too much cleaning?

[Mountain Man]

in between shooting epsidoes, i keep running copper solution down the barrel because i'm still breaking it in. i figure as long as i keep pulling blue patches out, keep putting solution in. after it sits for night, i'll run a dry patch or two thru, then lube one up real good, run it down and let it sit for another 12-24hrs and repeat process. in doing so, i'm pretty much keeping a good amount of copper cleaner in the barrel 24/7. is there anything wrong with solution being down the barrel this much?

[BountyHunter]

Depends on which solution. Sweets for example is not supposed to stay in barrel for any long period of time.

I have good luck with Butchs Bore Shine and Montana Extreme. Both can stay in but you need to find what you are pulling copper from. For example can you shine a lite in the end of the barrel and still see copper in the grooves and are you using a bronze brush and getting blue/green from deterioation of the brush. That is why I no longer use bronze brushes in most cases.

Kleen Bore and Montanta Extreme both make very hard bristle plastic brushes for cleaning bores that I think work as well as bronze with no "copper trace". The new Sinclair Intl catalog has the Montana Extreme brushes in them now for all calibers.

If you are working on a factory barrel that is rough, it will take some time. You can also use JB Bore Cleaner paste or Isso Bore Paste

Bh

[Mysticplayer]

Depending on what the barrel likes, you may be cleaning too much. having some copper in the barrel doesn't mean that accuracy is degraded.

All barrels, especially rough ones, use fouling to season the barrel. This leads to consistency and accuracy.

You will hear of many who will clean their barrels then shoot a few fouling shots before shooting for group. Well, after those fouling shots, they are exactly where they were before cleaning.

I clean only when accuracy degrades. I have found that most factory will easily digest 50rds without any issue. BR barrels can go several hundred.

Try this. With your accurate load, shot groups until accuracy actually degrades. I think you will find that that number is a lot higher then you expected.

The only rifles that have measureably degraded in accuracy quickly were military rifles with dark, pitted bores. Bores worn from thousands of rds and neglect.

I shoot several miliary rifles that still have good rifling. Although the bores are copper in colour, they shoot great. Cleaning them only means I need to shoot 6 to 10 rds to foul them up again.

JB bore lapping compound or bore paste are great at polishing up that barrel. Will help reduce "fouling".

Jerry

[sscoyote]

Good topic, i've tried Iosso recently, and really like it. Talked to Boots Obermeyer last year, and he likes Rem bore cleaner for abrasive use.