Friday evening I took my new Marlin 1895 45/70 out to the range to get it on target and break in the barrel I was using factory Rem. 300 gr. ammo. I set the target at 25 yds. to start. The first shot out of the freshly cleaned bore stuck low. I adjusted the sights, and swabbed the bore with Butch's Bore Shine. I noticed some funny looking particles sticking to the wet patch. Small, cylindrical in shape, with a grayish brassy look. I finished cleaning the bore, dried it, and took shot # 2. Same thing. I had already checked the bore following the initial shot, and all looked fine. I tapped the empty casing mouth on the bench, and several more of these particles fell out. Same size and color as what was on the patches when cleaning. I fired six single shots, cleaned after each one, and started shooting groups of two and cleaning. Same results each time. By now I was shooting at 100 yds., and the gun was shooting excellent. I mean really good for factory ammo. Three two shot groups...... one with two in the same hole, and the other two groups at just around 1.25". I thought that if the powder wasn't being totally consumed each time, the "groups" would have been much more erratic.
When I got back to the house, I took a tubing cutter and cut open a live round. The powder inside was th normal dark gray color, but the individual grains looked very much like what I was getting on the cleaning patches.
Anyone have any thoughts?? Why would the color change be different if this was actually unburned powder ??