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GunNut
Posts: 7,642 Senior Member
Cleaning rifles... Blue, blue and more blue!
GunNut
Posts: 7,642 Senior Member
I’ve been spending some time doing maintenance. Some of it highly overdue.
I have several rifles that I’ve bought and shot little or not at all yet and honestly never really gave them the cleaning they deserved when I first got them.
Well I decided to finally buckle down and get them done.
Did a few of my personal rifles to no real surprise. A few dirty patches, a few clean ones and I’m done.
Then I got to a few of the acquisitions and damn!!!!! The first few passes with patches saturated with sweets and these things, for lack of a better description, were throwing up blue vomit!!! The .270 FN Mauser I picked up recently took about 4 rounds of cleaning with Sweets to get clean patches!!!
Dear God, who would let a rifle go that far. I’m glad I never bothered shooting it before I cleaned it!
The 88 was dirty but not that bad and the bore looks like new!
Well I decided to finally buckle down and get them done.
Did a few of my personal rifles to no real surprise. A few dirty patches, a few clean ones and I’m done.
Then I got to a few of the acquisitions and damn!!!!! The first few passes with patches saturated with sweets and these things, for lack of a better description, were throwing up blue vomit!!! The .270 FN Mauser I picked up recently took about 4 rounds of cleaning with Sweets to get clean patches!!!
Dear God, who would let a rifle go that far. I’m glad I never bothered shooting it before I cleaned it!
The 88 was dirty but not that bad and the bore looks like new!
Replies
Mike
N454casull
In lieu of KG2, Iosso bore paste is just as good. To clean out the last residual bore paste, I run a wet patch of Kroil down the bore then follow up with clean patches until they come out completely dry.
WipeOut or GunSlick foaming bore cleaners are great, but they take an overnight soak, possibly a couple applications, to be totally effective. When time is short (as in p'dogging), a carbon fiber rod and appropriate chemicals are your best bet.
Personally, I don't like Sweet's. IMO, it turns blue upon contact with air....LOL.
Mike
N454casull
Just called the buddy I sold it to. He is going to let me get it back. Here we go again!
N454casull
I actually don't use it any longer as it gets rid of every trace of copper in the bore, which is not necessarily a good thing. Having some copper to fill in small micro machine lines is a good thing as it helps keeps the bore conditioned and smooth. It may only take your barrel a shot or two after cleaning for your accuracy to settle in. However, remove all the copper and you'll end up putting quite a few more rounds down line to get your barrels accuracy to settle in. You're actually putting the copper back into the micro machine lines to help smooth out the bore.
Me, I use a bore foam, let soak for four or five hours and patch it out. Lots of blue comes out but it really helps get all the barrel gunk out. However, when we look through the bore scope, I can still see faint traces of copper in bore which means it's still in the micro machine lines. After my cold bore shot, my barrels are exactly where I need them to be for the season. They won't get cleaned until spring or summer.
Here's one of the many side by side comparisons done.
https://www.coretacsolutions.com/products_KG_KG12_TEST.htm
John 3: 1-21
Once all the gunk is out, I'll have three or four rifles lined up on the kitchen island when the Mrs isn't home and I fill the barrels with bore foam. Let soak four or five hours or so, though sometimes overnight depending on when I start the process. Then I patch them out which takes five dry patches or so. If it's for summer storage, I take a patch of Mobile one push it through the barrel followed by a dry patch.
I learned all this from one of the top barrel manufactures in the country when I wrote a piece on barrel break-in many years ago. I've been doing it ever since.
John 3: 1-21
Patches are so.........90s. 😎
John 3: 1-21
I find that Brownells has a constant shortage of everything I buy a lot of gun stuff on line just about everything but I've never ordered from Brownells that I can recall it doesnt matter what I need from scope rings to rifle barrels to cleaners to reloading supplies the one thing you can count on is that Brownells is out of it
is the jag a one size fits all, or does each size require a different one?
7mm in my 6.5
Etc.