Necessity of Copper removal from the bore

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Thought I read where Bore Tech Eliminator is eco-friendly, non-smelly and non-toxic.


It is. No odor at all.

 

[bunnspecial]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
Originally Posted By: billt460
I've found Bore Tech Eliminator to be the best and fastest copper remover I've ever tried. You can't harm your barrel with it. And the stuff not only doesn't contain any ammonia, it actually has rust inhibitors in it. Since using it there is no way I would mess with a electro bore cleaner. I've since either given away, or thrown out all of my ammonia based copper removing solvents.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/2093155799/bore-tech-eliminator-bore-cleaning-solvent-liquid


Thought I read where Bore Tech Eliminator is eco-friendly, non-smelly and non-toxic.

Many copper cleaners out there will darn-near choke us to death. No kudos for them.


Hoppe's Benchrest no. 9 Copper Solvent(not the sweet smelling standard no. 9) will knock you silly, buy by golly it gets the copper out.

I remember a friend coming to me because he thought his newish 270 hunting rifle had a rusty bore. I threw some Benchrest No. 9 in it, ran through a few patches that came out a lovely royal blue color, and by golly that bore was clean.

With that said, it is true that a certain amount of fouling will usually help a bore "settle down." The sweet spot really depends on how good of a barrel it was to start with and how good of shape it's in now. I've seen benchrest rifles that usually settle down on the 2nd or 3rd shot, and then start to lose accuracy after about 15 shots. By contrast, I've seen shot-out AKs that didn't shoot well until they'd had 50 or better rounds through them(of course "shooting well" is relative in a bore that bad).

My old hand guns with visibly pitted bores usually take a dozen shots or so to settle down-since they generally get shot with lead bullets, I suspect that the pits are grabbing the bullet and having lead "smeared" over them. Once that's done, they'll usually hold their accuracy(again, with what a bore in that condition will do) for a couple hundred more rounds of lead bullets. I've been know to only do enough to get the worst of the powder fouling out of these guns when I clean them, and I usually find that they will snap right back into their usual accuracy within just a few shots the next time I shoot them.

 

[BrocLuno]

I've got two barrels that will go high left 2" when clean. It's pretty dependable. Never take one hunting until after the 5th fouling shot. Don't even trust them for a "scope check" until after #5. But as stated, after that, they are good for over a 100 rounds.

Just run a lightly oiled patch down and put away. No need to scrub them, it'll only make for a long day at the range to get them running again

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
I've got two barrels that will go high left 2" when clean. It's pretty dependable. Never take one hunting until after the 5th fouling shot. Don't even trust them for a "scope check" until after #5. But as stated, after that, they are good for over a 100 rounds.

Just run a lightly oiled patch down and put away. No need to scrub them, it'll only make for a long day at the range to get them running again

Lock Ease with Graphite may fix that. Run a bore brush of it, using a Lock Ease-coated cotton patch encircling the brush, right down the bore. Up and down a few times. Then run both sides of a dry patch. Then go hunting (or range work) and see how the five shots group together.

I learned this method shooting blackpowder rifles, which are notorious for spreading shots 1 and 2. Another bore product that does real well for narrowing shot groups is Montana X-treme Bore Conditioner.

 

[BrocLuno]

I have some Montana X-treme Bore Conditioner. I'll give it a try

 

[bsmithwins]

Barrel cleaning can be take to excess, like anything.

Personally, I run an ammonia solvent through the bore about yearly or every thousand rounds of ammo. Not because i need to but just on general principles.

My routine is to run a plastic bristle brush wet with solvent through the bore while the gun is still hot from shooting. That lets the solvent work at softening fouling while I'm doing other things. When I get around to cleaning I do the wet plastic brush again and let the bore set while I clean the rest of the gun. I then do patches to remove the cruddy solvent and then reoil the bore. I usually don't have to use a metal brush to remove fouling with this method.

BSW

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted By: NissanHauler
I recently got "Caught" by my uncle cleaning my rifle without using a copper removal solution on one of my rifles and got a speech on how not removing the copper fouling every time I shoot one of my guns will ruin accuracy. My general cleaning procedure is a good scrub of the moving parts with Breakfree CLP, 20min soak of CLP in the bore with patches run through till they're clean, and Shooters Choice FP-10 for lube where needed. Is there validity to the argument that copper removal is super crucial every time I clean a gun? Correct me if I'm wrong but if the copper builds up enough will the next bullet that goes through the bore not either polish it down into the bore or take it out the end of the barrel itself? Looking for some insight here.


Meh. I don't remove copper. My AR15 shoots 1 MOA 10-shot groups from its chrome-lined bore with me behind it using a 4x optic. Hasn't caused a problem in 5000 rounds and counting...

Oil and a bore snake. Not even CLP all the time. Just whatever I'm using. 5 passes of the snake and a chamber brush and it's G2G.