Lead or carbon buildup?

[kal]

I was going over my pistol earlier in preperation for tomorrows range trip.

I took the barrel out, pointed it towards a light source, and looked through it.

I noticed some of the grooves were deeper than others and realized that some of the groves appear to be clogged up with what either is carbon or lead. Now the reason I mention lead is because I'm 100% sure the Federal 45 I shoot is copper plated, not jacketed, and I feel that encourages lead fouling. I've scratched one bullet with a screw driver and it took no time for me to see the shiny lead surface.

The buildup is not uniform within the suspect grooves. As the rifling twists, you can see that in the same groove, the fouling varies.

First, is it carbon or lead, or both? Second, how can I get rid of it?

I tried the brush that came with the gun, failure. I also tried shoving a thick wad of paper towel and it really didn't do anything either. Hardly any carbon residue on the piece of paper towel.

[Abraxas]

Did you use any CLP or solvent?

[MichaelD]

CLP or Hoppes 9 or M-Pro 7 or any of a dozen others.

[gumby223]

CLP or Hoppes 9 or M-Pro 7 or any of a dozen others.

This!

[Littlelebowski]

It doesn't affect anything and if you continue to shoot, you'll really see that.

Do this: shoot for groups while it's dirty. Then clean it and shoot for groups again. Come back here and tell us what you observed.

If you really feel like you MUST clean it, use a bronze or copper brush with a good oil on it and scrub the bore. Go one direction at a time and do not change directions while in the bore. I use FP10 or Weaponshield on my brush.

I clean my Glock's bore every 1500-3K rounds.

[TOrrock]

Federal is jacketed, not plated.

A good phosphor bronze bore brush and Shooter's Choice bore solvent should get it done.

Clean that 24/7 up, take it to the next show, and ditch it.

[BushmasterFanBoy]

I've actually never been able to get rid of what you are describing in my pistols. What usually happens is I'll just give the barrel a really good cleaning with Hoppes #9, and leave the "streaks" as I call them, in the barrel. I am sure the accuracy of the pistol is effected by these "streaks" on some level, but as to what degree I can't tell.

My best effort so far was giving the barrel a really good cleaning with Hoppes #9, and then following that up with Hoppes Copper Solvent. I let that sit overnight and that seemed to help somewhat. This leads me to believe that this is mostly copper fouling.
If anyone knows how to get rid of these "streaks" I would be very happy to know.

[Littlelebowski]

I've actually never been able to get rid of what you are describing in my pistols. What usually happens is I'll just give the barrel a really good cleaning with Hoppes #9, and leave the "streaks" as I call them, in the barrel. I am sure the accuracy of the pistol is effected by these "streaks" on some level, but as to what degree I can't tell.

My best effort so far was giving the barrel a really good cleaning with Hoppes #9, and then following that up with Hoppes Copper Solvent. I let that sit overnight and that seemed to help somewhat. This leads me to believe that this is mostly copper fouling.
If anyone knows how to get rid of these "streaks" I would be very happy to know.

Read my post above. It works. And no, you won't notice a difference.

[blackboar]

If the lead fouling in the bore is really bothering you, buy any lead solvent (I use Shooter's Choice Lead Remover). Saturate the bore, let it sit for a bit, then run a brush through it at least 5-10 times. Dry it up by running a couple patches through it. Unfortunately most solvents like Hoppes #9 and CLP don't take care of lead. They remove carbon build up and some address copper fouling, but most don't do anything for lead.
All in all, a little bit of lead fouling would not affect accuracy much. But a lot of lead fouling may eventuallly lead to a squib stuck inside the bore. That's my biggest fear.