Copper fouling

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I usually do not have an issue removing copper fouling from my rifles, but my surplus M96 mauser is giving me fits......I have NEVER been able to get rid of the copper fouling in this bugger since the day I bought it. I don't know what the problem is....I scrub and use shooters choice bore cleaner and the patches continue to come out just bluer than blue! After my antelope hunt, I decided to clean it until it came out clean....that was Three weeks ago!...I have been running a wet patch through, waiting an hour or two, then running a dry patch through, then repeating the process, and I am making absolutely NO headway whatsoever.
Any thoughts? I'm wondering if the fact that it is an older military rifle and most likely was used with corrosive ammo in the past might have something to do with it. More importantly: does anyone have any suggestions? Someone at work mentioned a 'foam' that you squirt in the bore and leave overnight, and supposedly cleans the bore "immaculatlely".....he didn't remember the name, and I can't seem to find a product that resembles it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Jack]

One of the brands of the foam bore cleaner is Wipe Out. There are several on the market now.
Pardon me if I'm suggesting something stupid. . . if you use a copper cleaner like Shooters Choice or others with a brass jag or a brass brush, you can get blue patches from the solvent working on the jag or brush, even in a dead clean bore.

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Pardon me if I'm suggesting something stupid. . . if you use a copper cleaner like Shooters Choice or others with a brass jag or a brass brush, you can get blue patches from the solvent working on the jag or brush, even in a dead clean bore.

Not stupid at all, but no.....I used the bronze brush to get rid of the carbon fouling from the powder, but all I am using now is a rag soaked in the shooters choice, wait a while, then dry patches until they come out clean, followed by more wet patches of shooters choice.

[Gil Martin]

I use Shooters Choice and it usually does a good job. For stubborn copper fouling cases, I use Remington Bore Cleaner on a cloth wrapped around a cleaning brush. That has worked well for me. Good luck. All the best...
Gil

[Larryjk]

If you know a pharmacist ask him/her to order you a pint of 30% ammonia water. Put about a foot of copper wire in it and let it set with the cap on loosely for two or three days. Then remove the wire and use the solution on a patch wrapped around a nylon brush. Let the barrel set for 1/2 hour or so and run another soaked patch through. Should look like grape jelly on the patch. (I usually clean anyoil from the barrel with acetone before using the ammonia waater.) This system does work on heavily fouled barrels. CAUTION: smelling the solution will definitely clear your sinus)

[Jack]

The other classic fouling remedy is JB bore compound. JB is an abrasive that's too soft to effect barrel steel, but will remove copper and carbon fouling.
Put some oil ( I use Kroil) on a patch, then put some JB on the patch and run the patch through the bore several times. You want the patch to fit the bore, but not super tightly. I use a new patch with oil and JB about every 10 passes through the bore.
JB is kinda labor intensive, but, one little tub of JB lasts for many years, and JB works, posilutely.
A lot of benchresters use it on their super expensive barrels, so it's a well proven (and safe) remedy.

[Rapier]

$1.25 Cent Foul Out

Here is what you can do to make a home made foul out......

1) Make a solution of 3 parts water, 1 part white vinigar and 1 part household amonia. You can also just use Amonia.
2) get a 1/8" solid steel rod (about 2" longer than the barrel you want to use it in). I use a clothes hangar straightened and sanded shiny.
3) some rubber O rings with the ID slightly smaller than the shaft you have. I use shrink wrap pieces.
4) rubber stoppers to act as a plug at the chamber, a wood dowell also works. I use chamber plugs with a shrink wrap tip on the rod to prevent grounding.
5) electrical aligator clips soldered to two lengths of small gague wire about 3 ft long each.
6) a 9V battery connected to the wires.
7) hook the positive to the frame of the firearm and the negative to the steel rod.

I put a plastic sheet turned to a funnel shaped device, taped around the muzzle to take care of the foam that will come up. Pour the barrel full of the liquid, insert the rod, making very sure that the rod does not contact the steel of the barrel, bottom or sides. Hook up the alligator clips and you will see foam come out of the muzzle in short order. After 5 minutes, remove the rod. Clean it with steel wool and reinsert the rod for another few minutes. Do not leave the bore full of amonia for a long period. You can repeat the process until the copper is gone. Empty the solution and change it out if you wish, also. When the bore is as you wish, patch it dry and oil it well.
Ed


PS: Remove the stock from the rifle, first.

[powell&hyde]

Interesting Rapier, I will definitely try this out, thanks for the recipe.

[PJgunner]

"A lot of benchresters use it on their super expensive barrels, so it's a well proven (and safe) remedy."

That's true. Not only that but they use it from the get go without using solvent first. (I got this from a friend who is heavily into the bench rest game) The only time they go to solvent is to remove the JB from the bore.

One of my rifles had a barrel so rough that it would out in one magazine run. (5 rounds) It would take sevaral hours using Sweet's 7.62 goop to get the ccopper out and then the next time out another 5 round and time to clean again.
I bought cheap firelapping kit and used some very hard cast lead bullets to hold the grit. The instructions said 10 rounds with the rough grit, clean thoroughly, the 10 with the medium grit and so on. because I used cast bullets instead of jacketed, I only did 5 rounds with each grit (there wee 3 grits). The fourth set of rounds was 10 using the JB Bore paste on the cast bullets. I'd cut back to 5 on the grit loads because firelapping will remove more metal at the throat creating a worn thoat as if one had shot 5,000 rounds or so. I decided to be cautious on that subject. I happen to like that particular rifle very much, a Winchester M70 Featherweight in 7x57 Mauser.
Cleaning is now done in the bench rest manner, patches with JB paste, the removal of the paste with Shooter's Choie or some similar solvent.
That rifle still fouls but now i can go through two or three boxes of ammo at a range session if I need to and accuracy is still there.
One your Swede, why not give firelapping a try? Smooth out the rough spots and that should make a difference. I have two milsurp rifles, a 1917 Eddystone in 30-06 and a1912 Styer Mauser that had been converted to 7.62 NATO. Both have two groove barrels that have been damaged by corrosive primers and don't shoot all that well. I'm thinking a good firelapping sure would go a long way toward fixing your fouling problem.
Or, you could put the grits on a tight patch and lap the barrel that way. I've done that a time or two on guns that had rough bores. Just be careful and go slow.
Paul b.

[dovehunter]

Here's another vote for "WIPE OUT". I have a 8x57 98 Mauser sporter that I have never been able to get completely clean (i.e. a nearly white patch) until I tried "WIPE OUT". Admittedly, it took a couple of over-nite applications, but I finally got completely clean patches and that barrel is now the cleanest I've ever seen it. We (my son & I) tried several other rifles that we thought had completely clean barrels and still got the dark blue patches showing residual copper fouling. I have become a big fan of "WIPE OUT". The nice thing is it really doesn't require that much more effort than cleaning with a conventional solvent like HOPPES' #9.

[shooterjon]

KG 12 Thats the ticket.I have used it for a few years and it is positively the best copper remover I have used.
DO NOT use a bronze loop,jag or brush if your looking for copper fouling on your patches as more often than not they will show up as copper fouling on your patches!