Cleaning 223- Patches continue to come out Dirty

[gifbohane]

I clean my Son-in-Laws AR 15 in 223 ammo. I scrape the barrel 3 or 4 times with a brass brush in my rod and then send Ballistol down the barrel on my cleaning rod. After 5 or 6 or these I start sending clean patches down the barrel.

It seems that I could send 50 clean patches down there and still get some discoloration (dirt or lube) on them. I usually quit when they get "goodenough" but do any of you continue until they are completely clean.

 

[Charlie98]

My usual routine is to brush/swab/brush/swab until I get tired of it... then I run a wet CLP patch down and call it a day. Prior to the next shooting fest, I run a brush, then a patch to clean the yuck out the CLP brought up in the meantime... and go shooting.

A chrome lined barrel will come cleaner faster, but if you have a non-chrome bore that's been abused, they can take a while.

 

[MatrixReality]

Sounds like heavy copper fouling. Next time swab it with Patch Out before you brush it. It’s potent stuff

 

[Ranger99]

Is there a gas port full of goo and mung
that's not getting clean by just swabbing
the bore ?

 

[nettlle]

I clean until I get a light shade of gray. Cleaning until a perfectly white cleaning patch comes out was taking years off my life. After many guns and many thousands of rounds, many of them bench rest, I learned that a light shade of gray is plenty.

 

[Blue68f100]

I clean till it's clean. I mainly use Red's cleaning solution for carbon fouling. I use Butch's Bore Shine (https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Butchs-Bore-Shine-Original/dp/B008CXKU66) to get the hard stuff out. This stuff comes in a glass bottle for the solvents are strong, but it cleans the hard barrels easily. Best cleaner I ever found. Sweets for copper fouling. If I have a barrel that's fouling bad I hand lap it with some bore paste after cleaning.

 

[lightman]

I would substitute a good bore cleaner for the Ballistol. My favorite is Shooters Choice but they all work. I wet a brush and give it about 5 strokes, and do this for 2 or 3 cycles. Then do the wet patch a few times.

But there are many opinions about cleaning. This is just what I do.

 

[Demi-human]

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.

 

[Ru4real]

Cleaning a barrel bore only maintains function and accuracy. That is the measure to clean your bore by, not clean patches.

There are reasons best groups are shot after shooting sighting rounds and fouling shots.

 

[TEXASJD]

I clean my Son-in-Laws AR 15 in 223 ammo. I scrape the barrel 3 or 4 times with a brass brush in my rod and then send Ballistol down the barrel on my cleaning rod. After 5 or 6 or these I start sending clean patches down the barrel.

It seems that I could send 50 clean patches down there and still get some discoloration (dirt or lube) on them. I usually quit when they get "goodenough" but do any of you continue until they are completely clean.

Try sweets 762 2 wet patches down let set for 10min then dry patch out if the first patch comes out with purple stuff allover its copper fowled. Note Sweet will pull all oil out of the metal so you need to run something like Kroil oil down it to keep it from rusting. If its still fowled after this it will probably take a J&B paste cleaning.

 

[Turkeytider]

I clean until I get a light shade of gray. Cleaning until a perfectly white cleaning patch comes out was taking years off my life. After many guns and many thousands of rounds, many of them bench rest, I learned that a light shade of gray is plenty.

I`m not sure I have enough time left on the planet to clean until the patches coming out are as pristine as when they went in. I do try to keep ahead of the fouling by swabbing down with solvent after each range session as opposed to waiting until I think there`s been noticeable deterioration in gun performance. I just can`t do it.

 

[Turkeytider]

Cleaning a barrel bore only maintains function and accuracy. That is the measure to clean your bore by, not clean patches.

There are reasons best groups are shot after shooting sighting rounds and fouling shots.

I pretty much go by the first two sentences, I suppose.

 

[12Bravo20]

I haven't worried about cleaning a barrel until the patches come out still white and clean since getting out of the Army.

 

[WheelGunMan]

If you take a patch saturated with some Hoppes 9 down the bore right from the start and let it sit for 20 minutes or more so the Hoppes 9 can do its magic...it makes the cleaning process a lot smoother and quicker.

 

[edwardware]

. . . do any of you continue until they are completely clean.

You can, but there's rarely (almost never) a reason to.

Also, Ballistol is great as a lubricant to wipe out loose fouling and prevent rust, but it isn't a solvent.

 

[entropy]

Or Bore paste and Remington 40x, they mechanically scrub the bore clean with abrasives.

Yup. If you think your bore is clean, run a patch of JB Bore Paste down it. You'll find out it's not as clean as you think.

 

[Rule3]

Why are you cleaning a a 223 rifle. After all it is a 22 caliber and we all know you should never clean those!

I do not understand the fan following of Ballistoil?? All it is is Mineral Oil with some stink smell in it.

Why not try a real gun cleaner that is not also a hair tonic and floor polisjh

There are a gazillion of them out there. Use an actual solvent to clean and then if you want to lightly lube use the Ballistoil

 

[bdickens]

I clean my Son-in-Laws AR 15 in 223 ammo. I scrape the barrel 3 or 4 times with a brass brush in my rod and then send Ballistol down the barrel on my cleaning rod. After 5 or 6 or these I start sending clean patches down the barrel.

It seems that I could send 50 clean patches down there and still get some discoloration (dirt or lube) on them. I usually quit when they get "goodenough" but do any of you continue until they are completely clean.

You are way overdoing it. It's a gun. Not a Hospital operating room.

 

[dcloco]

Pictures of the patches would help a lot. (COLOR pictures, not black and white)

 

[Turkeytider]

If you take a patch saturated with some Hoppes 9 down the bore right from the start and let it sit for 20 minutes or more so the Hoppes 9 can do its magic...it makes the cleaning process a lot smoother and quicker.

I absolutely could not believe the difference it makes to let #9 sit for a bit as opposed to quickly patching it out. It`s not a dedicated copper solvent ( I use KG-12 ) but after 15 minutes or so it was taking copper out too.

 

[Steve S.]

I used to sterilize my barrels - shiny, white metal clean - just in case someone needed a place to have a baby. Then it dawned on me that it just doesn’t matter - a little bit of copper/ lead/ carbon in the bore will not hurt - gun barrels are simply not that sensitive. So now a patch or so of solvent and a patch of oil and done - that is plenty and just fine.
Now if someone is chasing squeaky clean, no better, finer, faster product than BoreTech Eliminator.,

 

[nettlle]

Sweet's 7.62 is pretty harsh stuff. I have cleaned barrels with Sweet's and JB bore cleaner. Sweet's the better of the two as far as quickness. I can get white patch more quickly with Sweet's than with JB. JB is a mild rubbing compound. Many years ago I decided that in the quest for a perfectly pristine white patch and the effort to get it was too much wear and tear on my barrels. I decided under cleaning by a small bit was far less harmful than over cleaning.

 

[kenboyles72]

I know some folk don't like using bore snakes, but I use them extensively, plus I clean after just about every range session. My cleaning routine is as follows.

1. Separate upper from lower and spray Oreilly's non-chlorinated brake cleaner down barrel and chamber, let sit.
2. Take apart BCG, clean with brake cleaner and re-lube.
3. Then I take my cleaning rod with a brush dipped in Hoppee's #9 and run it through the barrel a few times
4. Take chamber brush and brush the chamber
5. Then I take my bore snake and run it through the barrel a few times and barrel is almost spotless. If I was to run a patch through it, it would probably come out just a tad dirty, nothing I would have a fit over
6. Wipe out upper and re-assemble. Done.

Now there are a lot of folk that don't clean their rifle as often, which there is no harm in doing so, the AR platform will run a very long time without a cleaning, just as long as it's lubed. The downfall to this, is that it is a PITA to clean when it comes time. Me, I would personally take 5 min to clean after every range session, than a couple of hours if I don't.

 

[nettlle]

...be careful of your gun finish these days. Melonite or a Duty Treat finish (Dan Wesson) can be discolored with the wrong cleaning chemical.

 

[wiscoaster]

... I usually quit when they get "goodenough" ...

Me too. Perfection is overkill. Usually I stop when the dark black turns to light gray-brown.