Rifle cleaning routine?

[The Gun Pimp]

I would think that the Bushmaster system is acceptable 'in the field' where you couldn't carry a cleaning rod - in other words - better than nothing!

But honestly, I wouldn't use that system with a 'match' crown.

Cheers
Vince

[Ovenpaa]

I have bumped this thread as I would like to hear more about peoples cleaning regime, Vince any views on this from a BR perspective, do you use over the counter cleaning agents and good old fashioned hard work and time or have some secret recipes for stripping copper and carbon?

[The Gun Pimp]

Ovenpaa,

I've picked up my cleaning regime from rubbing shoulders with benchrest shooters from around the world.

Firstly equipment: Proshot jags, patches and bronze brushes are amongst the best - most benchrest shooters use their products. Hannam's Reloading are the UK importer.

Cleaning fluid: Butches Bore Shine is the benchresters favourite for removing powder-fouling.

For removing copper: Sweets is a good as anything but hard to get. Again, Proshot do an excellent copper-remover (non-ammoinia). Boretech Eliminator is fantastic but again, not many UK stockists but Gary Costello who does the March Scopes now imports it.

Finally, some shooters are worried about using a bronze brush. Most bencrest shooters will clean after every match - say after ten shots. In a comp. we shoot six matches - that's a lot of brushing! The bronze brush won't hurt your bore but be carefull with the crown - it's easy to damage it with your rod.

Cheers
Vince

[woody_rod]

Ovenpaa,

I've picked up my cleaning regime from rubbing shoulders with benchrest shooters from around the world.

Firstly equipment: Proshot jags, patches and bronze brushes are amongst the best - most benchrest shooters use their products. Hannam's Reloading are the UK importer.

Cleaning fluid: Butches Bore Shine is the benchresters favourite for removing powder-fouling.

For removing copper: Sweets is a good as anything but hard to get. Again, Proshot do an excellent copper-remover (non-ammoinia). Boretech Eliminator is fantastic but again, not many UK stockists but Gary Costello who does the March Scopes now imports it.

Finally, some shooters are worried about using a bronze brush. Most bencrest shooters will clean after every match - say after ten shots. In a comp. we shoot six matches - that's a lot of brushing! The bronze brush won't hurt your bore but be carefull with the crown - it's easy to damage it with your rod.

Cheers
Vince

I agree with Vince, except the bit about bronze brushes. We now only use stiff nylon brushes. I have never touched my 260 bore with a bronze brush, and never will. Using a borescope, slight damage can be seen in the throat area, but particularly (and as noted by Vince) the crown, more by the cleaning rod, but also from bronze brushes.

There is a test you can try here, which is metallurgy 101: get a piece of bronze (which is usuall quite hard really) and write your name on the outside of an old polished barrel. If you can see it, and not wipe it off, what is that brush doing to the inside of your barrel?

416 barrel material is quite soft, which does not help.

This also brings forward the cleaning routine in terms of the cleaning rod itself. Many people just don't realise how damaging a rod can be. It is not the one time use, it is the constant cleaning, using the same angles, technique etc that creates wear on one side or other if the person does not always use a bore guide. Even then, there can be problems with the crown.

I now see that it is almost impossible to clean a barrel properly without a borescope. With my 260, it gets copper fouling near the muzzle, so this has to be removed before shooting again. The only way to know it is clean, is to see that it is clean. No amount of guesswork can help here. I always thought I used a good process for my barrel cleaning; after getting our borescope, this was shown to be false.

If the readers of this thread don't have a borescope, maybe ask someone you know to have a look down your bore for you. This should be after you have cleaned it with your usual process. See then if it is working.