buried in carbon is not conducive to accuracy.

As you can see from the before and after cleaning made quite a difference.

You got it under control, now you have make sure you polish the bore every 300-400 rounds. However, if you ever let it build up I recommend removing your barrel and plugging it and fill it up with this stuff. You can get it at Walmart or auto parts stores.

Joe

 

[arnie]

I had a hard carbon ring in the chamber of a 6.5 swede .I made a new case out of a 3006 case and left the neck long and expanded it to the fired neck size .I then used a three corner file and made cuts into the ends of the neck like saw teeth .Bored out the primer hole and threaded a rod in it and used it like a reamer to cut out the carbon .Worked pretty good .

 

[pacificman]

Bore Tech C4 Carbon remover...works great!....You might have to scrub a bit if you have let it build up
but it works very well...It's a tip I got from many members right here on this forum...Thank you !!!

 

[Nature Boy]

Hooray for those who have a Bore Scope, even the Lyman. You will never know if your bore is clean without one.

Boy ain't that the truth. I was about to scrap a .308 barrel thinking it was shot out. After my Smith took a look with his scope and showed me all the carbon and copper I had built up in what I though was a clean Bore I went out and bought one.

He also introduced me to the Bore Tech products. The combination of the right cleaners and ability to look in the Bore now ensures my rifles are clean, including the dreaded carbon ring

 

[Willie]

I guess I've been pretty good at keeping carbon and copper cleaned out of my chambers and barrels, or lucky. But i did develop one and it was nasty hard to get out. I was blowing out shoulders to 40* on a 6.5 wildcat while fire forming brass. I was cleaning at the range and didn't have my borescope with me. Had 100 pieces of brass and was cleaning every 25 shots with C-4 and Eliminator. Luckily, I was shooting over a LabRadar and suddenly my velocities started to jump way up, then an ejector mark and soon after a hard bolt lift.

WTH, I decided to call it a day and check the remaining powder charges. They were spot on, so I cleaned and scoped the barrel. Sure enough, there was a carbon ring at the end of chamber neck. I put a patch saturated in C-4 in the neck and left it overnight. Tried to brush it out twisting a chamber tool. It was twist and scope for awhile, then I got out the JB, put a patch on the brush and finally got it out. Finally, I figured out that during fire forming, the shoulder was swallowing the neck. Similar to running too short a neck length, it was laying down carbon with every shot I fired.

 

[lpreddick]

How hard can a carbon ring get? What happens to carbon when put under pressure and high temperature...Diamonds...which are quite hard. We aren't making diamonds but a neglected ring can get hard enough, I suspect, that it may prevent case mouth expansion releasing the bullet....pressure spike. I get mine out after every session but have had one in a friend's neglected gun that required spinning a stiff nylon brush (tenex, iosso) with JB in my black and decker. After the ring was gone, there was a stain in the steel. I made a mistake once by shooting some short cases (different brand) before my usual ones. The usual cases did not perform as expected. The carbon ring has probably been a badly overlooked impairer of accurate shooting.