MontanaRifleman
Well-Known Member
Several members have asked me to share my experience with Microlon Gun Juice and after sitting on this for a while, I am finally getting it posted.
I went through a barrel break-in process using Microlon Gun Juice with two used Senderos - a 300 RUM and a 25-06. It's a product that is advertised as a dry film lubricant. It is also advertised to help stop corrosion and increase muzzle velocity and increase barrel life. To apply it requires cleaning the bore of all cooper and carbon fouling. Then a wet patch is used to wet the bore and the instructions encourage brushing it in to prep the metal. The Gun Juice is supposed to be absorbed into the pores of the metal and then make a permanent coating on the surface of the bore by firing shots through the wet coated bore.
The 300 RUM had 26 rounds through it when I started. Six of them I fired using Rem Power Level III, 180 Scirrocos, to get a baseline velocity before the break-in. They averaged 3356 fps. After that I cleaned the barrel completely free of copper with Bore Tech Eliminator and Wipeout. It was obviously a fouler. The rifle was about 3 years old and I suspect there was some corrosion and pitting?
I fired a group from the 25-06 for an accuracy check and baseline velocity also. It shot a 3 shot .24" group at about 110 yds and average velocity of about 2940 with some Win factory ammo. I went clean it out and it took five days to completely clean it, four of which were soaking with Wipeout, 4-8 hours per treatment – WOW!!! I got it borescoped and the smith said it was fire cracked from throat to muzzle. He said he was surprised I could hit anything with it.
I took the rifles to the range and started a one shot and clean and then applied Gun Juice and fire again, repeating this process for about 20 times as recommend by the GJ instructions for SS barrels. The whole process required several trips to the range and it was brutally tedious. The instructions claim that GJ is a good cleaner and to clean the bore with GJ between shots. It is not a good cleaner and I used a number of other products for cleaning. I usually cleaned with Bore Tech Eliminator and then removed the BTE residue with an ammonia based cleaner followed by Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber to remove all cleaning residues before applying GJ. I'm not how sure how effective it was in getting the BTE out which leaves a stubborn coating behind. This may have interfered with the GJ to bond with the steel in the bore?
With the 25-06, I only partially cleaned the bore the first 6 or 7 shots with the idea of sealing copper into the cracks which seemed to work because it was getting easier to clean. After that I did a more thorough job of cleaning. After about 20 rounds of this, I fired a string of the Win factory ammo that I had fired for the baseline velocity and it averaged about 2980. It appeared to shoot a little faster than prior to the break-in process, but I hesitate to say for sure it did. The light conditions were a little different but were relatively good both times. I just don't completely trust my chronys. It was still fouling a good bit although much easier to clean than before. I did another 10 rounds of the clean and GJ treatment which seemed to help a little, but didn't see anymore real significant improvement. It was till shooting well and it seemed to start loosing accuracy after about 60-70 rounds. Cleaning was very much improved but still fouling significantly. It now takes about a dozen wet patches of BTE to get most of the heavy stuff out, then about 1-2 hours of soaking the BTE for about 20 min per soaking followed by about two extended Wipeout soakings. This is a lot of cleaning but it is much easier than before the break-in which took 4 days of soaking Wipeout, 4-8 hrs per soaking. It will be interesting to see how long accuracy lasts in this barrel based on the smith's observation with the borescope and the follow on GJ treatments. It presently has about 250 rounds through it since I got it and is still shooting very well – for the most part, sub .5 MOA.
With the 300 RUM, I cleaned to bare metal or almost bare metal after each shot. The RUM was a heavy fouler. The previous owner did hunt with it a few times and had it for a couple of years so it may have got some pitting. After about 10 shots, it was taking less wet patches to get the heavy build up out. I think it's hard to say if the GJ was responsible for that or just results from the break-in process. I did this for about 20 shots and cleaning seemed to take only about half the effort it used to require. I fired the remaining factory rounds through it to see if there was an increase of velocity. The first two shots were about 50-60 fps faster than the baseline group, but then a cloud obscured the sun and the chrony readings dropped to about equal with the baseline velocities. So once again, there is evidence that the GJ may have increased velocity but I thinks it's hard to say for sure.
WARNING!!! Something very important to note is that I experienced higher pressures with the first 1-2 shots after a GJ application. "Normal" max or near max working loads became over pressured when fired through a wet GJ bore. I use light 2-3 loads to foul my bore after a GJ application.
In summary, I can't come to many hard conclusions. There seems to be evidence, especially with the results from the 25-06, that GJ is an effective bore treatment resulting in less fouling and easier cleaning. Both guns still foul considerably but are considerably easier to clean than before the treatments. There also seems to be evidence that it does increase velocity by maybe as much as 40 fps in my rifles, but I would want to see more testing and results on that before saying anything sure reasonable certainty. One thing to keep in mind, is that I am not totally sure that the cleaning products I used, may have interfered with the Gun Juice's ability to be absorbed into the surface of the bore. In the future, I will do a one shot and clean break-in prior to the GJ treatment to mitigate that possible interference.
I will continue to use GJ as an after cleaning lubricant and I will continue to use it for break-in for future barrels and gather as much data with it as I can. It would be very difficult to prove if it actually increases barrel life. I think a good way to go about testing this claim would be to use to identically built overbore rifles and shoot identical loads through them, one using GJ and one not. That would be a lot of fun shooting but a little too spendy for my blood.
Hope this helps.
Mark
I went through a barrel break-in process using Microlon Gun Juice with two used Senderos - a 300 RUM and a 25-06. It's a product that is advertised as a dry film lubricant. It is also advertised to help stop corrosion and increase muzzle velocity and increase barrel life. To apply it requires cleaning the bore of all cooper and carbon fouling. Then a wet patch is used to wet the bore and the instructions encourage brushing it in to prep the metal. The Gun Juice is supposed to be absorbed into the pores of the metal and then make a permanent coating on the surface of the bore by firing shots through the wet coated bore.
The 300 RUM had 26 rounds through it when I started. Six of them I fired using Rem Power Level III, 180 Scirrocos, to get a baseline velocity before the break-in. They averaged 3356 fps. After that I cleaned the barrel completely free of copper with Bore Tech Eliminator and Wipeout. It was obviously a fouler. The rifle was about 3 years old and I suspect there was some corrosion and pitting?
I fired a group from the 25-06 for an accuracy check and baseline velocity also. It shot a 3 shot .24" group at about 110 yds and average velocity of about 2940 with some Win factory ammo. I went clean it out and it took five days to completely clean it, four of which were soaking with Wipeout, 4-8 hours per treatment – WOW!!! I got it borescoped and the smith said it was fire cracked from throat to muzzle. He said he was surprised I could hit anything with it.
I took the rifles to the range and started a one shot and clean and then applied Gun Juice and fire again, repeating this process for about 20 times as recommend by the GJ instructions for SS barrels. The whole process required several trips to the range and it was brutally tedious. The instructions claim that GJ is a good cleaner and to clean the bore with GJ between shots. It is not a good cleaner and I used a number of other products for cleaning. I usually cleaned with Bore Tech Eliminator and then removed the BTE residue with an ammonia based cleaner followed by Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber to remove all cleaning residues before applying GJ. I'm not how sure how effective it was in getting the BTE out which leaves a stubborn coating behind. This may have interfered with the GJ to bond with the steel in the bore?
With the 25-06, I only partially cleaned the bore the first 6 or 7 shots with the idea of sealing copper into the cracks which seemed to work because it was getting easier to clean. After that I did a more thorough job of cleaning. After about 20 rounds of this, I fired a string of the Win factory ammo that I had fired for the baseline velocity and it averaged about 2980. It appeared to shoot a little faster than prior to the break-in process, but I hesitate to say for sure it did. The light conditions were a little different but were relatively good both times. I just don't completely trust my chronys. It was still fouling a good bit although much easier to clean than before. I did another 10 rounds of the clean and GJ treatment which seemed to help a little, but didn't see anymore real significant improvement. It was till shooting well and it seemed to start loosing accuracy after about 60-70 rounds. Cleaning was very much improved but still fouling significantly. It now takes about a dozen wet patches of BTE to get most of the heavy stuff out, then about 1-2 hours of soaking the BTE for about 20 min per soaking followed by about two extended Wipeout soakings. This is a lot of cleaning but it is much easier than before the break-in which took 4 days of soaking Wipeout, 4-8 hrs per soaking. It will be interesting to see how long accuracy lasts in this barrel based on the smith's observation with the borescope and the follow on GJ treatments. It presently has about 250 rounds through it since I got it and is still shooting very well – for the most part, sub .5 MOA.
With the 300 RUM, I cleaned to bare metal or almost bare metal after each shot. The RUM was a heavy fouler. The previous owner did hunt with it a few times and had it for a couple of years so it may have got some pitting. After about 10 shots, it was taking less wet patches to get the heavy build up out. I think it's hard to say if the GJ was responsible for that or just results from the break-in process. I did this for about 20 shots and cleaning seemed to take only about half the effort it used to require. I fired the remaining factory rounds through it to see if there was an increase of velocity. The first two shots were about 50-60 fps faster than the baseline group, but then a cloud obscured the sun and the chrony readings dropped to about equal with the baseline velocities. So once again, there is evidence that the GJ may have increased velocity but I thinks it's hard to say for sure.
WARNING!!! Something very important to note is that I experienced higher pressures with the first 1-2 shots after a GJ application. "Normal" max or near max working loads became over pressured when fired through a wet GJ bore. I use light 2-3 loads to foul my bore after a GJ application.
In summary, I can't come to many hard conclusions. There seems to be evidence, especially with the results from the 25-06, that GJ is an effective bore treatment resulting in less fouling and easier cleaning. Both guns still foul considerably but are considerably easier to clean than before the treatments. There also seems to be evidence that it does increase velocity by maybe as much as 40 fps in my rifles, but I would want to see more testing and results on that before saying anything sure reasonable certainty. One thing to keep in mind, is that I am not totally sure that the cleaning products I used, may have interfered with the Gun Juice's ability to be absorbed into the surface of the bore. In the future, I will do a one shot and clean break-in prior to the GJ treatment to mitigate that possible interference.
I will continue to use GJ as an after cleaning lubricant and I will continue to use it for break-in for future barrels and gather as much data with it as I can. It would be very difficult to prove if it actually increases barrel life. I think a good way to go about testing this claim would be to use to identically built overbore rifles and shoot identical loads through them, one using GJ and one not. That would be a lot of fun shooting but a little too spendy for my blood.
Hope this helps.
Mark
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I have not spent any time with a bore scope so I can only guess what that looks like. Fire cracking from chamber to muzzle?? Go figure.
