Rifle Cleaning

[Mark Z]

I shoot mostly hand loaded Nosler Ballistic Tips and Partitions out of my .270 Win Sako and 7 mm Rem Mag. Husky. I have always used Hoppes's No. 9 to clean my barrel, but I'm not sure my barrels are getting thoroughly cleaned. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[YoteSmoker]

J-B Paste, Barnes CR-10, followed by Hoppes Bench Rest. The bench rest solvent is made to remove copper and lead. Use a nylon brush as it will eat a copper brush real quick.

 

[rigpig78]

I have been using Butch's Bore Shine, works really well to remove any type of fouking, especially copper. :grin:

 

[steve4102]

Wipe-out.

 

[coyotetrapper]

I use Montana extreme works great and then get the carbon out with the above mentioned J-B compound. Butches, Barnes are good too.

I been amazed with the j-b as some think there gun is realy clean until I run a pacth or 2 down with j-b, hard carbon won't get removed with bore cleaner.

 

[Desert Fox]

JB is very abrasive! use it only sparingly. Sweet or Barnes CR-10 is excellent in removing stuborn copper fouling. Use nylon brush or soak a patch and run several pass back and forth at least ten times. A lot of times we are so worried about copper fouling that we totally neglect the main culprit that affect rfle accuracy, which is powder fouling. I usually take care of powder fouling before I do something about copper. Kroil is excellent for removing powder burnt residue. WD-40 is also excellent and they're readily available at your local hardware store. Take your time cleaning your rifle. Mine usually takes all day. Most of the time spent soaking the barrel with sovents. Cleaning rifle is a choir but essential. I hate dirty rifles. My rifle don't go back inside the safe without being scrubbed clean.

 

[clearwater]

After you do the hoppe's, fill the barrel with wipeout foam and let it sit 20
minutes then patch out.

If you can see copper streaks remaining, fill
the barrel with wipeout and let sit overnight then patch out and oil.

This has worked on rifles that otherwise took 70+ patches and hours
with sweet's to clean before.

 

[Guy Miner]

"Take your time cleaning your rifle. Mine usually takes all day. Most of the time spent soaking the barrel with sovents."

If it takes me over 20 minutes to clean my rifle, it's because I was crawling through some serious mud or something... I like 'em clean too, but I'll be darned if I'll take all day to clean the darned thing when I'm going to turn around and put another 50 - 100 rounds through it next week! :grin:

I used to clean more often, and more heavily. Then I started shooting LR matches and found out that the hot-shot shooters, who were shooting much higher scores than me, weren't cleaning at all often... Some not at all...

 

[coyotetrapper]

I agree I can't afford to give up a day cleaning a rifle. I clean every 10-12 shots , new barrel break in every 3 until I have passed 40-50 rounds down the barrel. I kill coyotes and other critters, not shooting 100 rounds a weekend. 30 mintues or less and I get a clean barrel. I let 2 good soaked patches sit for 5 mintues each and then use a nylon brush for 25-30 strokes each between the patches, then 6-9 more soaked pacthes, 1 last brush work and then 2 patches of j-b, 1 solvent, 1 oil and 2 dry and done.

j-b is a good product been around for 40 years and works well, not super abrasive at all, just get a white patch a light dull gray and only go down and out to protect the muzzle/ crown.

 

[Desert Fox]

I guess we all do things differently. Don't get me wrong, I do other chore while my barrel is being soaked. I get back on it and run nylon brush soaked with solvent, every now and then, to make sure the bore is fully saturated, to loosen up all the crud. It takes only few patches to clean the barrel this way. I rarely use bronse brush unless I'm in a hurry. Factory barrel takes a little longer to clean compared to custom barrel. I usually don't spend that much time on my custom barrel than on the factory barrel.