I usually quit when they get "goodenough" but do any of you continue until they are completely clean?
Do Not get a Borescope. If you think you are frustrated now, just wait until you can see into it.
I clean until it’s clean, now that I know what it looks like…
Often the best way for me is to apply chemicals and wait. Fifteen minutes every time.
I, too, would suggest you to use an actual cleaner.
If you can drink it, it’s not going to work. I use gloves and don’t screw around with “green” cleaners. Don’t have anything fancy handy? Use some oven cleaner.
Some cleaners don’t work quite as quickly as others, so the dwell time is useful, because I’m not throwing them out.
Giving time for the chemicals to work also breaks up the task of cleaning so it doesn’t seem so time consuming. Spray or swab or dunk, and do something else until the timer sings.(Mine is a bird song.
) It only takes about three minutes for the rest of the action and stock, and I’m not going to scrub the bristles off my brush while it’s the cleaners that molecularly lift the copper and carbon off the surface of the steel.
Or Bore paste and Remington 40x, they mechanically scrub the bore clean with abrasives. They work well, and are a good way to care for carbon in the throat of a centerfire, lap a rough patch, or scour the rifling right out of a rimfire.
And then, some barrels shoot better when they are not sparkling clean anyway.