# Bore care and cleaning.



## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

More questions from a rifle newbie here:

I have some more questions regarding bore care and cleaning. What you y'all use to clean the bore? Brushes? Jag with a patch an solvent? I always thought that you ran a brush down it with some Hoppe's #9 (Hey, I'm a shotgun guy here). But now I read about just using a patch, etc? I want to order up some stuff from Brownell's, Midway, etc and go shooting next weekend. What will I need?

What is a fouling shot?

Thanks,
RC


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## Militant_Tiger (Feb 23, 2004)

There is some cleaners which will get you by without using a brush every time, however it will still need a periodical cleaning with a brush. If you want to make things yet easier try some of the expensive (but I have heard great things about) foaming bore cleaner. That shouldnt require a patch nor a brush, except to push the junk out when its done.

A fouling shot(s) is a shot taken prior to shooting any target to ensure that the bore is semi dirty. Many if not most guns will shoot far better with a dirty barrel than with a clean one. The first shot is often quite a bit off the mark, and when showing a target it is shown as the fouler.


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

Try a search on rifle bore cleaning...


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

Sasha and Abby said:


> Try a search on rifle bore cleaning...


I did that and all I got was a whole lot of sites selling bore cleaner. I hope hoping for y'all's opnions.


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## The Norseman (Jan 8, 2005)

Say, look at the February 2000 American Rifleman. Good article; Barrel
Break in and Restoration, P. 30.

I use Hoppes 9 and I also use WD-40.

BreakFree is OK but it just keeps on cleaning even after wiped off.

Try one of the new gun foam cleaners, don't leave in bore to long.


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

This is what is in my shoppign cart at MidwayUSA right now:

Kano Kroil Penetrating Oil and Bore Cleaner 8 oz
Sale!	Available $3.49	$3.49	
Tipton Nylon Rifle Bore Brush 30 Caliber Package of 3 8 x 32 Thread	Available $2.99	$2.99	
Butch's Bore Shine 4 oz
Available $6.49	$6.49	
Tipton Cotton Cleaning Patches 27 to 348 Caliber Package of 100	
Available $3.49	$3.49	
Dewey 1-Piece Cleaning Rod 27 to 45 Caliber 36" Brass 8 x 32 Female Thread	Available $24.89	$24.89	
Tipton 12-Piece Solid Brass Cleaning Jag Set
Sale!	Available $12.95	$12.95

Any other suggestions? Solvents, cleaners, etc?


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## The Norseman (Jan 8, 2005)

Say, a friend and I were talking about moly coated bullets and we got on the subject of cleaning it out of the bore.

The Kano Kroil is what he uses and has had very good results on removing the moly from his barrels. He said it was about the only safe oil
he found for doing this.

He said he goes so far as to plug the chamber and fill up the bore and let it work over night, swabing the bore out easier the next morning. It was amazing how the moly came off onto the patches.

I think you are doing fine and the Plainsman has very good suggestions.


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## mr.trooper (Aug 3, 2004)

Hi Robert!

here is what i use to keep the Bores Sparkly clean on my rifles

Hoppes #9. and sometimes WD-40. Yup, its that simple.

Need spuuplies? just go to wally world! you should be able to get a brush kit for just about eveory calibre out their!

Hoppes bore brush blisters (try saying tat 10 times fast!) COme with a Copper wire brush, a puffy cotton swab brush, and a nifty little cork-screw wire bore brush to remove carbon-fouling on Neglected rifles.

i just run all 3 of them though a few times after each shooting session, and then run patches through utill they come out as white as they went in. Then maybee put a light coating of WD-40 on the mechanical parts.

NOTE: if you use WD-40 on your gun, be sure to remember what guns you use it in. If you try to use gun oil on your WD-40 gun or vicea Versa, the oil and the WD-40 will react and for a thin film. they will keep doing this untill one has reacted away all of the other.

I mostly use the gun oil. BUT WD-40 can be verry usefull cleaning out guns that have been stored in Cosmoline. The "displacement" properties of "Water Displacement" #40 can be used to great effect to remove heavy grease. :thumb:


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Robert

I find the all purpose carbon, lead, copper fowling removers don't get the copper as advertised. Unless of course you want to spend days at cleaning. There are four good copper removes in my book. Sweets 7.62, and Barnes CR-10 are two good removers, but they are aggressive and you can not leave them in the bore long. I had to recrown my 223 because I think I had damage where a drop hung at the very end. Tetra Gun as a less aggressive copper remover, but I run out of patients waiting for it to work. Now I use Spooge. Careful when you search the internet your going to get porn sites. Spooge is made by Answer Products, Westbury Drive, Davison, MI. 48423. This product I use a brush and put it in the bore liberally. Go watch TV for half an hour then come back use a patch with a cleaning jag and push everything out the bore. I will follow up with a few strokes to the bore with JB Bore Cleaning compound. This will put you back to a shinny bore.

When I am done with that I run a patch with TSI-301 syntheric oil down the bore. This oil dissipates entirely within minutes and leaves no visible residue. Five minutes later I will swab the bore with liquid moly from Midway USA. I run one dry patch a few minutes later to remove any access moly.


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## farmerj (Jun 19, 2004)

After all I have tried, I go right back to two products. Break-Free CLP and Sweet's 7.62 Solvent. On occassion I will use FP-10

For cleaning tools, I use the Otis Kit. I slid it in through the breech and pull to the muzzle.

I have tried, Hoppe's, Rem-Oil, foaming and various other brands and flavors. Just about every product on the market can say they are used the the Armed Forces and I have even ordered a large number of them to try and when I gave them to others to try, they come back to the CLP, FP-10 and Sweet's.

Nylon will wear a barrel but not nearly as fast as the shoulders from a multi-piece STEEL rod. Aluminum rods tend to pick up debris and will wear the barrel as well.

Once a year I will also use an electronic bore cleaner on my rifles depending on how much shooting I do. This generally gets done more to my gas guns than my bolts because I shoot them more.

Use a guide bushing or something on the muzzle. Nothing will destroy your accuracy faster than cleaning the barrel and taking you crown out of the muzzle. I personally don't use one, but I also use the Otis kit and pull out of the muzzle instead of push against it with a rod.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

There are some very good points that farmerj reminded me of. I use a stainless steel one piece rod and a breach guide. Aluminum rods, coated rods, brass rods will pickup and hold abrasives. One piece smooth steel is the best you can do.


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

Ok I'm confused now. I knew about the 1 piece rod thing, but not about the coated or brass thing. What is the deal with the Otis kit? Do you pull it through? The certaily are cheaper. Those 1 piece rods are kinda pricey.

Do you need a bushing on the muzzle if you push from the breech? I know not to pull back through.

Here is another question? Why are there different size rods for different calibers (.17 exception) when the thread size is the same? I imagine a .22-.26 rod would work on a .30. Is it flex? Is a .27-.45 caliber rod less likely to rub on the inside of the bore?

This is becoming hard and I haven't even fired a shot yet!

:beer:

RC


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## farmerj (Jun 19, 2004)

oh the web we weave....... 

The reason for so many different size rods is that you want the rod that will "fill" up your barrel. IE a .24 caliber rod for a 6mm/.243 barrel. It helps to prevent the rod from flexing somewhat in the barrel.

The difference between the OTIS and a rod. A long cylinder has more tension strength than compression for the same diameter. In short, you can pull more than you can push for the same diameter rod. The otis kit is a cable capable of fitting into a .22 caliber barrel. I have not tried it yet on the .20 or .17 calibers yet.

Brass, aluminum and soft non-ferrous metals can get particals embedded into them. This will turn into sad paper for your barrel. Part of the reason you want to use so many fresh swabs when you patch your barrel.


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## Militant_Tiger (Feb 23, 2004)

Plainsman said:


> There are some very good points that farmerj reminded me of. I use a stainless steel one piece rod and a breach guide. Aluminum rods, coated rods, brass rods will pickup and hold abrasives. One piece smooth steel is the best you can do.


I have always been of the mind that on a soft coated rod with grit on it, the coating will mush in before the grit is scraped into the barrel. Does anyone else have anything to add on that matter?


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

Do you feel that the use of bore guides is neccesary?

What about a muzzle protector if you clean from the breech?

RC


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Robert

A bore guide will keep solvents from dripping into your action, and align your rod with the bore. There is no need for a muzzle guide when cleaning from the breach. It may sound confusing to begin with, but that feeling will go away quickly.


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## DuaneinND (Jan 22, 2005)

You need the following:
A quality 1 piece cleaning rod for the caliber you are cleaning. (coated or SS- it is like a ford/chevy thing)
a bore quide for the caliber you are cleaning.
A jag of the proper caliber ( I prefer a parker hale style, they hold the patch so you can push & pull the patch.
A good general purpose bore cleaner. ( Butch's, Shooters choice, Hoppes)
A copper solvent. (Sweets, CR-10, Shooters choice copper remover etc)
Patches that are snug in the bore( you will need to experiment)
A vice with protective jaws or something else to hold the rifle stationary.
I use bronze wire brushes with a brass wire core( a little more expensive than steel core, but won't scratch the bore)

www.duanesguns.com


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

Lots of good advise already given. I use a one piece rod, I have both a ss and a Dewey coated, I use the Dewey most often, but only because it is longer and easier to use. M_T, even if the grit embeds in the coating at least one side of the grit is still exposed and could scratch the bore, I don't worry about it, I just clean the rod often.

I don't want to start an argument here, but I would never use WD-40 on a rifle. It tends to leave a residue that can get gummy over time. Not a problem in the bore itself as you are removing it when you shoot. But **** happens and if that stuff leaks back through the action and makes it to the trigger group you could have problems. I would recommend something like TSI-301, it works alot better, or regular gun oil.

Robert add a bore guide to your list. The stoney point works good, the sinclair is better, but pricey.

huntin1


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## The Norseman (Jan 8, 2005)

Good point Huntin1 on the Gummy WD40. 
I thought about mentioning this, I have heard of this happening. I have never experienced it yet, but always on the look out for it.

I also figured most, clean their guns often enough that this will not happen.

Very good point.


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## farmerj (Jun 19, 2004)

It is also for these same reasons you want to store your guns with the muzzle down....

Like we all do that...


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

Huntin1,
Is this the Sinclair you refer to?

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=CPCRGSR&type=store


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## coyote22250 (Jan 20, 2005)

I clean my gun every time i shoot. I push the old dirt out and put new in :lol: .


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

Yeah, and my bad too, looks like the stoney point is more expensive than the sinclair, maybe that's why I like my stoney point so well. :-? 
it's a ***** to get old. :x :x :-? :-? :lol: :lol: :lol:

huntin1


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

huntin1 said:


> Yeah, and my bad too, looks like the stoney point is more expensive than the sinclair, maybe that's why I like my stoney point so well. :-?
> it's a b#tch to get old. :x :x :-? :-? :lol: :lol: :lol:
> 
> huntin1


So should that post read like this?
*
Robert add a bore guide to your list. The sinclair works good, the stoney point is better, but pricey.
*

Robert


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

Yup :lol: :lol:

:beer:

huntin1


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

I had a gun that wouldn't shoot worth a darn. It would consistently shoot 2 inch groups, nothing better. I cleaned it with Hoppe's #9 until is was as clean as I could get it. Then I ran a wet patch down the bore and set it in the gun cabinet for 24 hours. I then cleaned the gun again with #9 and repeated the process for about 1 week. I took the gun to the range, fired a fouling shot, then shot a 5 shot 3/4 inch group. Thinking I was on the right track, I continued with the 24 hour soaks and cleaning until the patch came out clean. I then took the gun to the range and shot 1 1/2 inch groups. I was puzzled to say the least. I checked over the gun carefully and couldn't find anything wrong, so I kept on trying, thinking it was me. After ~30 rounds, the gun came right back to 3/4 inch groups. I am sold on #9, but be careful not to get you gun too clean. It is my experience that most guns shoot better with a little copper in the bore.

Neil


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## Ace25 (Dec 18, 2004)

One piece smooth steel is the best? How does a one piece fiberglass rod compare?



Plainsman said:


> There are some very good points that farmerj reminded me of. I use a stainless steel one piece rod and a breach guide. Aluminum rods, coated rods, brass rods will pickup and hold abrasives. One piece smooth steel is the best you can do.


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## Bore.224 (Mar 23, 2005)

How about a Bore Snake!! :-?


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

I too am curiouss about the bore snake. I bought one for my 17.
Also where can you get one piece smooth steel rods?????????


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## Robert A. Langager (Feb 22, 2002)

zogman said:


> Also where can you get one piece smooth steel rods?????????


Here ya' go Zogman. They are on sale too!

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... mid=321874


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