Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Lock Ease

May be the wrong forum but will drop this here.

Few months back a video of Speedy using lock ease was floating around here so thought I would try it. Basics gist being that it helped reduce copper fouling and POI would remain pretty much static after cleaning. My 22.250 was a good candidate.
All looked very good after the initial bare steel cleaning then treating with lock ease. Copper fouling was reduced by a bunch and what was there just seemed to push out with Kroil and Butchs, win win. After 4 cycles of 25 and clean I decided to let the rifle sit dirty for a couple weeks. Took the rifle out and POI stayed where it should on first shot, so all looked good again. About 15 shots in all of a sudden it started grouping 3” low so packed it up went home thinking that something took a dump.
With everything being checked and tight yesterday I took it out to finish the rounds thinking that’s where I screwed up, rifle was a shotgun nothing worked.
Back at home I decided to clean it to run a bore scope down it and I couldn’t get a patch with Kroil and Butchs down the bore, and when I finally did it was pure black. Subsequent patches were all black and when I could get a patch through easily I used Patch out and Accelerator. No copper just black.
Now after 24 hours of Butchs and Kroil soaking I got a faint tinge of copper and a lot of black.

Thinking I had severe carbon fouling from the Varget and not cleaning the lock ease out. So at this point the lock ease may have benefits if you clean ever 25 to 30 rounds.

Guess nobody wants to try it, so won’t go into the results from 3 other rifles which I thought impressive.

Saw that same video last summer. Bought some and tried it a time or two. Never really saw a difference and now it sits on the shelf.

What I took from the video was that using Lock Ease was that your first shot from a clean rifle would shoot the same as a fouled shot? Maybe I misunderstood?

There was another nugget in that video during his quick demo of the lock ease.

I tried this and it does keep the first shot from my target rifle close to it's fouled POI at long range. Otherwise it is usually 1.5 moa low on it's first shot from a clean barrel. Did not notice any other issues and I try not to go much past 150 shots without cleaning. My understanding is that it is simply replicating the carbon left by the burning powder. It keeps the first shot close to the fouled barrel's velocity. Varget is a very dirty burning powder in my experience.

The 22.250 was most likely the Varget that caused the excess carbon fouling.

What most missed evidently is that the lock ease is supposed to fill in the heat cracking and other imperfections that cause copper fouling in older barrels.
Does it work, I believe so. It took 5 cycles of 25 and clean on my Swift with every cycle after 3 getting better, but on this cycle 50 shots were fired.

Pictures are of the same spot in barrel

1 patch of Kroil/Butchs 50/50 mix



Next was a patch of Accelerator and then Patch out, scrub 5 strokes with a Iosso nylon brush let sit 5 minutes.

One patch after, everything just pushed out. Basically clean.



After 4 patches Kroil/butchs.



In reality the barrel was clean in 4 patches and 5 brush strokes.

223 with 100 rounds same regimen

Beginning



After patch 1



After 4 patches and 5 brush strokes



No more than 15 minutes each to clean down to bare steel. Proof is in the pudding.

So, am I reading right, it was fine until you got to about 40 rounds loaded with Varget fired? I think I could live with that if it means I don't need to worry about a couple of foulers after cleaning.

Guess I'll spend $6.50 to find out.

Thanks for the report, Swifty.

I've got a T/C Contender Carbine barrel in 22 Hornet from EABCO that throws the first shot from a clean barrel about an inch and a half high. The lock ease treatment cuts the clean barrel flier just about in half, at around 1/2" to 3/4 Inch.

I look forward to try it on a newer barrel on the minor fire cracking as it develops. Mine I have used it in so far look like this, and I hadn't noticed easier cleaning.

Mike
Curious what caliber that image is from, approximate rounds fired, and is it still accurate? I haven't shot a lot of rounds in my Varmint rigs to see that extreme cracking before. On my worst scoped barrel, a rem 700 in 204, I only see this in the grooves, not in the lands.

Thanks

Allen

I will pull out a 700 25.06 with < 600 rounds and snap a pic. Not as bad but it isnt all that pretty. By the way, the lock ease seems to help most in the grooves as pictured above.

Allen, that is a Krieger barrel in .284 Winchester on one of my prone rifles. I'd guess 1000 rounds since it was set back an inch and re-chambered. It is fed Berger 180 VLDs and 184 Hybrids with H4350 or H4831. It still shoots quite well until it fouls. Some additional pictures were posted on Dave7mm's Barrel Wear thread including a .308 Palma barrel with 5300+ shots fired.

Barrel Wear

I'll dig up and post some pictures of the 4400 round count Krieger barrel currently on my Palma rifle.

Rem 25.06, <700 rounds. ~1" from the throat. Bore scopes should not be used on factory barrels. Can be very disappointing.

Is that a factory barrel?

I think that is the lock ease we are seeing in the cracks as well. If you look at the target I posted in the link you can see what I mean by the first shot holding good elevation, even at 1000 yards.

Yes its a factory Rem 700 BDL barrel and thats not the worst either. Looks like sh*t but shoots very well, deer rifle only. The lock ease does help visually bring out the cracks and other blemishes as they fill. The rifle had a bad but predictable habit of chucking the first clean cold shot ~1” low and 1/2-3/4 left. After that no problem. On a nice day I will shoot it and see if that habit persists since this is only treatment 2.