Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Basic cleaning help

Ok, dumb question. How do I know when my barrel is clean? My method is to use a patch and jag first with powder solvent, and by the third or fourth patch it comes out clean usually. Then I put the bronze brush on and do 10 strokes with that. Then back to one wet patch. Then I repeat. 10 strokes with the brush, one wet patch, etc. It seems no matter how many times I repeat this, sometimes 10 times, or 100 total brush strokes, the first patch after the brush is always black. Is my gun that dirty and I need to keep repeating this? Or is the brush making it seem dirty when it really isn’t? I don’t seem to have a problem with copper fouling. Sweets, with a nylon brush seems to keep the blue out, but the black patch after lots of brushing has me puzzled.

I admit when I was a kid, ok-22 years old, I didn’t do a good job keeping rifles clean, and I’m sure some had 100+ rounds between cleaning. I haven’t shot much in the last ten years but trying to shoot more now and do better job taking care of my equipment so I can teach my 7 year old proper methods.

Thanks.

The black patch may be barrel steel, lotsa barrels are worn out by excessive cleaning rather than shooting. If your rifle shoots good after cleaning I wouldn't worry about counting brush strokes, repetitions or snow white patches. There's no real need to remove every last bit of dirt, fouling, copper or whatever.

Yeah, I wouldn't get too worried if you've done a good cleaning and the patches aren't coming out white. Some barrels are just like that.

Sounds like I’m worrying about nothing. Thanks.

Yeah, good advice to not OVER clean barrels.

Wouldn't take the copper out of a bore as you'll need to shoot it just to regain your "copper equilibrium". Just get the carbon fouling out.

use Patch Out

How are you cleaning your brush between applications?

Well in this case it was a brand new brush at the start. But I didn’t clean it in between switching from the patch to the brush. Should i have?

40 bucks and you will know for sure what’s in there.

https://www.teslong.com/Rifle-Borescope/TESLONG_borescope

Probably better off not knowing what’s in there.

If an initial pass or two with the brush isn’t enough, just dunk it again in the Hoppe’s No. 9.

I am not going to type all this again
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...re-quality-gun-cleaning-kit#Post13458464

Wow that’s quite the process.

Only remove the carbon fouling and **EXCESS** copper (if any).

Each round wipes a layer of copper from the barrel and lays down a replacement layer, giving copper equilibrium.


#@!%^*$ !

Otherwise you're running a dirty brush back in. After the brush strokes I leave it hanging out past the muzzle and hose it off with brake cleaner. Then I thread it off before withdrawing the rod.

I about lost my mind, and wore a Sako 7mag barrel out, trying to get it clean.


Then, the lightbulb came on,the Sweets was eating my brass jag.
The blue wasn't copper fouling, it was from my jag.

Could also be the brush is dirty and leaving dirt behind.

Thanks guys. Didn't mean to start a 'how to clean your gun' thread. More specifically just trying to understand what the black might be on my patch after brushing. Definitely not copper. Either really old baked in powder residue, or just a dirty brush. Regardless I'm probably brushing too much, gun shoots pretty well.

Run a Ramrodz or patch down the bore a few weeks after cleaning the rifle. Unless the bore has been scrubbed to bare metal (GOD forbid!), you will likely to see more "black" on the patch.