Thread: Bore guide? Yes, no, deffinately?

Originally Posted by Rushy

Bloody hell Phillip, there is another thing. Never used a brush. Oh woe is me how the hell do my rifles even work?

What do you use? Just a dry patch, nothing else?

When I first got my rifle and I knew nothing about anything, I was all worried about the copper fouling as the guy who had taken me to sight in my rifle said it was a real problem when breaking in a barrel and he had found it out the hard way when he first got a rifle. He couldn't get it to group any good until he started attacking it with the copper solvent. So I sorta neglected the carbon fouling. Anyway, my barrel must have had 35 rounds or so through it before I bought a brush and a bit of carbon solvent to take to it with. Without the brush, a dry patch would go through and stay clean. After the brush and without using the solvent, they were completely black with soot and it took me a fair few passes before they got any better. Then I tried it with the carbon solvent (and brush) and it produced a bit more fouling still on top of that. Dunno how much it affected the accuracy but it sure as hell looked bad.

I should mention that I had been using a boresnake throughout this time and it get that fouling the way the brush and solvent did.

I guess different barrels foul up slightly differently but this was a stainless off a Marlin XS7s.