Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Dirty Bores?

[/quote]That brings up another question: How do you remove the oil before shooting and what happens to your fouled barrel POI and grouping? I have taken to using just Hoppe's #9 every once on a while on guns that I shoot regularly, then run a couple of dry patches through. I still like to shoot a couple of fouling shots before trusting my sight settings for hunting. If I'm just punching holes in paper, it doesn't matter that much. On the rifles that I'm using during hunting season, I don't clean at all until I'm through hunting. My "house" coyote gun, 223 goes a long time between any cleaning at all. [/quote]

My Dad got his 99 300Sav for Christmas 1927. I remember as a child, sometime during the 1940s, him showing me how to make a cotton "kite tail" to dip in a bottle of Hoppe's #9. He drew that through his old 300 a few times with a fish line. He'd put a piece of paper in the opened ejection port to reflect light up the bore, look down the barrel, and pronounce it cleaned. That process continued 'till 1987 after he shot his last buck. I wonder if that barrel ever was free of powder residue or copper. I do know that ole 300 never lost it's ability to shoot a whitetail or hit a tree knot off hand at 60 yards when he was shooting it.

I usually don't put oil in a barrel until it's been cleaned and then it's just a little Rem Oil. I use a 50/50 mix of Kroil and Hoppe's #9 to clean usually and only run one dry patch through. Before shooting, I'll run another dry patch or two. I'll try the alcohol method. Thanks.

Rug3, that's a great story. The old-timers didn't cartridge hop like we do...they just got a good rifle and shot deer with them till they couldn't anymore....but their rifles still could.

The problem with shooting till the accuracy is gone, usually ends up with a bore that is a lot of work to clean with the best of cleaning equipment and bore scope to verify. I shot p. dogs for a long time. Long hot strings were the norm, 125-300 rounds down a bore was the norm. We had the where with all to clean down to bare metal at the end of each day. We ordered barrels 10 at a time.

keith,

Have not found that to be nearly as true in recent years, due to cleaner-burning powders, often including decoppering agents. Dyna Bore Coat helps considerably as well with barrels that show any tendency to copper-foul.

It cleaned up but had light pits throughout. Accuracy didn't seem to be affected although it was never as precise as I thought a .222 should be. I had a .223 that would beat it every time so I traded it for something or other.

JB or anyone else, have you ever used an Outer's Foul Out? I've had the FO II for many years but haven't used it much because it's a bit of a PIA to set up. Curious if it really cleans down to bare metal. I'm not sure that's necessary most times but it would be handy for installing Bore Coat.

I used the FOII on a Kimber 260 that had accuracy issues. It had been broken in the shoot one shot, clean, shoot for many rounds but was never too accurate. As a last resort, I used the FOII on it. After that, I could never get it to shoot as well as it did before. It probably had a rough barrel and I was never able to find the magic amount of fouling it liked.

Anson,

I had a Foul Out II for a few years, but like you found it to be a PITA to use--though it did get rid of any copper. But when oil-based solvents like Wipe-Out and Montana X-Treme appeared, which could be left in the bore with no danger of etching, I switched to them, simplifying my life considerably.

I used to leave my bore fouled during hunting season but changed my mindset in the last few years.

EIo879 - What caused you to change your thinking?

When I am doing accuracy testing I will clean between different loads, especially if switching from C&C bullets to Copper ones. This was needed more with the old Barnes X bullets but seems less critical with the TSX. I have read where target shooters will clean before changing to a different powder even with the same bullet. All of this is probably unnecessary for a hunting rifle but old habits linger on.

I still leave my bores fouled even though most of my rifle will shoot pretty close oily, or dry, dirty, or clean. The only negative I have had was when I had molly in the bore and hunted in a heavy rain with no blue tape for the barrel. Corrosion was just starting when I cleaned that rifle later in the evening.

About half the serious PRS guys and schools teach you not to clean your barrel ever, maybe a pass with a bore snake, and the other half of the long range guys clean like crazy. Seems like both ways work.

Biggest issue if you live in any sort of damp climate especially if you shoot with a suppressor, is carbon fouling and powder residue attract moisture. I have lived places where I didn't have to clean rifles much for whatever reason in Central TX if I leave a bore dirty for a month it shows surface rust...or worse.