In the past the removal of these types of barrel fouling (carbon and metal fouling from bullet material) has required highly aggressive chemicals such as acid and ammonia. These chemicals have been applied in the past on a patch or with a bore brush dipped in the solution. Then with large amounts of elbow-grease the brush was stroked back and forth through the barrel to scrub the fouling residues out. Then a patch was pushed through the bore, and it was checked for evidence of fouling or the lack thereof. This process is repeated until all evidence of fouling is no longer present on a patch. The standard practice has been to dunk a copper or bronze brush into the cleaner and stroke the cleaning rod the length of the bore. Worse to scrub the brush back and forth several times. Without a bore guide and a coated cleaning rod, this is a good way to damage the bore, the throat (where most barrels wear out), and the crown. A good deal of the evidence of fouling removal comes from the bristles in the bore brush itself.
This
isn’t the best way to increase barrel life.
Many
shooters have never been aware that anything more than a few quick passes with
some solvent and a few patches were required to properly clean a fouled barrel.
Barrels left in this condition will only continue to lose accuracy. We have
seen rifles on the used rack which the owners assumed were “shot-out,” which
when properly cleaned performed like they were new. When we examined some of
these guns with a bore-scope, we could see fouling built up in layers like a
black forest cake. Each of these would be a layer of powder fouling and carbon,
usually with a layer of copper on top. I have seen firearms with six or seven
of these layers built up. In every case when these guns were cleaned properly,
the accuracy returned. A more recent approach has been to product products with
heavy amounts of acid and ammonia. Acid and Ammonia will remove metal fouling
and carbon. But Acid and Ammonia are dangerous to you and your firearm. Products
containing large amounts of acids and ammonia still require large amounts
of brushing. The major problem they have is that they contain chemicals which
have a horrible smell, and are very dangerous to the steel used in gun barrels.
It is quite easy using these products to permanently damage the interior of the
barrel with pitting. They also can remove stock finishes. Sounds
dangerous for a precision rifle, right? It is.
That’s why Tactical Rifles recommends Wipe-Out™ to clean your precision
rifles. We carry it in stock for your
convenience. Give us a call!
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