Cleaning for Copper

[CharlesT]

I'm just curious as to how often people clean their rifle barrels for copper fouling. I've found that about every 50 rounds seems, for me at least, to be the time before accuracy starts to dramatically fall off.

 

[PARA45]

I believe it all depends on the particular rifle and the caliber. I shoot a lot of Weatherby calibers, so I have to clean them more frequently, and I don't wait until the accuracy goes south. I usually clean my Weatherby rifles when I've shot 20 or so rounds through it. I use Boretech Eliminator to remove the copper fouling from the barrel, and it works great.

 

[mark-hunter]

On one rifle of mine, accuracy drops after 70-80 shots. Sub moa accyracy, lost.

I use amonia based chemical. we have different chemicals available, I use robla solo, or tetra gun. In your place you will have something else, different commercial name.
Soak in bottle with soft brush, apply by same brush in barrel.
Wait up to 10 minutes.
Apply wire brush to scratch copper residue.
Dry the barrel.
Apply spray oil in barrel.
Clean and dry with brush, and rag patches.
Finally the barrel may by dried with break cleaner, or dry rags.

This should clean barrel.
After this process, rifle usually looses some accuracy, and it takes few fouling shots, to get to its full performance.

With pistol, and a lot of shooting yearly, i do it maybe once in two years, or even less frequent.

For hunting rifle, very very rare. Match rifle depending on ammount of use, but this one needs maximum care, frequently.

 

[Hogpatrol]

It depends on the barrel. Hammer forged may need it sooner than a button or cut rifled. I have aftermarket barrels that never show any blue during cleaning. I'm more concerned with carbon rings building up in the freebore/throat area.

 

[Arthur Morta]

I believe it all depends on the particular rifle and the caliber. I shoot a lot of Weatherby calibers, so I have to clean them more frequently, and I don't wait until the accuracy goes south. I usually clean my Weatherby rifles when I've shot 20 or so rounds through it. I use Boretech Eliminator to remove the copper fouling from the barrel, and it works great.

I have only used Bore Tech Eliminator for copper removal on all my rifles.
Have also been using Bore Tech Carbon Remover in all my Weatherby rifles too. Copper - Carbon tend to layer in the bore, try it some time and then after having thought all the copper was removed first time round, go back with the Eliminator, low and behold the patches exit blue again...

 

[CharlesT]

After I posted I had a thought:

In my 6.5x55 I mostly shoot Hornady bullets, in my .303 Sierra. In my 9.3x62 I shoot Prvi Partisan and it by far is the worst for copper fouling.

Incidentally I use Barnes CR10 (ammonia based) and I have found it works very well.

CT

 

[BeeMaa]

I've seen more damage done to rifling, throats and crowns from improper use of a cleaning rod.
It will take me the better part of a day to do a proper cleaning of a new barrel with a rod.
After that, I switch to the method below.

Using a Hoppe's Viper Bore Snake for each caliber.
After each range (0r hunting) session, I put Break Free CLP on the snake and pull it through.
I do this about 3-5 times and put them back in the safe for next week.
Have yet to loose accuracy and the bores are shiny.
We also always shoot our first cold bore shot from the bench to verify zero, never had a problem.

I will also do this after a day out in the field hunting, even if I didn't take a shot.
Clean out the moisture, dust and anything else.
It's compact and easy to take on any hunt.

I'm not sure how great my method is for removing copper, but the bores look and shoot really good.
I believe more in polishing the bore instead of completely stripping it of everything.

The Viper Bore Snake and a bottle of CLP makes a great gift for your PH as well.

 

[JLF]

Every 20 shots approximately .....
As for the product, I prepare a solution of 90% Ammonia and 10% soluble oil (it is the oil used by turners)

 

[JimP]

I don't like bore snakes for cleaning where you should be using a rod and brushes. Just think, you are using a dirty brush and swabs to clean the bore along with the rest of the crud that they can pick up if by chance it hits the ground.

I will say that they have their place such as in your pack when you are out in the woods.

I'll personally use a brush brass or nylon on a proper coated cleaning rod along with a bore guide. For copper fowling I use the Barnes C10 solvent, and then once clean a oiled patch followed by a dry one

 

[Red Leg]

Never ....... Ever.

Couple of passes or Ballistol once a year. I own everything from fast magnums to things that resemble flying volkswagens.

Everything that I hunt with is MOA or better except for a 1910ish takedown 318 WR. The issue is the takedown technology, not fouling. It is still a sub-2 MOA rifle.

Copper is the great healer of flawed barrels.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

If Hoppes number 9 doesn’t take it out it stays in my rifles. They get cleaned ever 40 to 60 rounds.

 

[Standard Velocity]

Some of my rifles start to lose accuracy after 20 rounds or so and some shoot forever. I make every effort to clean after 20 anyway.

Strangely enough, the barrel that has perpetual copper fouling, regardless of how vigorously it is cleaned, never really deviates in accuracy. It seams to me a uniform layer of copper fouling may help accuracy even if it is not good for the steel.

I have also noticed a correlation between bore diameter and fouling issues. I have a 243 that wanders after ten rounds while everything above 30 caliber stays pretty stable for extended periods. 6.5 to 270 has fallen somewhere in between.

 

[RayAtkinson]

Large bores get more copper because they have more surface, squeeky clean is required, keeping in mind there has never been animal or man killed with a clean bore!! I don't clean my guns during the hunting season, and only when hunting season closes do I clean my bores..I have one rifle in particular that I never clean, its super accurate and if I clean it then it takes 100 or more rounds before it shoots accurately...

Cleaning rods have damaged more bores than any other thing I can think of...I see more over cleaning than anything else...All my guns shoot an inch or under, otherwise they go down the road, Im an accuracy freak, and have no use for inaccurate gun, even so so accurate guns..

Maybe a different take, but its worked for me for 65 plus years..

 

[James Adamson]

My last .223, a browning A-bolt, needed to be clean, the cleaner the better but not so with the one I have now. I kept the same cleaning regime for my new tikka and I couldn't get the accuracy I wanted until I stopped cleaning it. It hasn't had any sort of copper cleaner through it for well over a thousand rounds now, all it gets is 3 pull throughs with a bore snake dipped in a tiny amount of hoppes bore clean. This is what I do with my 6.5 and 06 too (all tikkas) and it seems to work for me.

 

[ChrisG]

I use hopes elite copper remover. It is not ammonia based and does nothing to the steel unlike ammonia which will damage steel if left too long.

I normally just run an oiled patch through the bore followed by a dry patch after shooting. About once every 6 months I use an 13 step process that takes about a half hour not including the wait period. This is also only done for guns that fire copper jacketed bullets. My 12 bore shrifle and my handguns only ever see lead.

All of this is obviously run through the breech.

1. Run a patch of hoppes or gunzilla
2. Wait 15 minutes
2. Brush 10 strokes with a copper bristled brush wrapped with copper "chore boy" pad
3. Run patch of hoppes or gunzilla
4. Run two dry patches
5. Run a patch of hoppes copper eliminator
6. Wait 30 minutes to 2 hours
7. Brush 10 strokes with a copper bristled brush wrapped with "copper chore boy" pad
8. Run a dry patch
9. Run a patch of hoppes or gunzilla
10. Run two dry patches
11. Run a patch of WD-40/ATF/gun oil
12. Wipe down the whole gun with oiled rag (yes even the stainless ones).
13. Run 2 dry patches and put away.

 

[limpopo]

Lot's of diff methods above, all great....but I never thought about it until today. Had my R8 458 barrel out for two sessions this week, total of 4o+ rounds of 450 grain TSX's for practice. Visible copper on lands. Remove barrel, use a Hoppes #9 soaked patch run through the barrel, then plug chamber/breech end with patches. Then I shoot a few CC's of #9 into the bore. Went and made a sandwich (salami/cheese/lettuce/tomato on rye) ate and 25 minutes later ran a bore brush through the barrel a few times and 99% of the copper gone. Light lube the bore if put away for an extended period of time. YMMV

 

[Standard Velocity]

Lot's of diff methods above, all great....but I never thought about it until today. Had my R8 458 barrel out for two sessions this week, total of 4o+ rounds of 450 grain TSX's for practice. Visible copper on lands. Remove barrel, use a Hoppes #9 soaked patch run through the barrel, then plug chamber/breech end with patches. Then I shoot a few CC's of #9 into the bore. Went and made a sandwich (salami/cheese/lettuce/tomato on rye) ate and 25 minutes later ran a bore brush through the barrel a few times and 99% of the copper gone. Light lube the bore if put away for an extended period of time. YMMV

Rye! I knew I had been doing something wrong. The secret sauce is Hopes #9 and rye.

 

[putter97127]

Rye! I knew I had been doing something wrong. The secret sauce is Hopes #9 and rye.

Mmmm... Hoppe's and Rye... The start of the best kind of alone time...

 

[limpopo]

Secrets out....

 

[putter97127]

View attachment 359067 Secrets out....

Nice!