Is Your Cleaning Patch Angel White?

Any of you fellas hear of or use Ballistol? I've used it for years, if you break your rifle barrel in right you really shouldn't have to use copper cleaners a lot.
 
Any of you fellas hear of or use Ballistol? I've used it for years, if you break your rifle barrel in right you really shouldn't have to use copper cleaners a lot.

I have. Left in barrels overnight to loosen up fouling. Seems to work well. I think it falls into the penetrating oil class. I think the oils work to remove fouling because they gradually work their way under the fouling and loosen it from the barrel so you can "patch it out". I believe this is the way Wipe Out works too. Wipe Out just does it with detergents, I believe.
 
I purchased my KG products from Midway USA. But it's been awhile. Hopefully they'll still ship it to you without any hassles. Everything's changed since terrorism took front and center stage, so they may or may not ship these liquid products today.
 
ive been using wipeout and patchout exclusively for 3 yrs now and love em both.patchout will remove more copper after everything else appears to have done their job,including the kg line.
 
I used this product for 3 years & was pleased, especially with the abundance of copper it removed, but decided it wasn't up to removing all the carbon in my bore. Consequently I decided to buy some Bore Tech C4 carbon remover. I used both for the next year. The Bore Tech C4 certainly did remove some carbon that Wipe-Out missed, even after a 24 hour soak with Wipe-Out. I then decided to try using the Bore Tech C4 first & Wipe-Out after the Bore Tech. This also got good results. However, in the process, I noticed Bore Tech was also removing copper, which was a surprise to me. I also noticed Wipe-Out was removing significantly less copper than before. Next I tried something a little different. When using Bore Tech C4, I allowed it to sit in the bore for an hour or more before going through the final step of the Bore Tech ritual. When I did this, I discovered Bore Tech C4 seemed to have removed all of the copper, because when I used Wipe-Out after the long soak time with Bore Tech, Wipe-Out never had any blue on the patches (indicating copper removal).
All this made me wonder if Wipe-Out has a shelf life. Before I forget I should mention, I always used the accelerator with Wipe-Out & most of my soak times with Wipe-Out were at least 8-15 hours. I've done this routine at least 10-12 times using Wipe-Out last. I've concluded, either Wipe-Out has a shelf life or Bore Tech C4 does a better job.
Bore Tech has an advantage. In my experience, it does a better job. However, compared to Wipe-Out it is a significantly lengthy ritual, especially when compared to Wipe-Out. I have no idea if the extra copper Bore Tech removes has an influence on accuracy. Perhaps what little copper & carbon that's left by Wipe-Out, has no significant influence on accuracy.
A final note: Last year I retired my Savage barrel for a Shilen precision match w/ratchet rifling in a tight necked .250" neck diameter. The cleaning process seems to go faster now & Wipe Out seems to be almost equal now, but in my old barrel Bore Tech C4 seems to remove more carbon & surprisingly more copper.
 
Been using Wipe Out since it first came out. Great product. Don't let the Accelerator sit in your barrel over 4 hrs.
 
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I used Wipe-out and the Accelerator for about 2 years and was very satisfied. Eventually I was convinced to give Bore Tech Eliminator a try. Eliminator was also very effective at getting the bore clean. IMO anyway.

In my very unscientific test, I decided to thoroughly clean the bore with Wipe-out/Accelerator until the patches came out white. Then I ran a few patches of Eliminator through the bore and let it sit for an hour. Ran another wet patch through and was very surprised to get a blue patch out. It took some additional work with the Elininator before the blue was barely noted on any more patches.

My shooting buddy, who is a die hard Wipe-out fan, tried the same test and was surprised to have the exact same results. We both now use Eliminator.

I bought a bottle of Bore Tech Cu+ which is supposed to be a better copper remover than their Eliminator product. I start with the Eliminator to remove carbon & copper but run a few patches of CU+ through before I'm finished. Until something comes along that works better or faster, I'll stick with the Bore Tech products.
 
I always brushed in something as simple as Hoppes #9 to remove powder fowling until the patches look clean, then go to something that targets copper like Sweets 7.62 with patches. Then repeat the process until the patches come out clean.

A quality barrel maker told me the copper and powder fowling are mixed together in layers; which makes sense because each shot after the first is riding over the fowling of the previous bullet.

So, am I right in that the newer products remove both copper and powder at the same time?
 
For myself, I don't have a bore scope, but it appears to be true for me. A few weeks ago a gunsmith looked at my bore & told me it looked great!
Maybe because I'm very patient & allow Bore Tech C4 &/or Wipeout w/the accelerator to have 8 hours or more to do their job helps.
I also never shoot more than 40 rounds between cleanings. I'm religious with my cleaning & shooting. I allow at least 2-4 minutes between shots to insure my barrel doesn't over heat & at the range after shooting, I run a nylon brush soaked w/Hoppe's #9 several times & then use 3 soaked patches on the bore before I come home. After I return home, I remove all traces of Hoppe's before I start my cleaning ritual.
I hope this ritual will insure my barrel last as long as possible.
I'm too old to hunt (bad legs & feet), so I shoot nothing but benchrest now.
BTW, my barrel is a Shilen Match Select barrel w/ratchet rifling which I believe makes cleaning easier & faster.
I would never use Sweets or anything like it, simply because if it's left in too long, it can have an adverse affect on my barrel. I tend to forget time when waiting for something to work.
 
I too have been turned on to Wipe-out Patch-out by my smith. I have had great success with it.
Just built my grandson a 6.5x280 AI this summer, during barrel break in and load development it built up a large amount of copper fouling, groups were 1/2" and better. But decided to go ahead and clean barrel, groups opened up to 2"+, after about 15 rds. groups went to 3/8" and less. I recommend not cleaning the copper until your groups go away. I clean until there is no more carbon showing on the patch and stop. That's my 2 cents, it works for me.:D
 
After getting a bore scope and spending time shooting prairie dogs I've learned a few things. As a practical matter most of use do too much cleaning. Prior to the scope I typically cleaned every 35-50 shots on a dog shoot. Now, depending on the barrel I'll go 75 or more. Better barrels tend to foul less. Savage barrels typically look like crap compared to about anyone else's, but amazingly will usually shoot well and will always show blue on a patch no matter what (I've joked for years that the chatter marks on the rifling reduced friction and increased velocity :D). I've acquired a huge selection of cleaners, but have generally settled in on using Wipeout or Montana Extreme Copper Killer, but in reality I can't prove it really matters what you use.

Typically I run 5-10 wet patches through followed by a dry one or two and call it good. When I have time I'll let it sit wet for a few minutes. I rarely see anything to speak of with the bore scope after a dog shoot doing this and no accuracy issues. Best I can say is that you should get hold of a bore scope and do some experimenting. It's enlightening.
 
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