Thread: Barrel cleaning

Buy a bore scope, the teslong ones are cheap and save a lot of time. Plus you can send them through second hand rifles and discover "safe queen, only done a packet of ammo" is actually a pitted mess on the inside as it's shot 20 rounds at the range and then never cleaner and stored in a damp safe. However, don't stress too much on what you see with a bore scope, all bores I've looked through have the odd strange machining mark, pit, or other things that you can't see with the naked eye. They don't affect accuracy worth worrying about and I've cleaned up some old military rifle bores that look more like gravel than metal on the inside and they've shot with functional hunting accuracy. With one particularly bad Swedish Mauser still maintaining about 1.5" @ 100m with a bore I would of said is absolutely toast.

For cleaning I use JB bore paste and clean properly about every 100 rounds, maybe 200 on some rifles depending on how they foul. Only using a bore snake with Eezox before and after each use for corrosion protection and to get the odd bit of crud that finds it's way in there.
My experience is the chemical solutions are good at colouring patches but using a bore scope they take way too long and far to many applications to actually remove copper and carbon. I have Boretech eliminator and their coper remover. They'll take hours to do what JB bore paste does in 5 mins.
30 passes with a bronze bore brush with a cloth wrapped around it with JB bore paste and Eezox for lube followed by a couple of patches soaked in isopropyl alcohol then a dry patch takes a grubby barrel down to bright steel on most rifles, maybe a quick back and forward scrub in the first 6" of the barrel the clean the throat up a bit for some. Throw the bore brush away after this, it's now below bore size and useless for further use, buy the brushes in bulk from AliExpress.