You Can't Clean Your Bore

[North Bender]

Practically speaking, you can't get your rifle bore "clean" without total heorics.

Push through ammonia-based (copper, lead) solvents. Oil patches. Brushes. Keep going. There will always be copper or powder residue stains on your patches if you try hard enough. Pushing a patch from the breech (or muzzle) just doesn't get a rifle bore bright spanking clean.

It does not need to be bright shiny clean to shoot well but that's not my point. A person cleaning his rifle has to know when to quit.

My 2 cents.

 

[the rifleer]

Thank you captain obvious... For me its get the corrosive salts out and I'm good to go. I've heard that you can wear the barrel more from cleaning than you can from shooting it if you don't know what your doing, but you'd have to run a lot of patches down the bore.

 

[the rifleer]

Well in all honesty, i see no reason for your post. It like if a person just randomly starts talking about the health benefits of having clean teeth. You didn't ask a question or point out anything that is unknown or special in anyway.

I could just post that a properly cleaned gun works better than a dirty one... there is no rhyme or reason to it.

 

[CK_32]

rifleer

Idk what your prob is but half the posts on here mostly mine have
no real reason to be posted or are simple mindless questions.

remember you dont have to read and comment....

But yea watch out because you will damage your barrel
over doing it like that. A little bit of left overs is ok and harmless and
I think your barrel might even need a little bit of fouling in there to
keep it from being damaged. Do a fair share of cleaning till its decent
then be on your way. Think of it as your hands.. Germs are always on
there you can scrub until you bleed and some will still be there but you
damage and hurt your hands badly. But a quick wash until all the
dirt is gone is a good clean. Dont over do it.

 

[North Bender]

Rhyme or reason ... not much, just a random thought tonight after pushing patches. I think we all call a halt to when we clean barrels, and it's not neccessarily when they're "clean".

But for you rifleer (modest handle), in the future I'll try to post a hypothesis, solution, and conclusion.

 

[Tom Matiska]

Why do many assume the endless supply of copper on the patches is from the bore? ...and not the bronze/brass brush???

 

[uncyboo]

For me its get the corrosive salts out

???

I was under the impression this was a thing of the past, other than mil-surp with mercuric primers. Have I been mis-informed? Again?

 

[uncyboo]

Why do many assume the endless supply of copper on the patches is from the bore? ...and not the bronze/brass brush???

A good point I have considered myself. I figure if I start off with lots of "blue" on the patches, and after a few passes it just becomes a trace of "blue", it's probably from the brush and I'm good. Obviously the majority of the copper fouling is gone.

 

[.308shooter]

I run a bore snake through three to four times and call it good. I like to leave the barrel a little fouled anyway.

 

[Citizen Carrier]

There's always electrolysis...

 

[Art Eatman]

Powder residue is somewhat hygroscopic. Humidity in the air provides moisture. Residue + moisture = corrosive material. If ignored, the next step is rust and then pitting.

Protecting against this process is trivially easy. I don't worry about copper builldup until my groups degrade in size. Casual cleaning with a copper-removing solvent has always proved to be adequate, without multitudes of patches and lengthy periods of "workover".

From what I read in rifle forums, it seems to me that a lot of folks just flat-out worry too much...

 

[CPTMurdoc30]

my barrel doesn't rust and I clean it maybe 3 times a year. Once at the start of ground hog season, maybe once during if accuracy is suffering, once after the season.

Huh guess I am not cleaning it enough.

 

[TXGunNut]

I think there's good and timely info in the OP. There was a time when I thought I could clean a bore down to the bare metal. Depending on our experience we may or may not agree but I enjoy the opportunity to consider different viewpoints. That's the whole point of a forum, right?
Furthermore, I think rifles have personalities. Some don't seem to like being clean, some do. I have no idea why that is but some theories I've heard and read make sense. Best rifle I ever had liked to be very clean, best shots immediately followed the fouling shot. Another rifle seems to need 10-15 rounds to obtain acceptable results. Newest rifle is a puzzle I haven't solved yet but I'm going to look for answers here as well as the range and loading bench.

 

[mrawesome22]

Why do many assume the endless supply of copper on the patches is from the bore? ...and not the bronze/brass brush???

If you are cleaning correctly, a brush should hardly ever have to be used.

 

[Kawabuggy]

Citizen kane has it correct. The electronic barrel cleaning systems will get the barrel as close to "as-new" condition as is possible.

I agree that cleaning with patches, solvents (matters not what brand), and brushes, will never get a bore completely clean--or as clean as the electrolysis method will.

 

[James R. Burke]

Your correct if cleaning when needed and using the proper stuff you may not need to use a brush. It is important to keep copper down to a min. Once it starts picking it up it will build up rapidly.

 

[mesabi]

Could a barreled action be put in a ultrasonic cleaner with bore cleaning solvents? Seams like it could be a quick way to clean auto loading firearms.

 

[KevinBeyerJr]

Rifleer:
For me its get the corrosive salts out and I'm good to go.

Uncyboo:
I was under the impression this was a thing of the past, other than mil-surp with mercuric primers. Have I been mis-informed? Again?

Well, it also depends on where you live. If you live along the coast of an ocean and let your car go without wax for so long, it will rust due to the salt in the air. I would have to assume that the same thing goes for if you have guns in that region in a not so airtight space.

 

[uncyboo]

Well, it also depends on where you live. If you live along the coast of an ocean and let your car go without wax for so long, it will rust due to the salt in the air. I would have to assume that the same thing goes for if you have guns in that region in a not so airtight space.

I got that part. The post I was refferring to kind of impied that the "corrosive salts" were a result of shooting, not naturally occuring. Hence my question.

Could a barreled action be put in a ultrasonic cleaner with bore cleaning solvents? Seams like it could be a quick way to clean auto loading firearms.

Yes... www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=24787/Product/F636HT_ULTRASONIC_SYSTEM

...but bring all your plastic. Even the smaller units are kinda spendy.

 

[BlueTrain]

In the army they used to teach that you had to clean the bore for three days running after it had been fired to totally get rid of the copper. I don't recall any mention about corrosive primers or anything like that. You can have a pretty bad bore but still have a rifle that shoots fairly well. I once had a No. 4 Lee-Enfield that was badly corroded for about one-third of the barrel forward of the chamber, yet it shot perfectly well enough for me. But you might have higher standards.