Gunslick Foul Out III and chrome bores?

[An Undocumented Worker]

I just picked up a Foul Out III for use on my .22's and removing lead from them.

I'm wondering though, is this method of cleaning safe to use on a chrome lined bore?

It is essentially a reverse electroplater to remove metal fouling from a barrel.


What I don't know is if hardchromed bores are done with an electroplate method with a copper base, or some other method that does not use copper to bind the chrome to the steel.

I'd like to know this info before trying the foulout on my AR-15.

[An Undocumented Worker]

I just heard back from Gunslick, and Brownells and according to them the Foul Out 3 is safe to use on chrome bores so long as there is no rust or any scratches penetrating the chrome.

I don't have either of those issues (as far as I know) so I went and cleaned most of the powder fowling out with some foaming bore cleaner and then degreased the chamber and bore with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol. Seeing as though the fluid you pour into the barrel would drain out of the gas tube, instead of plugging the chamber end I plugged the barrel at the flash hider, put the spacer o-rings on the cleaning rod and degreased it with alcohol as well.

I filled the barrel up to the throat and placed the anode rod ( I think I have the terminology correct as copper in the bore gets deposited on the stainless rod) in the bore and slid on the power unit and connect the positive lead to flash hider. Cleaning is now in progress and has been for about an hour and a half.

I check the color of the fluid every half hour. It's tinted blue and if it changes color and turns green,yellow, or orange you need to stop the process dump the fluid and clean the bore out and degrease again. The color change indicates prescence of rust, which the foulout will strip from the bore, but the rust replaces copper ions in the solution and then starts attracting more iron, thus the reason for flusing and scrubbing if the solution changes color.


Yes there is a minor leak of fluid from the gas block but I hung the upper from my acog off of a drawer (has a scope coat on it) and set the filling funnel/cup under the drip and pour it back in every half hour or so. But it seems to take about an hour for the fluid level to drop back down to the throat of the barrel.

After having the system running for the last hour and a half the rod is definately collecting copper off of the barrel. I'll update this thread when it is done cleaning.

[An Undocumented Worker]

The foulout got all the copper fouling out of the bore as far as I can tell. But the gap between the flash hider opening and the crown of the barrel traps a bunch of carbon/fouling, so even though the bore was clean the foulout continued to pull copper from that space between crown and flash hider.

It was effective at getting all the fouling that builds up in the throat of the barrel, and doesn't seem to have any adverse effects on the chrome lining. Using the Foulout on an AR with a freefloat tube is a pain cause you want to flush all of the solution from the barrel/gasblock and tube. I used hot water for that and then went behind it with rem oil to displace the water.

[bkb0000]

the only thing that comes to mind with lined bores is with using copper removers with nickel-plated bores... nickel uses a copper or brass binder, so any copper remover that gets under the nickel will essentially de-line it from the underside. but i've never heard of anything ****ing with chrome lining, at least not any bona fide bore cleaners.

sounds like a hell of a lot of work for not much benefit to me, though... what did that copper ever do to you?

[An Undocumented Worker]

It was more work than I expected. I will most certainly reserve the use of the foulout to guns that don't have gas ports in the barrel.

The main reason I got the foulout was for use on .22's because it can remove lead without scrubbing, abbrasives, etc. I like that because I have never found a solvent that will remove lead without risk to the barrel steel. The electrochemical process doesn't have that problem.

I only tried it on my AR because I havn't cleaned it in approximately 500 rounds and wanted to see how well the system performed on copper. It does a good job at it, but the AR isn't very conducive to holding the electrolyte in the bore with out making a bit of a mess.

As far as the copper is concerned, the rifle has approximately 3,000 rounds through it and I am interested in seeing if there will be any change in accuracy/precision with pristine bore, and the foulout will get every last bit of jacket fouling out of the bore, it just takes time to do it's job.

In the future I'm going to stick to bronze brushes and foaming bore cleaner/ copper solvent and patches for cleaning my AR.