Cooper and carbon fouling.

[BallisticsGuy]

That's entirely normal. You'll eventually see gator skin further down the tube. It spreads. Big fire, small hole. I tend to go 400 rounds or more between cleanings that involve a copper solvent. I'll knock the carbon out with just a quick carbon solvent patch if I want to look down the barrel with a scope but that's about it. Some of my match rifles only got cleaned twice in their nearly 2000 round lifetimes and that's stuff like 6mm's doing 3100-3200fps so they're super overbore too. People got used to cleaning barrels because originally black powder and then corrosive primers would cause severe rust quickly if barrels were not cleaned out pretty soon after shooting was done. Then after black powder and corrosive primers stopped being remotely common people just never stopped the habit. It started out necesssary, then became lore, then virtue signaling and now people are starting to wake up to the fact that there's a time to clean and a time to shoot but they're not sequential steps.

 

[Teri Anne]

A few years ago i had Bartlien replace the barrel on my Winchester Model 70 270WSM. I was quite pleased with the way the gun shot with the new barrel. However this barrel copper fouled more than any gun i have ever owned and than is more that 20. I called Bartlien and told them about the fouling. I was told to shoot 5 five shot groups and see if the accuracy deteriorated. I shot the groups and the accuracy held up. I thought as i shot more and cleaned the barrel would smooth out. That has not happened! This barrel both carbon and copper fouls like you whould not believe.

I just bought a cheap bore scope and took some pictures and there is no wonder why. It looks like alligator skin.
My question is what should i do?

The gun still shoots well. With a number of loads it will shoot. 1/2 in three shot groups and only a few hundred rounds have been shot. Not sure exact total but maybe 300.
Should i just keep shooting until the accuracy disappears?

I had the same issue with my Browning 300 WM, I could not get it to group no matter what. After 100 rounds and still no success I bore scoped the barrel and it was copper fouled from chamber to muzzle. The rifling looked like a rasp file. Spent hours removing the copper and tried again. This time the fouling was not as bad but still there. Cleaned the copper again and tried again. Noted the groups starting to shrink but also noted that there was still copper fouling. Again cleaned the copper out of the barrel and tried again. I could go on and on, but the end result is that the rifle shoots sub MOA groups with 180 gr Federal Premium and where are only copper smudges here and there. It took all total about 260 rounds fired before things kind of normalized out. I kept at it and it's a pretty good shooting rifle now. Don't give up, clean out the copper fire some rounds and clean the copper until it doesn't foul out anymore. The end justifies the means.

 

[MNbogboy]

That's entirely normal. You'll eventually see gator skin further down the tube. It spreads. Big fire, small hole. I tend to go 400 rounds or more between cleanings that involve a copper solvent. I'll knock the carbon out with just a quick carbon solvent patch if I want to look down the barrel with a scope but that's about it. Some of my match rifles only got cleaned twice in their nearly 2000 round lifetimes and that's stuff like 6mm's doing 3100-3200fps so they're super overbore too. People got used to cleaning barrels because originally black powder and then corrosive primers would cause severe rust quickly if barrels were not cleaned out pretty soon after shooting was done. Then after black powder and corrosive primers stopped being remotely common people just never stopped the habit. It started out necesssary, then became lore, then virtue signaling and now people are starting to wake up to the fact that there's a time to clean and a time to shoot but they're not sequential steps.

I've had several carbon tough barrels like yours and I've found that scrubbing for copper first with a good copper remover and then tackling with ipso paste about 150 or 200 strokes with a brass brush wrapped with a patch usually knocks out most of the carbon. I follow up withkroil and patches till clean then take another look with the bore cam.
I repeat everything until I'm down to steel all theway. I used to use in paste but have found the Rossi is a tad bit more aggressive and it takes less work. 200 to 300 strokes gets the majority of it. The carbon is usually from the chamber and ahead about 6 to 10 inches.
Another great carbon dissolving product is household CLR but care must be takenasit will remove gluing completely ( I learned my lesson onthisand noticedbluing missingatthemuzzleehereitdrizzledoutaheadofthecleaningpatches.

 

[tobnpr]

Are you shooting monolithic bullets? I have seen heavy copper buildup from them...

 

[Shortmagman]

I am shooting Bergers and Nosler Accubonds. I am just going to keep shooting until the accuracy drops off then i will worry about the copper.

 

[hesse]

I have win 70in a 264 win and the rifling looked like they used a butter knife it copper fouled horrible. I ended up fire lapping the barrel using tubbs grit impregnated bullets. Made a Huge difference and improved the fouling . Hope this helps

 

[Shortmagman]

I am familiar with the Tobbs system. I have used it before in a Ruger 270 win. i am not quite ready for it but if things don't improve i will give it some more thought.

 

[hesse]

I am familiar with the Tobbs system. I have used it before in a Ruger 270 win. i am not quite ready for it but if things don't improve i will give it some more thought.

I didn't use all 5 just the finest 3. Mine after 3 shot would open up like crazy so good luck