Cleaning barrel

[Mark Jones]

Hi, trying to clean my .243 T3 stainless. Have been shooting Nosler 80grn home loads. Prob put 300 through it so thought I'd clean it. Brought some wipe out and a nylon brush to try. Started with 2 wet patches ( black then grey) then put brush down bore guide and saturated it. Worked up into a foam with gentle scrub and left to soak for 1 hr. When I patched it out just pushed white foam out end of barrel. Recon I've fired maybe 1000 through it since new, shouldn't I be getting some copper out?

 

[GeorgeB]

Can you see any streaks of copper in the bore at the muzzle?

[banus02]

my tikkas clean quickly and i use cr2 and it certainly removes copper i have never used wipe out.at 300 rounds i would imagine you have a certain amount of copper in the barrel

[Mark Jones]

Can't see any copper in it?

 

[banus02]

good evening,if you can not see any copper and you are happy its clean,go and shoot it,you will soon know if it was clean or not.

[kimh]

why did you think now was the time to clean it, we need copper in the barrel to line the imperfection out or are you talking about copper sulphate

see what this man has to say...

[Catch-22]

I'd ask why you felt you needed to clean it? Had you noticed accuracy suddenly drop off? If not, leave the copper cleaning alone.

do however clean out your carbon after each shoot. The carbon will harden to a crust (just look at what happens to your case necks if you don't tumble them for while) and all the crap in the powder residue will all attack the bore. Clean this out and lay down a very thin film of oil/corrosion inhibitor (I use and rate CorrosionX). Then put the gun to bed. Leave the copper cleaning until accuracy drops off.

[Mark Jones]

Exactly that, saw accuracy get worse and groups open up

 

[Catch-22]

23 hours ago, Mark Jones said:

Exactly that, saw accuracy get worse and groups open up

 

Fair enough. When I get to this stage, I start by attacking the carbon first and then use a copper cleaner. Personally I use Sweets 7.62 soaked on a patch or two. That's never failed to shift the copper!

[VarmLR]

You may not be getting past the carbon to get at the copper.  Wipeout isn't great for carbon removal.  At 300 rounds in, almost all barrels will suffer some degree of coppering.  Use a decent carbon remover before using Wipeout. KG1 is good as is Carb-Out.  You're also better advised using a bronze brush to get the carbon deposits out.  I would put money on you seeing blue patches after that when re-using Wipeout.  It needs to be left for an hour and a half min IME to allow it to work in well. A healthy barrel shouldn't need much coppering back in after a complete clean. Mine are usually on song after a half a dozen to a dozen or so rounds after cleaning and I de-copper every 75 rounds or so.