cleaning carbon/mosin?

[1Shirt]

Have a Mosin 91 that is copper free as far as I can tell, but I seem to not get all of the carbon out of the thing. When I got it, there was an abundance of copper/guilding metal, etc in the bore. A half dozen cleanings with foam bore cleaner, took care of that ok. However, no matter what kind of cleaner/solvent I try, (and I think I have tried about everything including Eds Red), I can not get a clean patch out of the thing. Figure it has to be carbon. The bore is not pitted, and a tight well lubed patch goes thru without any hang up. After numerous patches, I still get some black. It shoots cast ok, and have not tried jacketed, and probably will not, but the black bugs me. Any help or recommendation(s) would be appreciated. Thanks in advance to all who respond.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[imashooter2]

Plug the chamber, stand vertical, fill the bore with ER and let stand for a couple of days. Top off the solvent as it evaporates. Finish cleaning as normal.

[Gtek]

Back years ago my picking up many Mil-Surps I had same or close. I started just tear all the way down, stand vertical with chamber up. Find rubber hose (automotive fuel line) 3/8 and small funnel that fits I.D. of hose. Push into chamber, get a whole Tea kettle full rolling with a touch of dish detergent (hand). Slightly plug muzzle so bore will fill. I have corks with small holes approx. 1/8". Pour through whole kettle. Barrel/rec will be to hot for bare hands use thick glove. The water will very rapidly evaporate. Lay on bench and push wet patches with Kroil. Also would oil exterior. When cools metal sucks up int/ext. I am loving this Kroil in my lead holes. Gtek

[zomby woof]

Use JB bore paste. You'll save lots of patches.

[1Shirt]

Thanks guys! This mosin is the only one that I had not been able to get to a point where I was satisfied. Will try JB first as it seems the easiest. If that doesn't work will try ER in a bbl full. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Again, Thanks.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[wiljen]

strangely enough, SoftScrub cleaner on a patch works for that too.

[walltube]

1Shirt,

You may want to try any one of the foaming bore cleaners. "Shooter's Choice" and "Birchwood-Casey" both have thus far rendered some surprising results for me and a few others. The badly carbon fouled barrell bores of mil-surp rifles treated with the product revealed bright, deep rifeling on some and a not so pleasant moon scape condition on two others.

What I thought was a "as good as it's going get" P-14 bore became a delight. First patch in from the breech after a twelve hr. soak pushed out to the muzzle a thick, black sludge. A few passes with Hoppe's and the patches were hardly dirty. What a revelation, rifleing beyond the chamber!

Hope you're so pleased as am I.

Y.T.
Harold

[Jack Stanley]

I think one of the components in Ed's red is GM upper cylinder cleaner which is supposed to be the carbon killer of the team . I would imagine it also evaporates pretty quick too . I'm all for the idea of soaking and there are several different things you can soak it with .

What I used to de-crud a couple milsurps I bought was an electric bore cleaner . One particulare Remington 1903 that looked like it had a good bore turned out to be cupro-nickel fouling . Once that came off I found pits , rust and black crud . On the up side though a rifle I found that wouldn't shoot worth a hoot . It didn't have any sign of copper fouling , Hot water and brush the bore didn't help and a soak in Kroil just barely touched whatever it was . It took the electric cleaner at least ten sessions at more than forty-five minutes each . After each a tight patch with JB and then back into the electric again . Each time I got either rust or black sludge untill finally it was clean .

It seems it shot cast pretty well after that , started out with slow greasy loads and increaded it a bit at a time untill the bore was nice and slick . I wish now I could remember which rifle it was ........... so many milsurps , so little time to care for each . :oops:

Jack

[walltube]

Outer's 'Foul Out' electro-chemical bore cleaner has not lost its place as an effective Pb remover here. The foamy stuff disolves copper as well as carbon deposits, all at one time. An advantage I've found where the fouling is layered.

No Pb deposits have been discovered in any family member's mucky bore mil-surp. Safe to say none have yet been in the hands of a LeadHead? Hee-hee-hee...

[WineMan]

While whipping up the evening meal last week, I spotted some nice artichokes at the store. I set up my steamer and decided to put lemon juice in the steamer water and some spices, garlic etc in the basket. The artichokes were great but when I went to clean the steamer, the water was almost black and the heating element was covered with black carbon.

Now this is a food grade device so my choice of solvents was limited. I tried the usual suspects: elbow grease (no go), 409 (same result), no Easy-Off (thought it might ruin the plastic), soaking with dish soap (nope). Finally I resorted to my mother in law's favorite cleaner: Tide. I used a quarter cup of tide and about two cups of hot water and let it soak while at work. When I got home all of the carbon was loose and floating in in the Tide water. A couple of swipes with a scrub pad and good as new (almost). The next time I use it to steam rice I will bet the rice will be nice and white:)

This little experience made me think of what is going on in a barrel where the carbon has been applied with 50,000 psi and a touch more heat. The next time I find a suitable candidate, I may try the plugged barrel and tube on the muzzle (like the old Ammonia dope trick) and Tide with hot water.

Just a thought.

Wineman

[izzyjoe]

i've been in your shoes with milsurps, but anymore i just clean it the best i can, and say oh' well if it shoots ok. sometimes folks get to involved i cleaning, and not focused on shooting. i have a few 8mm that i never clean, but i shoot mild cast loads in them. so all they need is a dry patch now and then, and your good to go.

[JIMinPHX]

Sometimes old MilSurps just take forever to get really clean the first time. I've taken a few months to get one good before. It seems like the ones that sat in Cosmoline in Siberia for 50 years have a layer of bonded preservative that doesn't even shoot loose. I also think that with a pitted barrel, sometimes old powder residue hides in the pits & just sort of leaches out slowly. the guys over on milsurp after dark will recommend a whole host of different cleaners for getting that stuff out. They range from steam to purple power cleaner to simple green to acetone to alcohol to dog snot. My strategy is to use 4 or 5 different cleaners & just keep rotating between them every few days until all the crud is gone. I'm not saying that's the best way to do it, I'm just saying that's what I did & eventually it worked.

[JIMinPHX]

If it is carbon that you need to remove, then coffee pot cleaner is about the most powerful stuff on the market that I know of. You need to be a little careful with it though. It eats up all kinds of stuff. I don't know if it is compatible with carbon steel or not.

[Mk42gunner]

I've had pretty good luck using Rem clean, the JB bore paste on a patch around a worn brush probably does the same thing.

While I don't really like using CLP, if you wet the bore and let it set for a couple of days, you might be suprised at what it will loosen.

Robert