copper removal

[tradbowhunter]

Man I feel like an idiot, I was talking to a gunsmith I was going to have do some work for me....We got to talking about barrel life, he tells me he gets 10,000 plus rounds out of a 220 swift, and more out of a 22-250.....Without saying you're full of ****, I listened to him and he claims he only uses copper solvent every 100-150 rounds...Am I nuts I clean my barrels back to clean clean after 50 shots max, and I use copper cleaner to get them clean , he's telling me i'm wearin out my barrels with copper cleaner.....I need other people to chime in.....I will say when 1 of my guns won't shoot .5 or better they are down the road.....But I have never got a gun of mine to keep shootin past 2500-3500 rnds....Am I nuts or what?

 

[Broz]

Hats off to your smith. 10,000 rounds from a swift or 22-250 is a lot of rounds if we are talking 3/4 moa or better here.

I clean often, but with kind hands and procedures. To me heat is the worst factor of burnt throats not cleaning. That's my opinion anyway.

Jeff

 

[MudRunner2005]

His round counts sound quite rediculous...

On the other note, I don't clean my barrels out thoroughly with Pro-Shot Copper Solvent until they start throwing shots...In which case, I will quit shooting, go home and scrub it thoroughly till it swipes clean. I don't keep specific round counts.

After every couple trips to the range, I'll send some patches soaked in RemOil down the tube to clean out any powder residue.

 

[azsugarbear]

This topic is an interesting one and I am aware of at least two schools of thought on the subject. The bench rest crowd typically follow rigid procedures and are meticulous when cleaning their barrels. They generally remove all carbon and copper from their barrels when finished shooting. This discipline is largely responsible for current barrel break-in procedures recommended by most custom manufacturers.

Other shooters feel that you get better consistency in your velocity curve when you allow your barrel to build up enough copper and carbon to hit an "equilibrium". Here is a link to a video explaining the process:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9QvEm1nFc]SNIPER 101 Part 44 - Cleaning Your Extreme Range Rifle - YouTube[/ame]

The Sniper 101 videos are a thought-provoking series. I recommend it highly. I used to clean my barrels meticulously. But I also like to experiment, so I am trying the copper/carbon build-up method just to make my own determination.

 

[tradbowhunter]

Good stuff in the video, I'm going to go that route for a while and see what shakes out...I've been pretty anal up till now but if accuracy and pressure stay good I'm going to let ur ride, and see what happens....Thanks again for the info. everyone....Pat

 

[RTK]

I'm with Jeff, I too feel heat hurts the throat more than anything. That being said, the guns I push the hardest I clean the most, the others when they let me know or every few hundred rounds. I also will not put a gun away for months without a good cleaning
Wish I could get 10,000 plus rounds out of my 22-250 or 220 before things started going south, That gunsmith is VERY optimistic and maybe not totally realistic.

 

[varmintH8R]

I am for sure a cleaner. I struggle to put my nice stuff away dirty. These threads are very interesting to me for two reasons:

If cleaning less frequently improves accuracy I can maybe get past my "must be cleaned" mentality.

Does cleaning properly measurably affect barrel life? My common sense tells me pushing a cloth patch down the bore (even with copper solvent) is pretty benign. I would expect it to be many orders of magnitude lower in terms of barrel erosion compared to forcing a copper-clad projectile through at many thousand fps by means of a controlled explosion. I'd love some empirical evidence to prove my "common sense" either right or wrong.

Good topic...

 

[Sully2]

Simple answer.....Your smith cant count.!