Just out of curiousity, how does one tell if plastic fouling is present in the bore? And does it come out when scrubbed with bore brush and a solvent like CLP or a standard nitro/lead solvent?

When I finish cleaning my ML the bore is always shiny clean and the rifling is clearly defined and there is no visible buildup of anything. When I clean I start by bore-mopping with hot-soapy water to get rid of the bulk of the powder residue. Then I scrub the bore while still wet with a bronze bore brush several times. Then I mop it again. I dry it out with dry patches. Then I run a patch coated with CLP down the bore, then run the brush through a few more times. Then I run dry patches until they come out clean. I' ve never noticed any plastic coming out during the cleaning process, but I alway figured it either wasn' t there, or it was just microscopic amounts that would be invisible.

The main reason I ask is because the groups it' s shot of late haven' t been so great, and I was wondering if invisible plastic fouling might be the culprit.

Thanks,

Mike

Driftrider ,
have you changed loads or bullets lately ? I' ve had no probs with plastic fouling , and it would be visible if you did .

Will generally appear as dull spots in the barrel - hard to see otherwise. CVA makes a product especially for removing plastic fouling, I' m sure there are others.

You might try some bore butter to help lube things up.

I' ve never physically seen the plastic fouling left by sabots.........but I have experienced it. If your rifle ever suddenly starts giving inaccurate results from known good loads - suspect this type of fouling..........that' s what happened to me.

The best way to keep it down is the scrub the bore good with a good bronze brush every time you clean. I also, after all the powder fouling is cleaned out, I like to use the CVA Advanced Sabot Shooter' s cleaner to help break up any possible plastic. I clean like this everytime I shoot, but after 6 mos to a year I still had enough buildup to ruin a day at the range. After it got that bad, I used a bore paste to clean out the gun good and all was well once again. So..........I recommend that if you do much shooting, that you use 2 or 3 patches of such a bore paste like J-Bs, Flitz, USP, etc. every 6 mos or so to keep the bore fresh.

You should never use bore butter with sabots. It will make velocity spreads shoot up. Only number 13.

I always wonder the same thing. So everycleaning, I use the brush alot. Makes me feel better anyway like I got out all the fouling.

Acetone reportedly works well, just be sure to get it all out of there.