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Thread: When you clean your bolt guns, how many patches, how clean, when is enough enough?

  1. #1
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    When you clean your bolt guns, how many patches, how clean, when is enough enough?

    I clean my bolt guns very rarely but just cleaned six guns this last week. I generally will run 5 our 6 patches and when they quit coming out filthy. If I'm getting faint blackness, Im done.

    I used Pro shot this last few cleanings. But Im not particular about my products, just use sumpin.

    What you precision gurus do? Isllc, titonritz Vegas, Jake, Sinsister gaijin .....let me have it, anybody?

    PB
    "Air Force / Policeman / Fireman / Man of God / Friend of mine / R.I.P. Steve Lamy"

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    All guns are a little different. I also clean rarely and let the rifle tell me when it’s time.

    First I soak with Kroil. Then follow with a nylon brush. Then a couple dry patches and then a couple wet patches.

    Then I go to a bore solvent or carbon solvent like Bore Tech. I’m not picky. I run them til they are less black and more gray coming out.

    I’m not particular but Sweets 762 world great to follow up to get copper. I run them until they no longer come out blue and start to be more gray.

    Then I run a few clean patches soaked in Kroil followed by a dry patch.

    When I get the copper all the way out, seems to take a few rounds to get it fouled in to get consistent velocity again. No trouble, plan for it.

    If you can clean at the range with a hot barrel the whole process goes faster and gives you a chance to re foul the bore.


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    I don’t think I’ve ever done a full copper removal. I used solvent that said copper removal but I didn’t kill it. Mark used to clean his rem 700 bright clean and shoot dimes. Whatever, my approach has worked, just curious. Thanks Isllc. Appreciate you.

    PB
    "Air Force / Policeman / Fireman / Man of God / Friend of mine / R.I.P. Steve Lamy"

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    I clean very infrequently, but when I do I'll run sweets 7.62, alternating a wet and dry patch. I usually let the copper solvent sit for a minute or so before running the dry patch through.

    Once there's a noticable decrease in the copper fouling on the dry patch I'll run a couple extra dry patches to get as much of the sweets out as I can. I then switch to something like Hoppes. Run a wet patch followed by enough dry patches that I'm confident I have removed the solvents.

    I would imagine that most any other copper removing solvent would accomplish the same thing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pappabear View Post
    I don’t think I’ve ever done a full copper removal. I used solvent that said copper removal but I didn’t kill it. Mark used to clean his rem 700 bright clean and shoot dimes. Whatever, my approach has worked, just curious. Thanks Isllc. Appreciate you.

    PB
    No problem


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    3 wet patches soaked with Boretech eliminator. Scrub with nylon 10 strokes with Boretech eliminator. One wet patch with eliminator. Then dry patches until comes out clean. One wet patch with kroil and let soak for a bit. One dry patch then clean action.


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    What is the barrel?

    Hand lapped vs button rifled will make a big difference in the cleaning regimen.
    Why do the loudest do the least?

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    When you clean your bolt guns, how many patches, how clean, when is enough enough?

    Quote Originally Posted by Eurodriver View Post
    What is the barrel?

    Hand lapped vs button rifled will make a big difference in the cleaning regimen.
    This does not make any sense at all.

    A rifle barrel can be both hand-lapped and button rifled. I fail to see the difference here. Lapping is a process done to a barrel to eliminate machining marks; smithing out tough places in the bore.

    Hand-lapped barrels tend to shred less copper and oftentimes clean with fewer passes when new, but factory standard barrels break in with time. Premium barrels or aftermarket match-grade barrels tend to be hand-lapped.


    ETA:

    The rifling types we most common see are button-rifled, cut-rifled, and hammer-forged.

    Most barrels in the precision rifle community tend to be button rifled (think Shilen, Lilja, Douglas, Schneider, Hart, etc) or cut-rifled (Kreiger, Bartlein, etc)

    Rarely do we see hammer-forged except factory rifles like Tikka, Ruger, etc.

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    Last edited by lsllc; 01-19-20 at 15:59.

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    I'm a pretty bad example for frequency of cleaning and my technique is probably not much different than yours PB. Squeaky clean isn't my thing. Dewey rods and bore guides are my weapons of choice. I run some Hoppes Elite foaming cleaner first and let it sit for a few minutes before scrubbing that out. Then I use Hoppes Bench Rest copper cleaner and get the patches to clean enough. Last time I cleaned my 308, it was probably 20-25 rounds before everything settled back down. Btw, that Hoppes foaming cleaner does a pretty nice job on carbon buid up for your QD muzzle devices. Gets in all the nooks and cranny's.

  10. #10
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    ED, my barrels are either Krieger or Barlein.
    Vegas, good idea on the muzzle device deal. Mine are so fking crusty I fight to get my cans off, all the time. Especially my two AAC 762SDN brakes.

    PB
    "Air Force / Policeman / Fireman / Man of God / Friend of mine / R.I.P. Steve Lamy"

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