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Deep cleaning barrels.

S

Sasman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
66
How often should you and do you deep clean your rifle barrels ?
I have a couple of my trusty old Tikka T3 Tacticals one in 300 Win Mag the other in 308.
These are the heavy factory barrels with , i think , factory brakes on them .
I,ve had them both for approx 12 years now .
I'm guessing i have put at least a couple of thousand rounds per rifle ,down the barrels .
Usual process for me is just to run the brush through the barrels 3 times after a morning shooting and a patch , that's it .
They shoot so well im really leary to deep clean them but i would rather do it now if then have problems surface later .
 
I was a proponent of not cleaning until accuracy fell off for quite some time. Unfortunately at one point or another in a few of my rifles the dreaded carbon ring snuck up on me and caused major problems. I personally have gone back to cleaning every 100 to 200 rounds max and inspecting the throat area with a bore scope.

I have also started using a muzzle jimmy from pva and soaking barrels rather than scrubbing them. I find it saves me time in the long run, less patching and brushing over all. I use more solvent but the amount of time i spend with the cleaning rod is less and I can do other things.

I keep a log on the amount of fouling shots I need for each barrel after cleaning. Most only take 1-6 shots to settle in. I have one wierd barrel that takes exactly 23 rounds. It has about 2000 rounds on it and is losing velocity so it just might be the end of it.

The advent of video borescopes has helped change the way I view cleaning and definitely has given me a new perspective on what is actually clean. For me it's easier to have more predictable results with routine cleaning then the occasional deep clean or only cleaning when accuracy falls off.
 
It depends. My hunting rifles have a "known" fouling regiment and see maybe 10 shots during a season. Then it's cleaned thoroughly.

Guns I shoot alot, they get deep cleaned when velocity or accuracy changes.

Only issue I've heard of was on a Vortex Nation podcast, where a descent shooting high round count Tikka (?) was finally cleaned after 3-4k rounds. It never shot the same. Didn't see it, just hearsay.
 
Frogman77 said:
I was a proponent of not cleaning until accuracy fell off for quite some time. Unfortunately at one point or another in a few of my rifles the dreaded carbon ring snuck up on me and caused major problems. I personally have gone back to cleaning every 100 to 200 rounds max and inspecting the throat area with a bore scope.

I have also started using a muzzle jimmy from pva and soaking barrels rather than scrubbing them. I find it saves me time in the long run, less patching and brushing over all. I use more solvent but the amount of time i spend with the cleaning rod is less and I can do other things.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I didn't even know such a device existed. Got one ordered, this should be a big time saver for me.
 
Bowfisher said:
Thank you, I didn't even know such a device existed. Got one ordered, this should be a big time saver for me.
Click to expand...
I had a really nasty carbon ring that no matter how much brushing, solvent, abrasive I couldn't get out. Soaked it with muzzle Jimmy and some boretech c4 and the next morning flakes of carbon came out when I drained it. Brushed a few strokes, patched it and checked with scope. Still had some carbon in the throat but definitely marked improvement. I soaked it another day and repeated the couple brush strokes and patches and it was gone.

This was after days of brushing and standard patching with solvent. After that I was a believer in the muzzle jimmy.

Also why I now do routine cleaning to prevent it from happening to begin with.
 
I don't like corrosion in the the barrel. Either the barrel corroding or the copper fouling corroding. I clean to bare metal after matches (~100 rounds) and before storage. Before and during the hunting season, I just make sure I have enough rounds down the barrel to fowl it before I go hunting. Then, deep clean with a good coat of oil after the season for storage.
 
Frogman77 said:
I was a proponent of not cleaning until accuracy fell off for quite some time. Unfortunately at one point or another in a few of my rifles the dreaded carbon ring snuck up on me and caused major problems. I personally have gone back to cleaning every 100 to 200 rounds max and inspecting the throat area with a bore scope.

I have also started using a muzzle jimmy from pva and soaking barrels rather than scrubbing them. I find it saves me time in the long run, less patching and brushing over all. I use more solvent but the amount of time i spend with the cleaning rod is less and I can do other things.

I keep a log on the amount of fouling shots I need for each barrel after cleaning. Most only take 1-6 shots to settle in. I have one wierd barrel that takes exactly 23 rounds. It has about 2000 rounds on it and is losing velocity so it just might be the end of it.

The advent of video borescopes has helped change the way I view cleaning and definitely has given me a new perspective on what is actually clean. For me it's easier to have more predictable results with routine cleaning then the occasional deep clean or only cleaning when accuracy falls off.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that answer .
I had no clue about Carbon rings or anything like that , i just like to re load and shoot. I found loads that they like and shoot extremely well .
The reason for the question in the first place was due my rifles have lots of rounds on them .
I would rather prevent having to change out barrels or even buy a new rifle to replace them if theres something i could do to make them last longer or until i cant shoot anymore .
I think your answer has helped me in my decision to clean them a little more .
I am also going to investigate that Muzzle Jimmy and see if i can find somewhere up here in the Great White North that sells them . Thanks again .
 
Every barrel I've seen that hasn't been cleaned in and unknown number of years has notable pitting in it. I find these, and severely fire cracked barrels, don't tend to shoot well until the pitting is filled and smoothed out by fouling. Usually a few more shots than a good bore. JB bore paste can help with fire cracking roughness but it won't do much for pitting. All this also depends on your acceptable level of accuracy and internal ballistics. Keep shooting it until you don't like how it shoots.
 
I'm a clean freak. I clean my rifles after every shooting session. Until I got a bore scope, I thought my bores were always clean to bare metal. The bore scope revealed that getting white patches out after a thorough cleaning does NOT mean that all the fouling has been removed. Copper is fairly easy to remove with regular cleaning. Baked on carbon can be extremely difficult to remove. BoreTech C4 does a decent job, just like the controversial CLP, but neither of them performs miracles on hardened carbon. IME -The only way to remove stubborn carbon is to soak the bore for days (periodic wet patches) followed by a stiff bronze brush and then using Flitz or JB.

One thing is for certain. If you aren't using a bore scope, you're just guessing about bore cleanliness. Now that you can buy a Teslong for under $100 on Amazon, there is no reason to guess anymore.
 
jrock said:
Every barrel I've seen that hasn't been cleaned in and unknown number of years has notable pitting in it. I find these, and severely fire cracked barrels, don't tend to shoot well until the pitting is filled and smoothed out by fouling. Usually a few more shots than a good bore. JB bore paste can help with fire cracking roughness but it won't do much for pitting. All this also depends on your acceptable level of accuracy and internal ballistics. Keep shooting it until you don't like how it shoots.
Click to expand...
Ill try and post some pics of the last time i went out with the rifles .
Good and bad just to show you how they shoot and what i deem as "acceptable " .
Unfortunately im done shooting now until the spring comes along , we are in the -20 ,s here now , lots of snow and i get cold too quick lol .
 

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