I have about 500 rounds shot through my stainless Tikka. I broke it in with 20 rounds of Winchester power points. The shoot, clean, shoot, clean method.
After that, I was shooting handloads of .30 Cal Sierra 150gr bullets with staball 6.5 powder. I would have very little, if any copper after 20 rounds. Usually none. I'd clean with wipe out foam every 20-25 rounds. I did this to about the 200 rd mark. Then quit cleaning it completely until the 475 rd mark.
I cleaned to steel, gave the first 3-6 inches a go with JBs. Still didn't seem to get that much copper built up.
Switched over to 180gr Speer hot cors and h4350 powder. Shot 15 rounds and holy moly there was a lot of visible copper fouling starting to build up near the muzzle already.
I know the staball has a decoppering agent, but I wouldn't think it would make that big a difference. I'm talking almost no copper after a couple hundred rounds vs a ton of copper.
Could it be the different bullet manufacturer with more bearing surface since they're 180gr vs 150gr?
Could it be the decoppering agent?
Could the staball powder not getting a complete burn have scratched my bore?
I just find it odd there was that big of a difference.
After that, I was shooting handloads of .30 Cal Sierra 150gr bullets with staball 6.5 powder. I would have very little, if any copper after 20 rounds. Usually none. I'd clean with wipe out foam every 20-25 rounds. I did this to about the 200 rd mark. Then quit cleaning it completely until the 475 rd mark.
I cleaned to steel, gave the first 3-6 inches a go with JBs. Still didn't seem to get that much copper built up.
Switched over to 180gr Speer hot cors and h4350 powder. Shot 15 rounds and holy moly there was a lot of visible copper fouling starting to build up near the muzzle already.
I know the staball has a decoppering agent, but I wouldn't think it would make that big a difference. I'm talking almost no copper after a couple hundred rounds vs a ton of copper.
Could it be the different bullet manufacturer with more bearing surface since they're 180gr vs 150gr?
Could it be the decoppering agent?
Could the staball powder not getting a complete burn have scratched my bore?
I just find it odd there was that big of a difference.