Cleaning Carbon from Barrel

[Stan Malinky]

I just finished searching the site for products for cleaning the carbon out of a poorly maintained rifle. I was asked if I would mount a scope for a friend and when I was sighting it in it shot like a scatter gun. I brought it home and bore scoped the barrel and as another friend described it look like a tire that went flat for 25 miles .I have been cleaning it out and the question I have is how much carbon build up is acceptable?

The gun is a 1960's vintage Winchester. According to the owner it was his fathers gun and does not know if it was ever cleaned.

Another question, the barrel and lands look stepped in somewhat even increments for the full length of the barrel, any ideas.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

The barrel sound "shot" to me but a good cleaning certainly wouldn't hurt it. I'd soak the bore in whatever solvent you normally use. Run patches through a few times a day while letting it sit in between. Then a brass brush or some JB and elbow grease. If that doesn't work hang the rifle on the wall and admire it.

 

[Laelkhunter]

A dedicated carbon cleaner (like Bore Tech C4Carbon Remover) is the best thing to remove as much carbon as possible before you try to remove any copper fouling. If you have nothing else, Hoppes #9 is a great place to start. There are great copper solvents, Butch's bore shine, Bore Tech Eliminator, KG12 copper solvent to name a few. If they contain ammonia read the instructions on the bottle as to how long you can leave it in the bore without causing any damage. As Varmint Hunter stated, it might take a while to get the fouling out. Probably best to take your time, and let the solvent soak in. When the patches come out black, that usually means carbon fouling, and when they come out greenish-blue that means copper fouling. If you use a brass brush with a copper solvent, you will continue to get greenish-blue patches because the solvent will be reacting to the copper brushes. The copper brushes are more aggressive than nylon bore brushes, and you might have to use copper brushes to get the bulk of the fouling out. You just have to throw them away after you finished with them.

 

[Mikecr]

Barrels copper foul out. Never heard of one carbon fouling out.
That said, a barrel dies(accuracy-wise) when carbon finally digs in and lifts the surface of a bore, causing inconsistent constriction.
But that's way down the road

 

[WapitiBob]

Best thing I've found, after spending days working on a 7STW is CLR. For copper it took about 1,000 strokes and 1/4 tub of JB bore paste. Patch out, cr-10, etc showed me I had copper but didn't do diddley to actually remove it.

CLR is for stainless barrels, not sure about other materials.

 

[Muddyboots]

This sounds like a good barrel soak for days with a solvent that does NOT contain ammonia. Stand it vertical, plug muzzle with cork or similar plug in a plastic container for secondary containment. This is not a nylon brush bore but bronze all the way. I would soak at least 2-3 days. Then I would start cleaning. Maybe do multiple long term soaks and then cleaning. Let the solvent start the penetration through long long term soaking. This will not be cleaned quickly since it was accumulated over its lifespan so clean same way. I had a friend who abused a rifle and shot like crap. Couple weeks of multiple overnight soaks with Hoppes 9 plus rigorous cleaning brought it back to decent shooter.

 

[martinakl]

I came across this video awhile back. Kinda blew my mind. This guy is a pro level shooter. Just had to share. I'll go make some popcorn now.

 

[Muddyboots]

The one thing about CLR is wear eye protection and nitrile gloves which is overlooked by most including the youtube video posted. Its paramount even more cause you are using in different manner intended. Scrubbing a barrel can result in splash etc so eye protection is mandatory and wear right protective gloves. This stuff contains hazardous ingredients so protect yourself!

 

[Dosh]

I've had good success with IOSSO bore paste on gnarly barrels. Given the age of the subject rifle cleaning may be futile for accuracy. Perhaps check the muzzle for damage or wear. The patches using IOSSO will always come out black, even when the barrel is clean.
Good luck

 

[MagnumManiac]

Three things work, CLR, BrakeKleen and CarbyKleen.
These are aggressive solvents and WILL remove surface finishes on stocks and actions, meaning it WILL dissolve lacquer, paint and wood oil finishes.
I cleaned my Pops original 1906 Winchester 30-30 with the above, unsure what ammo was used in it, but it took weeks of soaking/scrubbing and conditioning before I could see bare metal.
His 348 Win was almost as bad and his 44-40 had coils of lead coming out.
The only product that ate that carbon was CarbyKleen and multiple scrubbing with bronze brushes.
A further treatment with CLR, after discovering it works, got the rest out.
It was evident he only ever ran a brush down the bores with no solvent.
I bank on CLR removing carbon rings with a nylon brush spun up in a battery drill, it works fast for me, only a few minutes.

Cheers.

 

[BillLarson]

I use old stock GM TOP ENGINE CLEANER....

 

[Chamberman]

Try this stuff! They have some GREAT products for firearms.

Modern Spartan Systems Carbon Destroyer

You can read all about each product they offer, and they are all VERY safe for handling.

NO GLOVES OR EYE PROTECTION NEEDED!!

 

[Chamberman]

Just type it in your URL Search Bar.

For some reason the link didn't load on my previous reply.

 

[BrentM]

I was turned on to Bore Tech by a couple of smiths I know well. I started using their products and pretty much done searching or testing any thing else. This stuff flat does a fantastic job with minimal BS. I hate shooting paper and I hate cleaning guns. So the least amount of time I have to spend cleaning a nasty barrel the better.

To answer the question about carbon: the biggest issue you can see with carbon is a carbon ring. That can and does degrade the performance of the rifle. It took me a while but settled on cleaning out carbon 50-100 rounds. I rarely clean copper but that is more dependent on the condition of the bore. A properly lapped custom barrel rarely has copper fouling or build up. So the issue is usually back to carbon. Additionally, if you leave a fouled barrel sit for several weeks often you will see the carbon turn grey and feel chalky. That is basically the oxidization of the carbon. I found that leaving a barrel sit for extended period meant the first round was out of the group by accuracy and FPS due to this oxidized carbon. A quick dry patch or bore snake the barrel before hitting the field remedied this issue in every test I conducted.