Barrel Cleaning Products

[TackDriver284]

I bought the BoreTech carbon remover to try to clean the carbon build up in the 338 WM. I bought the rifle used and it had a layer of volcanic black glass. I even left a wet patch in it overnight and hit it with a bronze brush the next day , didn’t budge. I lent up soaking a patch of Kroil for a day then hit it with JB.

Did the Kroil and JB remove it?

 

[wvbuckbuster]

I forgot to mention Isso Bore paste, which I’ve had, and have it sitting around, but have never used it.

Frank Green at Bartlein Barrels, and a few others had stated using it will wear down the rifling if used aggressively or often enough, and will remove metal! That said that it will clean a barrel very quickly vs JB Bore paste. He prefers the latter to Isso though.

There’s one thing that I’d like to mention. Carbon fouling can be useful for filling in the fire cracking in the first few inches of the barrel that can be beneficial, that if removed eventually will brake off unless it’s polished away with products like Isso, and/or JB.

Frank and a few other barrel manufacturers have mentioned that they’ve seen people ruin a barrel with their cleaning technique and they would not warranty their claim for that reason.

I tend to not worry about getting my own barrels spotless. I’m usually having to foul them out before a match, and during a two or three day match I’m shooting them 150-200 times and have never seen the accuracy degrade. But I have had scopes go bad far more often than what you’re trying to remove from a barrel.

Here’s something worth mentioning.

I have a 50 cal Black Powder Browning Mountain Rifle with the worst possible outcome of any weapon…. A pitted rusty bore! I bought it used and ran a lot of JB through it and maroon Scotch-Brite pads wrapped around a jag to help polish out most of the rust. It’s still far from perfect, it never will be, you can’t fix this problem. If you peered down it with a bore scope you’d probably be inclined to replace it!

That gun will out shoot a brand new Green Mountain barrel by such a wide margin that I only use the other gun as my back up for the 2nd shot if needed! Yes, I carry two muzzle loaders so I’m not having to reload.

So if that rusty heavy pitted pig can out shoot most pristine and highly crafted barrels what does that tell you?!?

It tells me you're fortunate. Most barrels I've seen as you described were minute of deer. Not doubting you and glad it does well for you.

 

[longrangehunter]

It tells me you're fortunate. Most barrels I've seen as you described were minute of deer. Not doubting you and glad it does well for you.

It’ll shoot a 1” group between 100 and 120 yards with Speer RB and FF Swiss with a RWS precision cap. In Idaho we can only use primitive weapons for muzzle loading season.

I found three round balls that went 200+ yards that my friend Elizabeth shot that missed the steel plate at 120 yards, but went through knee deep snow and were three fingers apart.

I found them in April 2023 when I was looking for Morel mushrooms the fallowing year.

As you can see she’s a very good shooter even though she missed the plate!

 

[RL338]

Did the Kroil and JB remove it?

Short answer is yes , required more work than it should have.

 

[Joec7651]

I would imagine the newer suppressor solvents would work well on carbon fouling. They also seem to come in larger quantities than bore cleaners. I would think the suppressor ends up with many times the carbon fouling a bore will build up. Just a thought.

 

[longrangehunter]

I would imagine the newer suppressor solvents would work well on carbon fouling. They also seem to come in larger quantities than bore cleaners. I would think the suppressor ends up with many times the carbon fouling a bore will build up. Just a thought.

I tested the BoreTech Suppressor cleaner's for Zak Smith in two of his cans when they first came out with it. It’s a two part system, A and B. It worked extremely well and clean everything down to bare metal.

Unfortunately it is expensive, and not something TBAC would take on due to the expense. That said he’s used CLR for years to removing fouling from his suppressors.

 

[xphunter]

For a suppressor cleaning, I can see how CLR would be desired, as it is a lot cheaper than other "Cleaning" products

 

[RL338]

The "green juice” is an excellent carbon remover and if not careful an excellent remove of everything else.

 

[Turpentine]

I've been using Bore Tech eliminator /or Wipe Out. Both are pretty easy and they don't smell bad. I recently customized a Ruger SFAR 20" in 6.5 Creed and noticed after break in that I was still getting some flyers. So, I decided to do a good clean and scrub with Bore Tech Eliminator. The first several passes literally poured purple liquid out of the barrel. I did three separate start to finishes with it before everything appeared clean. Tried some new loads and they were by far the best it has shot after 3 fouling shots. I definitely need to get a borescope just to get some Idea how bad and quick this fouling happens. I may fire 30 rounds in a night doing depredation and I sure hope it doesn't copper foul that quickly.