Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Copper Solvents

Obviously many of them work and work well, we each gravitate to some favorite for a variety of reasons.

FWIW, I�ve been soaking my bores overnight with Montana Copper Killer, and I do mean soaking. I plug the chamber with a bit of plastic grocery bag around a patch, squirt a good three or four eye droppers worth of Copper Killer in from the muzzle and then cover the muzzle with another doubled up square of plastic held by a rubber band. I turn the rifle up and down, roll it over and so forth to thoroughly coat the bore, then leave it sitting horizontally. Occasionally during the evening or next day I�ll turn it over or upside down or whatever so the solvent has a chance to work on all areas of the bore.

Next night, take off the muzzle cover and turn it down, a stream of dark blue liquid pours out. Three or four dry patches to clean out any remaining solvent and then a patch of my current favorite gun oil down the bore.

This really cleans out everything I can see since it puts a lot of reactant into the bore to dissolve the copper. Before, even after running patch after patch after patch of copper solvent, you�d still have a couple of little fine streaks of copper visible in the muzzle. Now, with a thorough soaking, there isn�t one spec of copper anywhere near that muzzle, and (after cleaning out the old solvent), if you run a new patch of copper solvent back and forth a couple of times it comes out white as snow, not a hint of blue on it.

I like it cause it�s easy peasy, no time consuming patching or brushing or elbow grease involved and it works better than any other method I�ve tried over the last 45 years.

Best copper cleaners, in order of best performance to worst:

1) Outers Foul-Out system (electro-chemical bore cleaner)






15) Everything else.


Seriously, though, Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner works very well, as do the abrasives cleaners like JB Bore paste, Montana Extreme Copper Cream, Flitz, and KG-2 (aka Browning Bore Polish). I hear great things about KG-12, but I've never used it myself.

Also, for anyone who lives near a Sportsman's Warehouse (or various other stores, I'm sure)-- Unless I'm badly mistaken, the KG-1, KG-2, KG-3, and KG-4 products are also available as Browning's bore cleaning/maintenance products. Too bad they don't have a re-labeled KG-12...

Haven't used it that long and do not clean them down to bare metal very often. But since the 223 needs some TLC, just buy some wipeout and call it good (quick and EASY too).

RH

I reccomend Wipeout, the best copper cleaner I have used so far.

Wipeout

WildonepassblasergunkblasterAlaska ��2002-2011

I have one of those and never use it. It's slow and messy. And, IMHO, not as impressive as newer products, like Wipe Out.

IMHO,

DF

Having tried nearly all the newer products, I assure you it's a LOT more impressive than all of them combined if you have a truly problem barrel.

You must have missed his current museing's........"shoot TAC and you wont have to clean for the life of the barrel"

+1

Most copper remover's dont do a good job with carbon, once in a while you need to get all the carbon out. try boretec C4 carbon remover works great and no smell.

Use Patch Out with the Accelerator. It works just as well as the foam without the mess.

Wipeout liquid, then Wipeout foam overnite....cleans em back to normal. Its all I ever use now.
JB bore paste or the other brands are great for tough copper also.

Many of the older ammonia-based copper solvents have a water base, and will indeed become hygroscopic after 15-20 minutes as the water evaporates. The newer ammonia-based solvents use an oil base, and can be left in safely. Among these are the Montana Extreme and Wipe-Out products. I've tested both using a bore-scope and have found they both work very well, but the Montana Copper Killer works fastest.

How much powder fouling affects bore fouling depends, of course, on how cleanly the powder burns. Some of the newer powders don't leave much fouling, and some even contain a de-coppering agent. A bore-scope shows these work pretty well.

I love bore-cleaning so much that the only powders I use anymore are very clean-burning, and the only solvents I use are those that can be left in the bore overnight, working their chemical magic while I sleep.

I use KG12 for copper and KG1 for Carbon. Good stuff IMO.

That is nice to hear, as I picked up a bottle with the Browning Step 1 label on it the other day.