Thread: 7mm Rem Mag Troubles

Thanks @chainsaw for the suggestion of bronze brush and boretech eliminator.

I did a usual clean with hoppes (minus bronze brush because I didn't have one). Then I went out and got a bronze brush and some boretech eliminator. Ran a couple of wet patches through (first one was bright blue/green). Let it soak for a bit, then ran a couple more wet patches through (blue/green again) and gave it about 10 pass throughs with the bronze brush. Then put a couple more patches through (see below for colour) until they were coming out pretty much clear, then ran about 10 dry patches through.

There is a notable difference even just looking down towards the rifling. What was once grey, now appears to be silver. And what was once matte is now gloss.

Hopefully this has fixed the issue, but to be one the safe side, I will definitely start low and work up, rather than going back to the loads I knew worked well in the past.

Yep, that Boretech is great in taking out copper and carbon fouling. But remember its pretty aggressive solvent so dont leave it in barrel too long, my rule of thumb is 10 -20 mins max. And put several dry patches thru after to get it out, then best to neutralise with Hoppes, followed by more dry patches. Bronze brush is your best friend when it comes to carbon removal, but make sure you've dry patched out any Boretech or Hoppes before running the bronze brush thru. You should also consider using a nylon brush with the Boretech to get it into the grooves of the lanz.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

Yep, that Boretech is great in taking out copper and carbon fouling. But remember its pretty aggressive solvent so dont leave it in barrel too long, my rule of thumb is 10 -20 mins max. And put several dry patches thru after to get it out, then best to neutralise with Hoppes, followed by more dry patches. Bronze brush is your best friend when it comes to carbon removal, but make sure you've dry patched out any Boretech or Hoppes before running the bronze brush thru. You should also consider using a nylon brush with the Boretech to get it into the grooves of the lanz.

Cheers mate. I didn't even leave it in that long to be honest - was pretty cautious with it. Neutralised straight after the patches were coming out completely clean. WIll be back to the drawing board if this doesn't help!

Cheers,
Elliott

Boretech eliminator is fine to leave in the barrel overnight if necessary. It is the ammonia based copper solvents like Hoppes that can only be left for a short length of time.
I’ve left Boretech in overnight on a particularly stubborn barrel with no negative effects on the bore.

Get your self some of this stuff, I had the same sort of issues with my 7mm SAUM I even had the barrel pulled off to inspect.
It was found to have a carbon ring just in front of the chamber.
Once it was cleaned out no further issues, I now use this stuff after every hunt or range session.

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I tend to wipe out my barrels with isopropyl after a clean with boretech or hoppes copper solve, acouple of wet patches will remove any residue, then a dry patch, then breakfree to stop any rusting

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I had previously been using Hoppes and got some copper out but not much. The patches were running clear so I assumed it was clean. So I was pretty surprised to see that the first patch with boretech came out blue/green!
@Mauser308 - I'm pretty careful with all my reloading steps and I have a couple of great loads with no issues with my 7mm08. I follow relatively complex recipes for a job so going through the process is pretty natural to me (zeroing and calibrating scales, ensuring measurements are exact etc). But I will definitely take that advice and go through all the steps in the process and make sure I'm doing everything the same.

My plan is to try some factory ammo and see how that goes after the clean. If it groups well I'll start the load development from scratch and (on the same day) use the factory ammo as a control each time. If it doesn't group well, I'll take the rifle to someone who knows what they're looking at and see what they think.

Great advice here. Hoppes is fine but doesn’t get at copper like Eliminator. Too many shooters are too pr3 ious about their bores and don’t like to use bronze brushes and really get the copper off the lands and carbon out of the grooves. I go a step further and polish the throat every 200 rounds with Autosol. That sorts carbon rings and helps prevent fire cracking.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Great advice here. Hoppes is fine but doesn’t get at copper like Eliminator. Too many shooters are too pr3 ious about their bores and don’t like to use bronze brushes and really get the copper off the lands and carbon out of the grooves. I go a step further and polish the throat every 200 rounds with Autosol. That sorts carbon rings and helps prevent fire cracking.

Yep, fair call! Do you run the autosol through on patches, or some other attachment thingy?

My cleaning regime for my 7mm mag was use Slip 2000 Carbon Killer to remove the carbon, patch that out then use Boretech eliminator to remove copper. Patch that out, then one patch with oil, then one dry patch.

Originally Posted by Edunn

Yep, fair call! Do you run the autosol through on patches, or some other attachment thingy?

Sorry - just saw this.

I use a patch on an old bronze brush with Autosol soaked in. 20-30 strokes through the throat and a few through the rest of the barrel. I do that after a really good clean with Eliminator and be sure to get the Autosol patched out before a patch with Long Life to finish.