Copper fouling cleaning process

[BigGoonTuna]

i've found myself using kg12 and wipe-out a lot lately.  i've never seen a bore so copper fouled as my 270 last week when i made a quick run to the gravel pit to chronograph some experimental powder charges, and ran about 20 normal bullets through after shooting some barnes TTSX bullets.  inside of the barrel was orange, not just next to the lands, haven't done that before.

i like to do a soak for about a half hour with the wipe out to break up the powder and carbon(and some copper), then go to town with the KG12.  run a couple wet patches through, then a wet brush back and forth 15-20 times, let sit a few minutes, repeat as necessary.  usually doesn't take too long.  way faster than using CR10 or montana extreme, and you don't give yourself a headache with ammonia fumes either.  if i use montana extreme or cr10, i'll randomly get a whiff of ammonia a few times for a few days afterward

[7mmfan]

I cleaned my 7mm-08 today just for the heck of it, and I had it apparently copper free in one round with The Eliminator solution. That stuff seems to work quite well. Now I just need to mount a scope on it and get a load dialed in. I'm counting on it to be my backup rifle for this season.

[7mmfan]

Do you need to borrow a rifle ?

Maybe I'll borrow that fancy 6.5 you're always bragging about!

[coachcw]

Do you need to borrow a rifle ?

Maybe I'll borrow that fancy 6.5 you're always bragging about!

Any time buddy !

[7mmfan]

Quickly revisiting this. I've cleaned both my 7 mag and 7mm-08 with the CU+2 copper cleaner. I feel good about all that. It was mentioned earlier that by doing a very thorough copper removal, a guy needs to refoul, or recondition the barrel slightly before it will shoot like it used it if everything is still functioning properly. Is there a proven process for this? Clean with powder solvent every shot for 5 or 10 shots? something like that?

[BULLBLASTER]

Just shoot it.

[7mmfan]

Just shoot it.

I figured I was overthinking this. Par for the course.

[BULLBLASTER]

Just shoot it.

I figured I was overthinking this. Par for the course.

[Magnum_Willys]

The breakin process is because rough machining edges scrape copper off the bullet which fouls barrel .  After 10 or 20 rounds these marks are smoothed out.   Don’t need to do it again.   But your rifle may “settle down” after normal cleaning after 3-6 shots and be accurate for the next 20-200 shots.   Each one is different.   I like to clean, shoot one fouling shot then good for next 30 rounds. 

[7mmfan]

Alright, thanks for the insight.

[Stein]

Yeah, once it is shot enough to smooth out the tooling marks all you need to do is lay down a tiny amount of copper in the barrel by shooting it a few times.  After that, every bullet will see as close to the same thing as possible.  If you continually strip copper out, the first few bullets will end up leaving some of their copper behind and will more than likely impact differently than those later on that see a coppered barrel.

It's all voodoo in the end and everyone has their favorite theory.  Personally, I don't clean often, maybe once a year and that is mostly for rust prevention.  When I do clean, it's just patches and solvent, never copper cleaner.  This is for normal use, maybe a 100-200 hundred rounds a year on a very heavy use year where I am working on load development and a box or two on a normal year.  If I shot matches and did a thousand rounds a year I may think differently.

With my barrel, I can clean with 1-2 wet patches, dry and light oil, 3-4 patches total and five minutes tops.

[Yondering]

i've found myself using kg12 and wipe-out a lot lately.  i've never seen a bore so copper fouled as my 270 last week when i made a quick run to the gravel pit to chronograph some experimental powder charges, and ran about 20 normal bullets through after shooting some barnes TTSX bullets.  inside of the barrel was orange, not just next to the lands, haven't done that before.

i like to do a soak for about a half hour with the wipe out to break up the powder and carbon(and some copper), then go to town with the KG12.  run a couple wet patches through, then a wet brush back and forth 15-20 times, let sit a few minutes, repeat as necessary.  usually doesn't take too long.  way faster than using CR10 or montana extreme, and you don't give yourself a headache with ammonia fumes either.  if i use montana extreme or cr10, i'll randomly get a whiff of ammonia a few times for a few days afterward

If you're using Wipe-out anyway, you could just skip the KG12 and do another soak or two with Wipe-out. That stuff does way more for copper fouling than for carbon buildup anyway.

Personally I do an initial 30 min to 1 hour soak with Wipe-out, and if the bore still has copper visible I'll do another one overnight. That's adequate to get the copper out of even bad fouling barrels, and leaves a lot less opportunity to wear the bore with excessive scrubbing. After cleaning out the Wipe-out, I just oil the bore and put it away.

[rodell]

I'm a chemical junkie; I'll try anything new to see how it works.

If you are in no hurry, the wipeout foam or liquid with the accelerator is really great stuff.  I always use the accelerator.

If I need to finish quickly, then the Boretech products are the ones I've settled on.

Sweet's works very well, but is water-based. It will etch the bore if you aren't careful. I have it but never use it any more.

[7mmfan]

Update. Went and shot today. 7 mag is back to MOA. First 3 groups were sub MOA, last one had a flier put it just over 1". I think she's back! At least for a while.

Shot the 7mm-08 that I recent floated and bedded as well. Best that this rifle has ever shot. Very happy with how that turned out. Working on load testing tomorrow for it.