barrel cleaning

[hornsurgeon]

what is your cleaning proceedure after using cast boolits? what about when switching between cast and "J"?

[Whitespider]

First, I don’t switch between cast and jacketed, the gun is either a cast shooter or a jacketed shooter. I can’t get most guns to shoot cast boolits worth a hoot if even a trace of jacked material is in the barrel. I also like to keep the bore “seasoned” on the cast shooters. After shooting cast I dry brush the bore while it’s still warm and push a couple dry patches through, this keeps the bore seasoned. of course, if the gun is to be stored for some length of time I’ll clean thoroughly with solvent and coat the boar with a rust protector.

[Bass Ackward]

There is a big difference in the effort between cleaning after cast which implies successful loads and after loads that caused leading. But I do nothing different for lead or copper. I clean lead and copper until I get all the material out.

Before I shoot copper I put in a light coat of oil and patch it out.

Before I shoot lead, I put in a light coat of bullet lubricant and patch it out. I will have one or two squibbers to get me rolling and then on to normal shooting.

[PMK]

One of the greatest cleaning tools ever to come along is the outers foul out. It works fantastic, I have plenty experience, and would say I wish this thing existed 20 years ago! If mine broke tomorrow, I would buy another or make on right away. Its not always necessary to use it but when you want to give it a good cleaning its great.

[TCLouis]

my guns are either cast or funny bullet shooters.

Shooting mild loads of RCBS 325 grain PB (340 in my alloy and 13.6 gr of Herco)) or RD's 350 PB and 21-23 grains of 4759 or 5744 with FWFL and I just push a patch thru the bore of RB or 1886 and cleaning is DONE.

Leading is not an issue in 45-70, 338, 8mm, 30-06s, 257 Roberts or 219 Donaldson Wasp. Some are PB and some are GC based boolits. My 222 is relegated to coated bullets because it does not know how to behave with real boolits. And of course I need something to remove varmints from the yard with no ricochets and the 35 gr BTs with 5.4 grains of Red Dot or 12.0 grains of Blue Dot solve that issue.

Maybe going for max accuracy vs max speed has kept me out of the leading issue. I did shoot 105 rounds of 30 Herrett one afternoon (measured 2105 fps) fireforming brass and did not have a leading issue using Lee C309-113 and 50/50.

[Bret4207]

I have some guns that don't care if it's cast or jacketed one after the other. Others are "1 brand only". The lead shooters don't get much cleaning unless there's lead showing. Then it's 4/0 steel wool on a brush and a little ATF. The jacketed shooters get what ever I have on hand- ATF, Hoppes, Remingotns cleaner, most likely old fashioned USMC Bore Cleaner. Badly fouled guns get "Strong Ammonia" followed by bore cleaner and Hoppes.

Some guys like to clean guns. That's cool, but I'm not one of them. Wipe them down, yes. Spend 45 minutes scrubbing- no thanks.

[Larry Gibson]

"I have some guns that don't care if it's cast or jacketed one after the other. Others are "1 brand only". "

Same here. I very seldom have leading in rifles. Normal use of a brush (5 to 10 strokes depending on the number of shots) with Hoppe's or Milspec (old) bore cleaner works real well. I usually us a patch with WD40 on it to remove any residue and then lightly oil with Kroil. If leading is found in rifles a bit of ChorBoy around a worn brush normally takes the leading right out.

To remove stubborn copper fouling, when Sweet's isn't working, I mix JBs bore paste with Hoppe's to get a "slurry". This is very lightly used on a bore brush for 5-10 strokes then the bore is cleaned normally. Bores that consistantly foul this bad get fire lapped.

With leading in hand guns I use a Lewis Lead Remover. Great tool and it works every time.

Larry Gibson

[jonk]

I have a few dedicated cast shooters. The others- depends on the gun. Like my M1 carbine- it isn't going to do great with anything, but I switch back and forth for plinking between cast and jacketed with no cleaning routine other than a normal cleaning after range shooting. Some of my Mausers are the same.

OTOH, one or two guns require a thorough de-coppering with outers foaming bore cleaner.

So it depends on the gun.

[fourarmed]

On a cast bullet gun that doesn't lead badly, a few patches wet with Kroil will do as well as anything. My XP-100 7BR is the champ. The first patch comes out gray, the second comes out clean. Most of my guns take a few more than that.