Nasty Arisaka barrel

[Maineboy]

Awhile back I picked up an Arisaka TYPE 99 from my son. The gun was packed in cosmolene and crud and I finally got around to taking it apart and cleaning it. I've done this with a few other nasty milsurps in the past, but this one has been the most difficult by far. Romoving some of the junk was chiseling out cement. The wood and metal are finally looking good, but I can't get some of the crap out of the bore. I've been swabbing and brushing with Ed's Red and the patches are coming out clean, but there's still plenty of junk to be seen when you look down the barrel. This fouling is nasty as Ed's red has worked well for me in the past. I've also tried copper fouling remover but that's produced no results as those patches are coming out clean with no trace of green. I'm thinking of trying gasoline. Any suggestions?

[schutzen]

Try plugging the barrel at one end and filling the barrel with cheap penetrating oil for 24-48 hours. Then dump the oil and begin cleaning again. With some fouling and petroleum based greases this will soften them enough to scrub out. It works very will with black powder guns.

[Jack Stanley]

If a barrel doesn't respond to a soaking with Kroil or Sweet's 7.62 solvent , I'll get out the electric bore cleaner . Under the crud I have found some toasted barrels I'm sorry to say .

Jack

[10-x]

IIRC japs have chrome bores, might try some ammonia. Remove action from wood ,plug muzzle and carefully pour ammonia into the breech with funnel and plastic tubing. Let it sit for about 30 minutes,dump rinse with h2o, clean as normal. Repeat if necessary.
BTW a jap 99 just sold on Gunbroker for $943.00!!!!unground mum, AA sight and monopod...........:drinks:
Let us know how it goes:-D

[corvette8n]

I made and electronic bore cleaner and used it to clean up an old Carcano. For a couple dollars worth of parts these things work great.

[Maineboy]

Soaking and brushing with penetrating oil busted up the crud, but what's left looks worse than the crud. The first third of the barrel is pitted badly, some of the pits look like craters! The rest of the barrel isn't as scary. I'm putting the rifle back together and will load up a few cast boolits for it and give it a try. I have less than $55.00 in the rifle and reloading dies. If it doesn't shoot, I'll sell it. The rifle looks presentable now so I should get something for it. Just don't look down the barrel.

[Char-Gar]

take your rifle to the nearest place that does steam cleaning of engines. They can run the steam down the barrel and that will take the old grease and crud from the barrel. Of course the metal will be clean and dry and will rust unless you put a little oil on it.

This is an old Army trick for removing Cosmoline from rifles.. then them to the motor pool and use the steam cleaner.

[KCSO]

I would guess that what you see is the chrome flaking, but I HOPE not.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I haven't seen it for years, but Robla Klever which is made by the ballistol mob is awesome for this task. I got a small bottle of it years ago and it cleaned up an old enfield bbl. I then tried the remainder on a Jungle carbine bbl that was truely awful. I didn't have enoug to completely fill the barrel and chamber and was amazed to see as new looking steel half way up the chamber then browny black for the untreated part. I'd be reluctant to soak for longer than 10-15 mins with Sweets. Its pretty potent stuff. I knew old Jim Sweet and he told me this personally.

[Ben Dover]

Some years ago I cleaned up an Enfield barrel that looked awful. After brushing with solvent and steel wool around the brushes it still looked hopeless but it was clean. It was indeed hopeless and rebarreling cured it. Ben

[Maineboy]

I had the Arisaka at the range friday morning and it exceeded my expectations. I'd loaded up 10 rounds with 17 grains of 2400 and the 314299 sized .314 in reformed 8X57 brass. In spite of the crappy barrel, all 10 rounds went into 4 inches at 50 yards. I may have to keep the gun just to see if I can get it to shoot better.

[skeet1]

Maineboy,
That's great news I hope the old 03 Springfield I have will turn out just as well. It sounds like I have the same barrel problem you have. The rest of the rifle is in great shape but looking down the barrel it looks like a piece of sewer pipe.

Skeet1

[Four Fingers of Death]

Sewer pipes generally look ok as they are flushed regular like :D