Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How do I clean a really, really dirty rifle bore?

I got a 1939 8mm Turk Mauser with Gew98 action. Finally decided to take it to the range yesterday and ran 15 rounds through it. Cleaned the bore with Windex because it was old corrosive mil ammo. Followed that with Hoppe's #9 and give it a rest over night.

Today I run a clean patch and it comes out brown and green. Scrubbed it again with Birchwood Case bore scrubber this morning. And again this afternoon. This thing isn't getting any cleaner. It's getting dirtier! It is the dirtiest barrel I've ever seen.

Got any good home brew cleaning methods that won't wear out my arm and cleaning rods?

Shooter's Choice Bore Clearer is the strongest bore cleaner I've ever come across. With the muzzle side tilted down, put a thoroughly soaked patch of it through from the chamber end, and just let it soak for twenty minutes. Then scrub it, then patches. Repeat as needed.

Neat old Mauser.

Plug the barrel and fill it up with [b][color:#3333FF]Wipeout..[/color][/b] Let it sit over night. Then brush and patch.

I tried [b][color:#3333FF]Home Electrolysis[/color][/b] with an old Mosin, it got out some nasty junk, but still has a "dark" bore.

Lots of elbow grease and copious quantities of any brand of GOOD bore cleaner, it probably has YEARS of copper fouling (the green) along with burnt corrosive powder and even some rust & Cosmoline.

Looked at a Spanish Mauser just today that was really dark & murky, it is now soaking in the tank at the shop in a combo of mineral oil & liquid wrench, will turn the ultrasonics on tomorrow then it will get the bronze brush scrub a dub dub.

Tetragun bore solvent has worked for me. Heavy ammonia smell and it eats copper, plastic and stuff. Keep it off the bluing so far as you can. Soak overnight. Wet brush. Wet patch. Dry patches. You might be brushing and patching for a bit. May need to soak more than one night. You'll need new brushes after you're done.

I haven't tried Wipeout so I don't know about it. The Tetragun got some crud out of a barrel that other stuff wouldn't. I wasn't a one shot wonder, but it got the job done.

For that filthy job...just use JB bore paste from Sinclairs.

Beat me to it.

I used to work at a gun shop and I cleaned every gun that came in the door. I used Sweets 7.62. It's really powerful. You can plug a barrel and leave it in for a short while, but I just soaked the barrel with wet patches and let it sit. Follow with patches until everything comes out. It will!

or kroil oil

Rusteprufe Nitro Solvent should be more readily available.
Reminds me, I need to order some more...

Kroil, then wipeout. After that, if it shoots OK don't worry about it, just CHOOT it! Keep a thin layer of light oil in the bore at all times after that at all times to keeep it form getting worse. If you are desparate, you could try some JB or other bore paste butI would not expend that much effort or worry over it.

This rifle was never going to be a varmint rifle or a beauty queen even when it was new in the wrapper. Rifling was barely more than an afterthought. Going bang and knocking over milk cartons at 100 yards are about all that can be asked, or that should be anyway.

PS a Hoppe's Bore snake is your freind, with the KROIL and WIPE OUT. My gn room is layered in bore snakes of all sizes and varying degrees of decay and neglect

After you get done applying your 3 tons of elbow grease and solvents,


Slug the barrel

Now that you have a few layers of filth out of it, I'd run a Kroil soaked patch down it every day for a week, or two. That stuff creeps under crud better than anything I've ever seen. Then hit it with Sweets 7.62 to attack remaining copper.

Maybe a final workout session with JB Paste, another Kroil round, then oil 'er up. I doubt that anything but severe elbow grease & lots of brushing/patches will reveal the true state of that cobby bore.

When you get through the rest of the layers, the bore may be very rough from corrosive ammo & lack of cleaning. (Then, shoot the heck out of it & never clean it again.. )

FWIW, I would perform one of the thorough, overnight cleaning methods described by other posters, and then never worry about getting it "clean" again.

The bores in these old rifles are just too rough even when they are in good shape to ever come out clean. Clean it as thoroughly as you can, then fire 50 rounds of old milsurp ammo through it and clean it again. You'll think you're starting over from square one again!

44henry

I like Brasso on a nylon bristle brush. Then clean it out with some spray carb cleaner. Repeat as needed. kwg

Looks like I'm going shopping for bore cleaners today. It was only a $50 rifle. I may end up with more than that invested in cleaning supplies!

Since I haven't seen it mentioned, I'd plug the barrel & fill it up with WD-40 & let it sit overnight then go from there...I was skeptical about the WD-40 thing until I tried it on a really dirty bore that didn't seem to want to come clean with any of the other "traditional methods"...it's one of a few little tips I learned on RFC...

fill it with water and a little dish soap, turn it on low heat, put the lid on and leave it overnight.





wait, wrong thread

Has anybody mentioned the ear plug thing yet? Roll up an ear plug and stick in the muzzle, fill it with bore cleaner from the other end and let it sit a while?

I have an ex son in law, still friends, who has a couple of those turk rifles. After a number of years, it is STILL leaching out cosmoline out of the wood every time we take in out here in arizona. As to the bore, he borrowed by home made electrical device and let that go at it for a couple of days. Looked like a sewer. Try father Frogs website for building one, pretty simple and pretty simple chemical solution to make up for the process, using partially white vinegar if i remember right.
Ammot at the time, turkish, was something like 1200rounds for 70 bucks. The rifle shoots a lot better than you think.
It is consistly minute of man at 100 yards.