All copper

andy smith

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central north carolina
I've stayed away from all copper bullets because I was worried about fouling. Is this even a concern anymore???? An if so what is best cleaning/solvent to make sure
 
Copper fouling is real and is still a thing, if you shoot a lot. It will effect your accuracy. However if you clean every 50 or rounds, you should have no problems. My 7RM started having group issues at about 70rds and the Copper was very hard to remove. Since then I clean after every shooting. It took about 5 hrs of cleaning to get all the Copper out of 70 shots with hoppes copper solvent. Your barrel may vary.
 
I've stayed away from all copper bullets because I was worried about fouling. Is this even a concern anymore???? An if so what is best cleaning/solvent to make sure

Nope! Especially if you have a good, smooth, slick barrel!

If you do get some fouling, as mentioned by others…..there are very good products available to clean the bore!

All of this said, and this may not be as relevant as it once was…..thoroughly clean your bore of any traces of gilding metal, ect. Once upon a time, traces of previous, different metals ……could really negatively affect accuracy of the mono (Barnes) bullets! memtb
 
I recently put a shilen match-not even select match-on my 257 roberts

Shooting hammer hunter92 and 95 hht at over 3200. Cleaned twice after 5rounds each time. Only slight minimal copper fouling. Shot about 20 more and none at all. Used both gunslick and tetra copper cleaner!
 
Your barrel may vary.
This! Also, barrel design/groove configuration.

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(https://riflebarrels.com/support/faq/#3groove)

I have a couple of Lilja 3G barrels, and they hardly foul.
 
So we're talking about copper fouling but powder fouling is still an issue for me. How often do y'all think you need to clean due to powder fouling?
Great question LDHunter.Copper cleaning I can handle thanks to VinceMule but powder fouling I clean after every shooting at the range day except for fouling for hunting season,then after hunting season.
Just the way I keep powder fouling under control.If left in the barrel powder fouling turns to hardened carbon and becomes a bugger to get out.
Just my opinion
 
I've stayed away from all copper bullets because I was worried about fouling. Is this even a concern anymore???? An if so what is best cleaning/solvent to make sure

andy, something else to consider, in relation to the rifle barrel!

I mentioned a good slick, smooth barrel! I started using Barnes around '93, even then they already had a reputation for fouling……I had zero issues, however I was running a match grade barrel.

Several folks, including my wife, had fouling issues! After a good hand lapping of their barrels significantly decreased the fouling while significantly improving accuracy.

While the early mono's had issues, possibly design and specific metallurgy…..having a good smooth barrel helped mitigate those issues! IMO. memtb
 
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