Copper fouling, need help.

[burniegoeasily]

I have been in the process of breacking in my 300 wby barrel. I am going through my normal break in routine. First 10 rounds, I clean after every shot. I then start cleaning after every set of three. While doing so, things seem to be going O.K.. I swab, brush, and then swab until I got clean swabs. It appeared to be doing as usual. When I get home I notice I have major copper fouling. My question is, what is the best way to clean copper fouling. Ive tried my normal methods, leave nitro solve in the barrel for a couple of hours and then clean until all blue or green is gone from the swabs. I get no blue or green from my swabs. Am I getting old and my eyes playing tricks on me? I can see the copper in the rifling, but it will not come out. All advice is appreciated.

[oldelkhunter]

You won't remove the copper without a quality copper remover. I try to keep the brands the same so no incompatibility with ingredients exist. I have used Shooters Choice and Shooters Choice copper remover and had very good results. Others have tried Barnes CR10 or Sweets and like them. They are excellent products as well and by themselves probably work better then Shooters Choice Copper Remover. Followup with a good gun oil. Do not let the Copper Remover sit in the bore more then 10 minutes. Use a Patch or a nylon brush do not use a coppper brush. At least once a year I run a foul out III on my barrels and if its there its gone after that thing runs. I need to try this new foam product that you leave overnite in the bore and see how that works out.

[Solitary Man]

I agree with oldelkhunter, you need to use a dedicated copper solvent. I've used Barnes CR-10, Sweets 7.62 and Wipeout. Wipeout is supposed to be a universal do-it-all type bore cleaner, but I use it strictly for copper fouling since in my experience it doesn't do a thorough enough job on powder.

If I had to rate them I'd put them in this order:

1. Wipeout
2. Barnes CR-10
3. Sweets 7.62

I think CR-10 actually does a better job than Wipeout, but I prefer using Wipeout because it's easier to use and less noxious.

[Mark whiz]

I totally agree with the others........................Sweets or Cr-10 is the way to go to kill the copper. Follow the instructions carefully on either of them and it WILL take care of the copper - Especially in a new barrel.

And again - do NOT use any bronze or brass utensils with these cleaners............plastic jags, nylon brushes, or bore mops work very well with them. But these solvents will attack bronze or brass and give you false readings on your patches.

As a general rule.....................clean the powder fouling out like you normally would with your standard solvent, then follow the instructions on the copper solvent for 2 cycles - patch dry and then repeat with your standard cleaner & copper solvent again. I do this because the copper & powder fouling can layer in the bore and this method is effective for that.

[bronko22000]

I just picked up a tube of that Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner this weekend. Just to see how it worked, I took out my old .270 that I had shot and cleaned last weekend. Put this blue wonder on a new brass brush and ran it through the bore, waited 10 mins. like the directions said and then started to run patches through it.
I was amazed at the amount of junk that came out.
Just a caution though - be sure to get all the blue wnder out of the bore/action and apply a quality gun oil.

[Mark whiz]

Blue Wonder has a LOT of ammonia in it too - so use nylon brushes with it...................the bronze brushes are attacked by the solvent and cause as much discoloration as the actual copper fouling. It fact - it can ADD to the bore fouling rather than help remove it

[Rodsmith]

Has anyone used those SS Tornado style bore brushes? I would think that SS in the bore would be to damaging. Any thoughts?

[oldelkhunter]

Do not use anything other then Bronze or Nylon or Cloth in your bore. If you want a really good bronze brush look at the holland gunsmithing website and order his brushes. They are great.