barrel cleaning

[tommag]

Not sure where to put this, but I bought a 98 Mauser with a 30-06 bbl.
Hoppes#9, black patches, kroil and black patches. Wipeout and lots of blue. Let it rest and then kroil with blue again.
Funny thing is..I get more blue after letting kroil soak for an hour than when I let wipe out sit for an hour.
I'm starting to wonder if there is really any bare steel in this bbl, I've been doing this for two days now.

[Blacksmith]

Those old guns often have many layers built up, baked on by firing, aged for years of many different powders, lubes, and jacket materials. No one cleaner gets them all. I have found if you keep cleaning, rotating different cleaners, and most important take your time then eventually you'll get through it. You have been working 2 days , it probably took 20 years to put it all in there.

Keep trying you'll get there.

[Dean D.]

It's amazing how much junk you can find in a used gun. I swear some folks never clean their firearms! Keep at it, your persistence will pay off!

[tommag]

This is starting to sound like Richard Brautigans "Loading mercury with a pitchfork". If it gets cleaned, I think I will find it is actually an 8mm-06.

[fouronesix]

It's truly amazing how much junk comes out of some of them. I'll agree with the other's posts about how some (or many!) folks obviously never cleaned them. The bad ones require lots of elbow grease and patience. Just hope all the fouling isn't covering pits.

Many methods/chems work. I always use a bore or muzzle guide of some sort. I usually start with a couple of Hoppes 9 soaked patches. Let soak for an hour or so then start the brush alternating with jagged patches routine. When working with copper eaters I use a bottle of acetone to swish the bronze brush in between runs so the copper eater won't eat the brush.

After the Hoppes 9 soak and patch, I dip a brush in Butches Bore Shine and swipe in and out all the way through for maybe 10 passes. Let sit for 30 minutes. Run a clean, dry patch through and inspect for fouling. Repeat, repeat, repeat... If after what seem like a reasonable number of repetitions if some copper wash is still visible, I'll turn to a fairly tight jagged patch with Rem Bore Cleaner or JB. Both have very fine abrasives that will usually cut through the last smear of copper wash. When the all the copper wash gone, clean all the solvents and residue out. One last patch of Hoppes 9. Dry patch then a patch with good oil like CLP.

[Lead Fred]

Ive posted it before, you can still buy WWII rifle cleaner.
Its taken black fuzzy mauser bores, and made them shiny and new looking.

[TXGunNut]

That's the way I'd do it, alternate copper and powder solvents. I let the Wipe-Out sit overnite, patch it out while the coffee's perking and reapply. Most don't need a third application, few need the second. May even run a patch with JB or Iosso thru it to break things up a bit. I've seen a few that Wipe-out took more than one session to clean, not many. I have a bottle of KG12 I've been wanting to try, bring it on over!

[BD]

I made a redneck "foul out" years ago when dealing with old Swedish amusers. I think I had $4 in the whole rig as everything except the piece of steel rod and ammonia was in my shop. Here's a link to a slightly fancier version :

http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews/copperout/

For mine I just used a rubber cork to plug the chamber end, and some short sections of heat shrink tubing on the rod to keep it from grounding out on the barrel. Two alligator clips, some old wire and duct tape completed my rig. Worked great. Three 15 minute sessions cleaned up the worst bore in the bunch. Bores with discernible rifling cleaned up with two 6 minute sessions. Just remember to clean out the ammonia solution and oil the bore well pretty quickly after you're done. It works by electro plating the metallic fouling from the bore onto the rod, in the process the powder fouling is pulled loose into solution in the ammonia. The more voltage, the faster it will work. I used two "D" cells. DO NOT FORGOT ABOUT IT. I have been told that if you walk away and leave it run for an hour it will start to pit the bore once it runs out of the more readily plated fouling metal.
BD

[Piedmont]

If it is really bad, like an old, pitted milsurp, add very hot water with a bit of dawn dishwashing detergent to the rotation. Run the hot water through the barrel from the chamber in large quantities (say a pint--I use a baster), then go to work with a brass bristle brush while still wet. If nothing else this gets the barrel so hot it starts to expand and that is bound to loosen up more crud.

[tommag]

Not so bad as I thought. Shortly after my last post it started to come out clean.
Now,it it has sight mounting issues. Local smith suggested putting Dummy screw in errant hole, peening it, then filing it smooth. Re-drilling at correct location.
I thought I "stole" this rifle, (33-40), but now know why I got it so cheap.