Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do Any Copper Removers Work?

KG-12

Yep... KG-12 is the best copper remover i've tried so far... as to the break in myth... i had a new 280 bore that was rough as sandpaper, could barely push a patch down it... looked like a copper peppermint stick after 1 shot... 50 rounds break in, cleaning with KG-12, and no more copper stripes, smooth bore and it's a shooter...

Nothing removes copper as quickly as Sweets 7.62.

But even standard issue Hoppes will remove copper if you let it sit long enough.

For rifle barrels, I've tried many of them and find Wipe Out/Patch Out to be the fastest and most effective. Before I use it, however, I run one patch with Hoppe's #9 or just about any other solvent through the bore and brush it a few strokes, then push one patch through to clear the dirt and residue.

Montana Extreme Copper Killer is almost as good, just a little slower. Shooter's Choice, Hoppe's Benchrest, Butch's, and several others work well, but they're not fast; need to leave them overnight. I don't try to remove every bit of copper anymore but I like to get most of it. Depending on the barrel, it's seldom necessary or desirable to go to bare metal as a few fouling shots may be required to get the barrel shooting again.

Thorough flush.
Thorough clean.
Dave

https://www.coretacsolutions.com/products_KG_KG12_TEST.htm

This stuff works!

C4 then wipe out works for me and I have a bore scope.

I recently tried TetraGun Copper Solvent. Similar to Sweets 7.62, but I think it works better.

Patch out, then JB bore paste for the stubborn stuff.

I had much cleaner, smoother barrels before I had a borescope....

True as can be.

If you're not bore scoping then you may think you're getting all the metal and carbon fouling out when in fact you're not even getting close to getting it all out.

One that's excellent but a little hard to find is TM Solution.

I’ve had great experience with Sweets 7.62. I usually clean with Hoppes and then I’ll use Sweets following up with the 2 step JB paste for cleaning and the Bore Bright to finish. If I’m putting it away clean I’ll run a light patch of CLP or similar but my hunting rifles rarely get put up “clean”, I always try to put them away in “ready” condition which means that after cleaning I’ll fire 2 or 3 fouling shots.

I've had to alternate between Sweet's and Hoppe's three or four times in a single cleaning to get everything out on certain rifles. Makes you wonder if you really are ever going to get everything out.

I've found TM Solution to be pretty ineffective, at least for reasonably fast copper removal. However, it may be one of those that needs to be left in the bore for a long time, like overnight. Brownells usually has it in stock.

Sweets or Barnes, again. Either will get the copper out.

And yes, sometimes one does need to take out a layer of carbon so he can get to the next layer of copper. Either Witch's Brew or JB bore paste will do that.

Witch's Brew is shipped with new barrels from PAcNor. I assume that means it is abrasive enough to take out the fouling and leave the steel intact.

A little 0000 steel wool wrapped around a bronze brush and saturated with solvent works on really stubborn fouling. It would probably even knock out those stubborn carbon rings, or moly rings some speak of, though I have not experienced either.

I am pretty sure JB has written on the steel wool business.

I was a groupie /grunt for a guy who had a big machine gun collection, Bore Tech products was what we used. It even worked on cupro-nickel fouling on the old Maxim and Vickers guns.... if you gave it some time to work.

I use Hoppes Copper Solvent on mine.
A couple I had had some severe fouling.
For heavy stuff I put a wet patch down the bore and left it work overnight. (I’d slide it under the couch, dry patch in the morning followed by another wet patch and back under the couch till evening) (Repeat the process until the dry patch comes out clean)
Dave never cleaned his .25-06. It went from 1 inch groups to baseball sized groups while I was in the Army. It took 2 or 3 days, but I got it back to 1 inch groups with a little TLC.
Reon

Wipe out & KG-12 are the two that I’ve found to actually work, the rest barely touch it.

Tried Sweets 7.62 on my tough copper, didn't do much, bottle says "with 5% ammonia" and "harmless to steel" ,maybe they dumbed it down compared to older batches. Thought it used to work well. Ordered some Wipeout, will see what that does.
Maybe someone lost their wedding band into the crucible when blending gilding metals, fouling seems almost permanent.ha ha

Thanks to everyone for the replies, a lot of good info here. KG12 looks good, will probably order some of that to try for general maintenance (or in case the wipeout doesn't handle this problem).

I use boretech eliminator and wipe out.

Bb