False reading?

[wisconsinteacher]

I cleaned my .338 WM the other night after shooting 6 shoots. I ran Sweets 5 times up and down the barrel for a minute each and every time the patch came put blue. The rilfe was clean before I shot so I know it was not that bad. Do you think I got all that blue from the cleaning brush I was using? The body of the brush is tarnished where the cleaning liquid was. So was I getting a false reading on copper build up. After pushing a few clean patches down the barrel, they were white, so I oiled a few up and then followed them with a dry patch.

 

[RiverRider]

If you use a bronze brush with Sweet's the solvent WILL eat the brush and give you false positives like that. The first time I used Sweet's I wasn't thinking at all and scrubbed the bore for about an hour thinking that I was getting huge volumes of jacket fouling out of the bore. Duh!

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Good to know. I will get some nylon brushes.

 

[RiverRider]

That is exactly what I have done.

I think I want to try Bore Tech Eliminator, though. I hear the stuff works really well.

 

[Guest]

I know I sound like a broken record, but I'll keep saying it until everyone has heard:

Once you try BTE, you won't go back. It really is that good. Get some nickel plated jags, or some of the BoreTech Proof Positive (copper free) jags, and you're home free. I don't even use brushes anymore unless I have someone bring me a rifle that's just caked with gunk inside and needs some extra agitation to expedite the process.

I have a shelf full of around 15-20 dusty solvent bottles of stuff that just doesn't get used anymore. I keep some stuff for specific purposes - like aerosol GunScrubber and Hoppe's #9 (for the aroma) - but the only solvent that's gone down a bore of mine in over a year is BTE. Until they bring out a solvent that actually applies itself while I sit around drinking a beer, I can't see a reason to change.