carbon build up in 30 BR barrel

[Pete Wass]

and have been wrong on a lot of things I have said previously. I kept trying to find faster and faster ways to clean the carbon from my barrels. I used Rem Clean on a rimfire barrel and after a few cleanings, it quit shooting. I think this goes to what Frank said way back on polishing. so, I tried the Rem Clean again in my CF barrels using a worn out brush and the 000 Steel wool. Just a few strokes and the barrel is spotless. What I have noticed is the Free bore, creeps faster so that has to mean the grit in the Rem Clean is scouring off metal. The barrels still shoot great tiny groups but one has to pay attention to the creeping free bore.

I do use Wipeout and find it to be a great carbon cleaner. Isn't as instant as the RemClean but it does take carbon out readily. So yeah, one can ruin barrels by cleaning too aggressively. There is a YouTube of a well known shooter cleaning his barrels with a Nylon brush on a cleaning rod driven by an electric drill. He states that that method does not hut his barrels and has had barrel makers check and then say he hadn't damaged his barrels. So, I clean my 30 barrels now after a match, around 80 rounds most matches and the .22RF,s well, they are a different animal. Some barrels don't mind being dirty and some want to be cleaned, from what I've seen so far.

[sbindy]

I have found Flitz on a patch/nylon brush to be the most effective/least aggressive carbon cleaner I have ever used. It works better than JB, and is less abrasive than Iosso by a bit, and not even in the same league as Rem 40x Bore Cleaner.

[doghunter]

Well, if anybody can invent a solvent to dissolve carbon then they would be extremely rich.

Many of these over-hyped 'witches brews' claim such abilities, yet they are just a panacea (also a good earner) and a lubricant for a good old fashioned mechanical bore brush and a bit of elbow grease. Nylon or brass is your choice!

Just type 'is it possible to dissolve carbon ?' into any search engine and make your own decision.

* doggie *

[rsmithsr]

there were excellent carbon cleaners on the market until kalifornia started banning "potential" cancer causes. no company wants to sell a product to only 49 states.
i was lucky to catch several containers of real automotive top end cleaners before they went away.
i do not use metalic brushes in my bores,
yes lou cleans with a drill motor. i have seen it many times. he just won the 29 palms 1000 yard match, winning both days and the overall..
do what makes you feel confident in your gear.

Well, if anybody can invent a solvent to dissolve carbon then they would be extremely rich.

Many of these over-hyped 'witches brews' claim such abilities, yet they are just a panacea (also a good earner) and a lubricant for a good old fashioned mechanical bore brush and a bit of elbow grease. Nylon or brass is your choice!

Just type 'is it possible to dissolve carbon ?' into any search engine and make your own decision.

* doggie *

[shootsteady]

Sooo Uhhthink...... you gonna' just STAND THERE? Aren't you or one of your alter egos in charge now? You're already in this exchange.....You gonna' just nod and bob while BRC trumpets the truth to the world that a steel brush and Hoppes is the answer to carbon buildup? After all, the man's short-stroking it, he's pulling out, ie "only putting the tip in"..... what could possibly go wrong?


"NOT speaking for BRC here, but Ol' Anilwa disagrees with this method

jus'sayin

Alot of people just say things but doesn't necessarily mean anything, other than you said it.

[rsmithsr]

pete and all
THE ANSWER IS TO START EVERY CLEANING WITH CARBON REMOVAL.
carbon aint new, people who shoot, esp competition, should be doing carbon cleaning...carbon ring should be a thing of the past.
i use chemicals to clean in 100/200 td br matches...

I don't have the time - - - -. Yes, chemicals will remove carbon but if someone has a hard build up, it will take a very long time and a lot of work that can be shortened up considerably. Barrels wear out anyway so scrubbing on them some ain't gonna change their life cycle much, from my experience.

There are some good tests of gun cleaning solvents on Youtube. I have watched the ones on copper removal; sort of myth busters, if you will. They will show one how effective chemicals are and which ones. I don't know if the same is true for carbon but I will look when I get a chance.

Pete

[shootsteady]

Anyway I will never run something as hard or harder than the barrel material inside any barrel.

Just be careful and watch what you're doing. Done it numerous times and my rifles shoot well, very well at that. Thing about how button rifling is installed, so saying it's not good for the bore is just plain nonsense. I don't make it common practice coz it's not needed, just rifles I acquire that been neglected.

[OliveOil]

Just be careful and watch what you're doing. Done it numerous times and my rifles shoot well, very well at that. Thing about how button rifling is installed, so saying it's not good for the bore is just plain nonsense. I don't make it common practice coz it's not needed, just rifles I acquire that been neglected.

Sorry to say, with all due respect, that I do not agree.

First, a rifling button does match every area in the lands and grooves almost perfectly. But anyway,

Whatever you carry under load in that barrel and how ever you carry it inside that barrel, should it contains something harder than the barrel steel, and whatever the size of the ""harder than steel"" particles, and whatever the amount of care applied, the Op IS to remove steel and or scratch the barrel.

I have been polishing chrome lined and hard-thick anodized alumina air cylinders for years, so experience makes me definitely let this kind of operation to the "grit masters" at the barrel maker shop.

Except for some WW2 barrels looking just as freshly ploughed, but that's a different story.

As far as I can remember, the "grit masters" are using cast lead laps matching individual barrel's land/grooves as close as it is possible, have them loaded with successive abrasives of the right size AND SIZE DISTRIBUTION, lap the surface and create the inside cone of the barrel adjusting the number of strokes here and there.

Using a patch carried by a jag can obviously not apply the same amount of pressure on lands and grooves, and will apply for sure ZERO pressure where lands meet grooves, with everything possible in between.

Aka the Op will lap mostly at the center of lands, less at center of grooves and barely not where it comes to land/groove ""border"", where carbon is the most tricky to remove.

My mind is that it is very important to use, if needed, an abrasive paste with particles harder than copper, harder than carbon, but softer than steel. The pumice in JB is just that. And you just can't have it carried under the same pressure/load in every place (lands, grooves) of that barrel.

In between Flitz and Iosso, one is just on hardness edge and the other behaves like a steel abrasive, I never used them, can't remember which is what. Clearly remember competitors shooting numerous sighters after using one of the twos.

Personally, I own one small jar of JB since the 90's. Used almost 2/3 of it.

Anyway, bench rest is a free country.

[shootsteady]

I don’t see any scratches in my barrels, so l cant go along with you. A 10 power maginifier is clear enough to not see any damage at the crown. And you have to realize the brush isn’t touching the bore either, so what’s the problem? If You want to over analyze things be my guest. I had a bore that was badly pitted and shot the same as a pristine barrel.

[Pete Wass]

I don’t see any scratches in my barrels, so l cant go along with you. A 10 power maginifier is clear enough to not see any damage at the crown. And you have to realize the brush isn’t touching the bore either, so what’s the problem? If You want to over analyze things be my guest. I had a bore that was badly pitted and shot the same as a pristine barrel.

In a new barrel with something they can see inside it with, like a bore scope, they will see straight scratch marks the lapping compound made. My memory sez they use 150 grit to lap barrels before they sell them. Those scratches don't last forever, however. The best Group Shooter ever to live said the first 600 shots through a barrel are the best ones. Perhaps it has something to do with those straight scratches??? Perhaps one could periodically cast a lap , apply the 150 and put the "New" back in they barrel

Pete

[Pete Wass]

What the size grit is in Rem Clean?

Thanks,

Pete

[GeneT]

Pete must not know who you are Frank.

Do **you** know who Pete is?

GsT

[shootsteady]

In a new barrel with something they can see inside it with, like a bore scope, they will see straight scratch marks the lapping compound made. My memory sez they use 150 grit to lap barrels before they sell them. Those scratches don't last forever, however. The best Group Shooter ever to live said the first 600 shots through a barrel are the best ones. Perhaps it has something to do with those straight scratches??? Perhaps one could periodically cast a lap , apply the 150 and put the "New" back in they barrel

Pete

Doesn’t sound like it really matters then, does it.

[Al Nyhus]

Having seen results first hand from Rem Clean use, it will never get used in my barrels.

In my 30BR, a .338 bronze brush wet with Butch's pushed to the end of the neck and turned a few times gets the carbon out.

Good shootin' -Al

[Pete Wass]

Doesn’t sound like it really matters then, does it.

on what one believes and has experienced. Some barrels' seem to perform very well regardless. In reading what the Long Range shooters do, a lot of them don't clean very much, can't actually. Now, how do long range groups compare to 1-2 and 300 yard groups? I don't know and have never seen the subject discussed.

I see friends using a number of different bore cleaners. Some of them use Butch's and I've seen more of them using Patch out of late. I've been using it for two or three years.

Pete