Thread: Repeat until patches come out clean

I know many folk on here tend to keep the barrel cleaning to a minimum, but lets say you want to take the bore back to bare metal and get all the powder out. In my case they are all chrome-moly rather than stainless. A bronze brush and No.9 doesn't seem to cut it for me. I can run the brush through a dozen times and then clean out with a patch and it always comes out pretty dark, no matter how many times I repeat this sequence. Same with JBs, always produces a black patch.

( The copper I have no trouble with, removing it with aqueous ammonia. This clears it pretty quickly and has never caused me a problem as long as all traces are removed once the copper is all out.)

Whenever I read articles on bore cleaning they always involve a solvent swabbing and (usually) brushing sequence, repeat 3-4 times and then miraculously the final patch comes out clean, job done.


What are members views on this please? Is this material off the bronze brush ?
What about with the JBs - eventually steel off the bore rather than powder residue ?

I'm no gun geek , but the gun geek that sold me the JBs told me that you will always get a black jag ! Something like the pressure turns it black not the fowling .

I'll bit. Why the hell would the pressure turn it black?

Don't no why ? His words (gun geek) . Maybe it's like braso turns black when you rub ?

When barrels are blued they are blued on the inside as well as the outside ,when you look through the barrel you cant see it but it is there . I have sectioned Rem mod 7 barrels off police training rifles that have fired 23000+ rounds which still had blue in the non driving corner of the rifling . This is what is staining your patch

Two words Boretech Eliminator, As for pressure turning the patch black

Autosole, Bronze brush wrapped in a patch, bit of autosole, 100 strokes, then I just spray some brakeclean down there to get rid of left overs, followed by a wet patch of kroil then patch till clean, I hate cleaning rifles this seems to be quickest and works I just do it when she starts spraying them

In the interests of scientific endeavour I gave the bore a thrashing with grey scotchbrite to clear the powder residue and then went back to using the bronze brush (still black) and JBs (still black ) so I'm inclined to think that the colour is material being removed from the bronze brush or base metal. There may still be bluing in the barrel hiding in the cut of the rifling but what hasn't been removed in the last 50 cleans seems unlikely to still be coming out now. Could also be carbon so I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has a method for telling when the powder fouling is all out and patch colour is then metal residue. Incidentally, this is all independent of solvent type, tried quite a few with the same result.

I am using KG products - Carbon cleaner to start on patch then again on one brush, clean patch, patch with de-greaser, two more clean patches and they are coming out clean.

With a full clean i will then do the copper cleaner with the same sequence but increase the brush (bronze, yes i go through a lot of them) to 5-6 runs.

I usually finish with a lubricant in the barrel.

Over 2000 rounds down my .260 kreiger chrome moly barrel and patches come out clean - they have from day one come to think of it.

It may be a carbon ring build up in the front of the chamber , there is a lot of stuff on the net about it Google Carbon ring in barrel .
My blued barrels always show black no matter how much JB I use , my stainless ones come clean realy quickly

Id run out of patches if I put them thru till they were clean on my old CZs blued barrel, my stainless trueflight UM seems to get clean in 1/10 of the patches

mabe there is something to this bluing theory, mabe its just a reaction between the steel and the cleaner?

Cleaned the barrel on the BP 45/70. BP solvent and a jug of boiling water, few swabs thru and oil while still warm, you will shoot this jacket stuff!

Bluing can be rust, depending on the process.

Originally Posted by Druid

When barrels are blued they are blued on the inside as well as the outside ,when you look through the barrel you cant see it but it is there . I have sectioned Rem mod 7 barrels off police training rifles that have fired 23000+ rounds which still had blue in the non driving corner of the rifling . This is what is staining your patch

Are you sure? It is a corrosive process and you normally plug the barrel to stop rusting in the bore

Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust, and is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. True gun bluing is an electrochemical conversion coating resulting from an oxidizing chemical reaction with iron on the surface selectively forming magnetite (Fe3O4), the black oxide of iron. Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action. A distinction can be made between traditional bluing and some other more modern black oxide coatings, although bluing is a subset of black oxide coatings.
In comparison, rust, the red oxide of iron (Fe2O3), undergoes an extremely large volume change upon hydration; as a result, the oxide easily flakes off causing the typical reddish rusting away of iron. "Cold", "Hot", "Rust Blue" and "Fume Blue" are oxidizing processes simply referred to as bluing.
"Cold" bluing is generally a selenium dioxide based compound that colors steel black, or more often a very dark gray. It is a difficult product to apply evenly, offers minimal protection and is generally best used for small fast repair jobs and touch-ups.

Link to full details

Bluing (steel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia