when to stop cleaning

[gun_lover_87]

when do you guys stop running patches trough your gun barrel. i shoot some 70s 8mm romaina ammo and after spryaing down the barrel with amonia i began to run patches trhough. needless to say i used about 25 patches (all i had) and the remaining half bottle of hoppe's no9 solvent. each patche was just as dirty when i started. any ideas? is thier perhaps a solvent that you mix in water and soak parts in it?

 

[rustymaggot]

leave the hoppes 9 in the barrel overnight to soak. maybe reapply the solvent every few hours and keep the bore sopping wet. let the solvent do the work, then use patches.

 

[sacp81170a]

Hot(I mean HOT, like boiling hot) soapy water does wonders. I use Dawn dishwashing liquid when I'm cleaning black powder or milsurp arms and it does the trick. Hot water helps open the pores of the metal, dissolves the corrosive salts, and the detergent lifts the carbon and degreases like nobody's business. Run a few patches down after that and you'll be surprised. Slap on a light coat of oil and you're done.

 

[Koobuh]

Outers bore foam does a real number on bore deposits. It's what my dad and I use on our milsurps, and we've never had a problem with rusting in the barrel.
We spray the foam in, and let it sit (muzzle end down, resting on some porous wood you don't care about throwing away) for a half-hour or more to soak. Patch the goop out and admire the lovely shade of blue it is from all the copper and junk that was dissolved out of the bore while you relaxed.
A couple passes with a brush, some patching with Hoppes, an oil patch, and you're done.
MUCH easier than cleaning with straight patch+Hoppes.

Just so you know, Hoppes won't touch corrosive salts. The water in the windex you flush the barrel with will usually do the job, but you have to use something that contains water to carry the salts away, or you'll eventually get rusting.

 

[JonB]

Koobuh - do you use Windex right after shooting or just the Outers bore foam? I will hopefully be getting my M44 early next week and have been reading many many posts on cleaning after corrosive ammo. I don't like the idea of dumping water in there - mostly in case some gets trapped between the wood and the metal and starts rusting there.

 

[aka108]

You can cut the bottom of a gallon milk, clorox bottle or use a plastic pail with 2 to 3 inches of hot water and your detergent mixed in. (I like liquid detergent made for the auto dishwashers) Put a patch on the jag, stick the muzzle in the solution and plunge the jag back and forth. It will suck the solution up the bore. Bronze brush the bore and plunge again. Refill container with hot fresh water and plunge again and your bore will appear clean. Dry bore, saturate with a decent bore cleaner, let it set for 24 hrs or so then run a few patches thru to remove the green copper residue, oil and you are done. No need to dump water down the bore. Been doing this for years and bores still look like near new.

 

[gezzer]

Windex, ammonia, are a waist. Hot tap water works even better. Ammonia is not needed for corrosive ammo.

Use first then clean with normal solvents. 25-30 patches? you are giving more wear cleaning than ou are shooting.

 

[Jenrick]

If your stuck on Hoppes, then make sure to use a brush as well as patches. The brush will break free large chunks of junk and move them along, rather then letting the patch abrade them down a little at a time.

I'm a big fan of Blue Wonder myself. I've used it on some really dirty bores and it cleaned them right up, with no mess. Just brush in, let it sit for 10 minutes, then patch out. I usually do it twice if it's really messy. A couple of patches of Hoppes to get any residue out, then one or two of CLP to protect and I'm done. The best recomendation I can make for the stuff, is on bores that I felt were quiet clean (my duty weapon for instance), it pulled gunk out that I didn't know was there.

-Jenrick

 

[30Cal]

I've got a couple rifles with high milage barrels which shoot worse if you do a really thorough cleaning.

Ty