What is the cleaning procedure for a rifle shooting cast? What solvent, or other and at what frequency? The goal is to maintain the best accuracy, not quantity.

I shoot cast bullets in my .35 Whelen during the off season, a typical session I usually shoot 40-50 rounds. I clean with a few strokes of a bronze brush followed by Butch's Bore Shine saturated patches till they no longer show any crud being removed from the bore. I run a patch with Butch's Oil thru the bore and call it good. Next session whether it be with cast or jacketed bullets accuracy is fine. Ocassionaly I will run a patch with JB Compound/Kroil if the bore seems dirtier than usual.

Some of my rifles but not all have never seen a jacketed bullet or very few since I have owned them,I pretty much shoot cast lead exclusive. I generally clean the bores on use or surplus rifle with a copper solvent till the patches come out clear,then they get an overnight soak in Kroils Oil and a good brushing followed by a general purpose cleaning with Ed's Red. After that an after every shooting secession I you can pretty much clean the bores with one slightly wet patch and a dry ones followed by a lightly coated patch of Ed's Red for storage as about all that is in the bore after shooting is a bit of powder residue.

Back when I shot wax lubed cast bullets, my cleaning procedure was always just a few passes of a copper brush wrapped with part of a copper Chore-Boy pad. After that I figured out how much nicer paper patched bullets were in rifle loads, and then moved on to powder coating for the same. With either of those, powder fouling is all the barrel ever has, so my cleaning procedure is just one oiled patch followed by a clean patch if it's a chrome-moly barrel. If it's a stainless barrel, I just put it back in the safe.

If you have leading then you need to fix the problem. Before powder coating, paper patching was the cat's pajamas.

I never said I was having leading problems. I was asking what is used to clean the bore and how often. Some people never clean a 22LR for a long time, some clean much often. I'm asking about CF use.

Most the time I just wipe the bore with a wet patch of Hoppe's #9 & a couple dry patches. Unless the rifle is going to be put away & I'll run an oily patch down the bore.

The majority of my molds are custom cut via my specs and therefore carry a lot of lube unless paper patch so keeping velocities in their proper performance envelopes prevents leading issues..There are many good products out there that get the job done with excellent results just pick one .

With an old barrel that has been fed a diet of jacketed stuff and through which I plan a restricted diet of lead, I clean down to bare steel- pick your poison. Thereafter I merely use tight flannel patches and Ed's Red for cleaning after every range session. Adhering to a strict regimen of bullet selection/size/alloy/velocity has kept me free of leading issues for a loooooong time. I have several barrels that have never seen a jacketed bullet and which have been merely cleaned with the aforementioned tight patches and Ed's Red- and they shoot a treat.

I had lunch with Ed Harris last year and picked up his tab over his objections. I told him his gift of Ed's Red to the shooting world in general and me in particular more than made up for it.

Thanks Gary, I was hoping you would chime in.

I have several rifles I use for shooting only cast bullets. For cast bullet bore cleaning, I've found any solvent works fine, but I generally use Hoppe's #9 or Ed's Red. Even without bore leading, I still run a brush through the bore for enhanced cleaning to remove any powder or carbon fouling that wiping with patches may miss; simply a personal preference that may or may not be essential to some. I try to avoid a completely dry bore upon finishing, preferring to leave just a trace of solvent. A very lightly oiled patch will do the same.

Once I get a bore conditioned and lubed with several shots, I do nothing for long periods of time, unless something goes wrong. The last thing that went wrong was that I had a throat jammer stick in the throat when I decided not to fire, and dumped a bunch of powder into my action. I brushed it out with a dry brush, then pushed a dry patch, then went back to shooting. The cast bullet guns get a bore cleaning maybe once a year, because I get bored when it's -20 outside, and the shoveling is all done.

That was very cool of you to do. thanks for thanking him for me. If you are ever in San Francisco, I'll return the favor.

Ed is a very knowledgeable fella. It seems no matter the subject he has deep insight and probably a ton of experience to draw on. He's one of those guys who has done it all. I've known him for nearly 40 years, through the Cast Bullet Association, having shot against him in the early national matches. Now he lives a short distance from where I spend my weekends.

I've been using Kroil for years to get the lead out.

I read on another forum that Seafoam Treatment and Kroil, mixed 80/20, is a good combo for cast bore cleaning.

for my cast rifle guns, i just run an oiled patch then a dry patch once in a while when I feel like it. Nothing fancy or regular.

so basically I don't clean the bore.

Cast rifles are a passion here,with a mighty few exceptions cast is all that I shoot anymore.We have a pretty durn complete machine shop so making casting and shooting aids are the norm.Not a whole lot of bore cleaning?Keep a sharp eye on performance looking for inconsistencies.So,if there is a reason to clean? Wet,as in dripping bronze brush with bronze wool wrap get 1/2 dz strokes with shooters choice or any std cleaning fluid.Then Viva brand kitchen paper towel wrapped,one bore size smaller,brush used to dry mop the barrel.During a period of use,deep cleaning,REM 40X (or whatever it is) gets used on a tight patch.

During regular shooting,bout the only attention is I dry mop a bore.I use probably way less lube than most?Rarely anymore than the small space above gaschecks.Basically run'm as dry as possible.Very basic lube,50/50 beeswax Vaseline.I won't post group sizes cause folks don't believe it?Some of these rigs will flat out embarrass JB shooters.We have a 150 yd range out the shop door.Full on BR rest/bags but,usually shoot off X bags,bi pod,and more now,off a technical hunting pack.These are "factory" rifles.

Don't have much experience with leading, so won't comment on that.

Bought a gallon of Hoppe's #9 years back, still using it up. Couple of wet patches, let it soak for a few and repeat with a damp patch, dry and oiled. As might be expected, ball powders foul more than stick and they do so more than flake powders if one is pursuing reduced loads. Harden the lead a bit, raise the pressure and it's pretty much a zero sum game.



Boogaloo, paper patch still rules this part of the universe. It's a thinking man's past time to be sure, but when the light comes on it can't be beat.