Throat carbon removal ????

[Sheldon N]

I had a carbon ring build up in my last Dasher barrel that I shot for PRS and practice. Cleaned it every couple hundred rounds with Hoppe's #9 and cleaned out the copper with Wipeout every 500-600 rounds, nothing very aggressive. At 1800 rounds, on a "clean" barrel, I was getting wild velocity changes with SD's jumping from single digits up to 30-40 fps swings. When you chambered a round you could see marks all the way around the bullet on a load that should have been jumping 0.020" to the lands.

I cleaned the carbon ring out using CLR (on the advice of another shooter). Wet patch down the barrel, couple quick brushes with a nylon brush, then place a second wet patch in the throat for 5-10 minutes. Pulled the wet patch out, spun a nylon brush in the throat area a couple dozen times (just twisting the rod by hand), then patched and cleaned out the CLR afterward with dry patches then a couple wet Hoppe's patches. Repeated that cycle twice.

Completely solved the problem, rounds chambered easily with no marks, SD went back to single digits where it should be, gun was shooting well and went and shot another match with it.

As noted earlier, CLR is pretty harsh stuff (acidic) so I'm not sure I'd use it too often or leave it in the barrel for an extended period of time.

 

[LarryDScott]

I have used CLR and muriatic acid to clean the
lime deposits off the outdrive of my boat. It does
a quick effective job. Be forewarned, if you have
any respiratory issues, DONT BREATH THE FUMES.
Never thought about these products for carbon
removal. LDS

 

[memilanuk]

I've seen this stuff recommended for softening up carbon on muzzle brakes... possibly the same place Sheldon heard about it. I'll admit to being a little surprised that it would work on the glaze that forms in the throat area...

 

[Dgd6mm]

My shooting buddy discovered this, CLR working on the muzzle brake. He told me about it about 3 months a go. I will be doing it. He used a 50/50 solution, the other part being water.

 

[TerryH]

My shooting buddy discovered this, CLR working on the muzzle brake. He told me about it about 3 months a go. I will be doing it. He used a 50/50 solution, the other part being water.

Great thread! Thanks to all that have contributed. I've found especially for muzzle brakes that soaking them overnight in Simple Green works great.