Carbon Removal

[cohunt]

i wonder what grandpappy did 80 years ago?

 

[6.5-300 BEE]

He was too busy surviving to be so anal.

Carbon rings aren't much of an issue back then.

Have all JOCs books ---- he never mentioned it. Then again he killed everything with a 2.5X Alaskan.

Chuckle.

 

[DSheetz]

Grandpappy used warm water and soap to get the corrosive mercury fulminate out of his bore or Hoppies #9 . A lot just let them rust until the next time they shot them. Got the mercury all over his hands in his mouth and shared it with the family .

 

[cohunt]

The red label is for home users and the green label is for industrial users .

NOT true-- red is chlorinated, green is non- chlorinated , has nothing to do with who uses them -- you can buy both at the store (depending on what state you live in of course--CA and new York cant get the red))

"CRC is committed to helping our customers stay compliant while maximizing product performance. So, we've simplified our packaging to make product selection as easy as possible: Brakleen in red packaging is chlorinated, while Brakleen in green packaging is non-chlorinated."

they actually have 8 different formulas depending on which state you live/buy in-- the different formulas have different levels of "VOC's" to comply with all the different state air resource requirements

 

[cohunt]

Grandpappy used warm water and soap to get the corrosive mercury fulminate out of his bore or Hoppies #9 . A lot just let them rust until the next time they shot them. Got the mercury all over his hands in his mouth and shared it with the family .

yet he still lived to 100

 

[jlvandersnick]

Try some foam bore cleaner and let us know how it works for you with copper and carbon.

View attachment 192061
[/QUOTE]
I used this for years. Great on copper....not so much on carbon. I turned to C4 for carbon

 

[cohunt]

I use foam bore cleaners and my bore scope doesn't show any carbon. You might have to hit it twice but it removes the all the copper and carbon without any brushing.

Below a 1943 British .303 Enfield rifle with a worn and frosted bore. The foam was applied and the rifle sat overnight letting the foam work.

Below a AR15 and one shot of foam bore cleaner.

And below only a patch was used for final cleanup, meaning no bore brushes.

Try some foam bore cleaner and let us know how it works for you with copper and carbon.

View attachment 192061

I love wipe-out-- they have an accelerator that helps speed the process too--I don't own a bore scope (yet) so I really have no clue if its actually working or just shows colors--it looks cool though, you wouldn't believe how much copper fouling there is in those muzzle brake ports--yikes!

most of the "high end" barrel manufactures say that brushes, rods and jags damage the bore more than shooting does

blue on patch-- copper residue
gray on patch-- powder residue
brown on patch-- carbon residue

 

[PNWdude67]

I use bore tech and have no issue getting the carbon out of severely fouled barrels. It takes time and some work for sure but once you get that crap out of there then clean your rifle more often for Carbon. I used to let mine go for a long time but cannot do that any more, especially running a can. I now clean carbon out every 50 or after a match, and on my canned rifles I clean carbon every 20 or so. Lately I've tested the clean bore shot and found I had no issue with a good load keeping that 1st round in the group and have avoided the ring.

Every 20 rounds? Dang, Id be spending more time cleaning than shooting. The can does make a mess tho, so I will try to clean every 200 or so.

 

[ButterBean]

Every 20 rounds? Dang, Id be spending more time cleaning than shooting. The can does make a mess tho, so I will try to clean every 200 or so.

I know all of this makes sense but I'm with you, My 308 has so many rounds down the tube without cleaning I'm almost ashamed and all i do is wipe it out with Montana Bore conditioner, still grouping just fine but when I do scrub I use seafoam

 

[Muddyboots]

I've got a shelf of so called carbon cleaners that I tried to clean a really badly carboned 300WSM barrel from shooting tons of RL16 and drove me bananas (short trip I might add) and came to final conclusion of JB, Kroil, bronze brush and sore shoulder to clean it. You name it and I have it on shelf, CRC, Brakeklean, C4, Seafoam, GM and Mercury outboard carbon cleaners, Iosso, Flitz, KG, Slip 2000, and all sorts of penetrants like PB Blaster and Kroil. Heck I may need a HAZMAT team to dispose of the shelf!

So I wasn't really overly impressed with any of them but that was more associated with how poorly I didn't watched the carbon buildup and didn't recognize the problem until OHHHH CRAPPPP happened with pressure on normal loads. So my regiment is now to clean, no I need to say scrub, after 50 rounds and so far so good. I buy Sinclair brushes by the dozen so they don't last too long for the level of cleaning I want when I use RL16. I do use Wipeout and have used it for normal cleaning for quite a few years with really good success on copper but the carbon can still "creep" up and bite you if not careful. I never use to like taking a barrel down to clean steel but I am also seeing no really changes in POI so another learning curve for an old dog. Three or four shot and its good to go. I took for granted my standard cleaning regiment was acceptable and found out it wasn't which can be humbling when you have been cleaning rifles for 60+ years.

Any of the above carbon cleaners are probably effective for day to day routine maintenance but didn't cut through a hard carbon coating (probably closed to diamond hardness...ouch) that was allowed to accumulate due to my own ignorance. It took well over a dozen bronze brushes, lots of JB, Iosso, FLitz, Kroil and PB to get the barrel back but the real funny part of this whole episode is I decided to get new barrel anyway so wished I decided that before I needed PT on shoulder

I have seen some writings that stable temp powders may be more proned to carbon build up faster than we are normally accustomed to seeing with "normal" powders. Whatever that means.

I did see a recent advertisement on a product called: Link: Shooters Lube

Anybody use this and have results to share?

 

[ButterBean]

He was too busy surviving to be so anal.

Carbon rings aren't much of an issue back then.

Have all JOCs books ---- he never mentioned it. Then again he killed everything with a 2.5X Alaskan.

Chuckle.

Bee you are spot on......... I've said this in a couple of other threads and I'm not bragging or boasting as I now we have all done it but I've spent a small fortune on the latest and greatest stuff , With that being said I have just about come full circle and I'm almost where I started decades ago, Uncomplicated yet precise I have found I can do a lot with a little,

 

[BrentM]

Every 20 rounds? Dang, Id be spending more time cleaning than shooting. The can does make a mess tho, so I will try to clean every 200 or so.

It's a hunting rifle, a 6.5 PRC, and likes to be clean. However, it is overkill, but this rifle shoots better cleaner than dirty. So it's nothing to come back from a trip in the mountains and spend 10 minutes removing the carbon. It takes less time to clean this rifle then it does to talk about it on a forum. My PRS rifles are cleaned after a match which run 70-100 or I might forget and run a couple hundred. Either way, I can't go that long on rifles running a can. They hold too much crap inside.

 

[PerrySBell]

You people are confusing me. I have a New custom rifle with a custom Barrel which I would like to use for a very long time and NOT damage the Barrel while enjoying Hunting and Shooting. Brush or no Brush? Foam or Liquid Chemicals, or just Hoppe's #9? Can there be any real clarification?

 

[snox801]

Best stuff I've tried is boretech carbon remover. Works well on built up Carbon on the crown after using a can also.