Thread: Barrels ruined by cleaning

So if you did have a little rust in your barrel, how would you go about removing it? Different method for stainless barrel or blued steel?

A little as in once the carbon fouling is gone, there's a very light amount of orangey brownish color on the patch after it's gone through with a bit of oil on it.

Originally Posted by Rated M for Magnum

So if you did have a little rust in your barrel, how would you go about removing it? Different method for stainless barrel or blued steel?

A little as in once the carbon fouling is gone, there's a very light amount of orangey brownish color on the patch after it's gone through with a bit of oil on it.

I’ve been guilty in the past of using Autosol on a patch to ‘derust’ a barrel - as its abrasive (in a very mild way) caution would be advised if you use it.

Originally Posted by Rated M for Magnum

So if you did have a little rust in your barrel, how would you go about removing it? Different method for stainless barrel or blued steel?

A little as in once the carbon fouling is gone, there's a very light amount of orangey brownish color on the patch after it's gone through with a bit of oil on it.

What CLP/gun oil are you using? That brownish colour on your patch might actually be copper. Being that a lightly oiled patch has been put thru the bore, it can 'soak' up the copper fouling. It won't come out blue, but brown.

Don't stress or obsess over the barrel it more than likely won't be rust. I have non treated steel bog standard tools sitting in my garage (not my dehumidified) safe, and they don't go rusty.

Ah I see @Finnwolf I have a little in the barrel of my cz 452, it still shoots awesome, just a result of some hopped #9 that I must not have cleaned out properly. I have seen peread that people use CLR for carbon and wondered if that might do it without being abrasive?

It's not cleaning that ruins barrels... it is cleaning in stupid ways.

Fullbore target shooters and benchrest guys must be the most OCD rifle cleaners I have ever encountered, and I don't see them "ruining" barrels by over-cleaning....

I had a match barrel that I cleaned after every single string (10 to 15 shots). It showed no signs of going bad after about 2000 rounds. The cleaning probably had more to do with my confidence level in the barrel doing exactly the same during each string.... It was a Lilja that once run in would copper very little. Most strings I would just clean out the carbon. End of the day it got a good soak to remove copper, and probably every 200 or 300 rounds it got the business with JB bore paste.

Ah ok @Sasquatch I didn't realise it could do that. Ah yes ng Hoppes 9 lubricating gun oil. I gave the barrel a few good pass through a with an oily bronze brush last time and I've just pulled it out of the safe to check and I've got no brown this time, this one used to give a distinct rifling pattern of a more orangey color. Gone now

It's the howa stainless that gives the light brown, I'm going to see if I can do the same with that today and see what happens.

Ive got in habit of a lightly oiled/CLP patch run through bore after shooting...then a dry one,then another lightly CLP one and put it away......seems to work fine. the CLP is so light that if I neglect to dry patch it before use its no biggie.... interesting comment re CRC and scopes....it explains why for a time I went through scopes on regular basis,with fogging......we live n learn.

Old military style steel 3 piece rods, especially when bent, aren't great.

Same as the pull through dragged across the crown.

Regarding fine rust: I don't think carbon fouling is protective against rust so some sort of oil in the barrel when you go out on a hunt seems a good idea. I mean oil the barrel with whatever your poison (not ammonia or watery stuff like boretech) then dry patch several times and there will be an unremovable film left to protect. My opinions are that Hoppes #9 dries to a bit of a gum so is not so good for storing between hunts, while very low viscosity "penetrating" oils like CRC 5.56 and Kroil go so thin they eventually separate and leave bare metal.

Test your cold bore shot as shown above by @Trout.

I'd be interested in people's thoughts on how to recover from plain fine rust. My inclination would be clean the barrel with oil as you should have, quite a bit of rust will rub off on patches, perhaps some will come out with a phosphor bronze brush and the rest will return to virtually nothing after you "put another shot through to clean it out". I have used butches bore paste specially on the first few inches of the barrel but I think that's more for fire cracking and stubborn carbon fouling. What do you think @ebf ?

Chamber end carbon scrub I normally wet a mop or patch with Kroil, push it thru and let that soak in for 5-10 min. Then put a patch on a jag, wet that with slightly thicker oil like Breakfree CLP, and then apply abbrasive paste on top of that.

Once you are done scrubbing, you want to make REALLY sure you remove all abbrasive, so use something like brake cleaner or even meths. Remember that an abbrasive polishing compound will create a black patch, so don't think the patches will eventually come clean By that stage you would have created a small caliber smooth bore

You really need yo look down the barrel with a borescope to see if you have removed serious carbon (or rust). Bores scopes are a game changer interest of cleaning.

Thanks EBF.
I’l do a clean out with meths next time after the paste.

Its actually JB paste ive used.

Originally Posted by ebf

Chamber end carbon scrub I normally wet a mop or patch with Kroil, push it thru and let that soak in for 5-10 min. Then put a patch on a jag, wet that with slightly thicker oil like Breakfree CLP, and then apply abbrasive paste on top of that.

Once you are done scrubbing, you want to make REALLY sure you remove all abbrasive, so use something like brake cleaner or even meths. Remember that an abbrasive polishing compound will create a black patch, so don't think the patches will eventually come clean By that stage you would have created a small caliber smooth bore

You really need yo look down the barrel with a borescope to see if you have removed serious carbon (or rust). Bores scopes are a game changer interest of cleaning.

Agree re the borescope for cleaning. Takes the guesswork out of it. Often find residual carbon or copper that’s a surprise. And then focus the technique. Arguably reduces any risk of overcleaning...

Any one got any tips on how to get pitting out of a barrel?

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

Any one got any tips on how to get pitting out of a barrel?

Sadly it’s there forever.

(To remove pitting you have to remove metal....)