Outer's Foul Out 2

[dgslyr]

I've had an Outer's Foul II for several years.This thing works by plating the copper from the barrel to the stainless rod that goes in the bore.First you clean an degrease the bore,then plug the breech end with rubber plugs that come with it.O-rings come with it to put on the rod to keep it from touching the barrel,2 to 4 depending on how long the barrel is.after the bore is pluged and the rod goes in then you fill the barrel with solvent,a lead from the Foul out unit is attached to the rod and another to the gun.
Yesterday after shooting 358429's in my new to me 1981 Ruger Blackhawk,I decided to try it in this gun to see how much copper it had in it after the not so bad but not so good showing at 50 yards.Turns out a lot of copper.It's been it there 20 hours.I've cleaned it pretty hard with Hoppes,shooters choice,butch's bore shine,and sweet's 7.62 before hand several times.I don't think a fella can get all the crud out of a used barrel without an Outer's foul out.The crud is in there in layer's,copper,powder fouling ,copper,powder fouling,and not all in there evenly either.At first it's copper on one end then the other.I've cleaned the rod 6 or 7 times and changed the solvent 4 or 5.Scubbing in between.After I get the copper out I'm going to use the lead solvent and get all the lead out too.The lead comes out much faster than copper,only a couple of hours.I have a FN Mauser in 308 Norma mag,after 30 years of shooting and being cleaned religiuosly.It took 35 hours to get the all crud out.The accuracy went way up compared to what it was before.I hope I get the same results with this ruger.

[.38 Special]

I ruined a good barrel with mine. Guess maybe my eyes can't tell the difference between "blue" and "green/yellow", but I didn't feel like I had sufficient warning between the time it stopped working on fouling and starting working on steel.

[imashooter2]

Huh! Mine turns off when the barrel is clean. Were you using a genuine Foul Out, or some homemade "equivalent"?

[0802]

What's the difference b/n the Foul Out 2 and the Foul Out 3? Is the 3 any safer?

[dgslyr]

I ruined a good barrel with mine. Guess maybe my eyes can't tell the difference between "blue" and "green/yellow", but I didn't feel like I had sufficient warning between the time it stopped working on fouling and starting working on steel.

Yes please tell us what you are using.Copper acetate doesn't effect steel.Blue?Green/yellow?Is that a home made device?5 volts 450 miliamps is what powers the foul out 2 or 3 AA batteries.When all the copper is on the rod and off the barrel it shuts off.If you get the orings wrong and the rod touches the barrel or the rod touches the barrel for any reason with the power on it shuts off.How did you ruin a barrel.
Foul out 3 is smaller and comes with a different formula that works faster.There ain't anything unsafe about using one.I had some of the new formula stuff but ran out.My local gun shop had a sale on the old stuff and I got several quarts of each,lead and copper for really cheap.Its been almost 24 hours and the ruger still ain't clean.

[imashooter2]

What's the difference b/n the Foul Out 2 and the Foul Out 3? Is the 3 any safer?

One important difference is the way the rod connects to the power unit. The FOII uses alligator clamps. You can clean the forcing cone of a revolver by cutting a rod short, feeding the rod through from the muzzle, plug it and hook up the lead in the cylinder opening. The FOIII has the rod inserted into the power unit. It's way too big to fit in the cylinder opening of a revolver.

There is no difference in safety, because the FOII isn't unsafe.

[anachronism]

You don't need to cut up a rod to clean a forcing cone. Get an extra set of rubber plugs, and drill a very small hole in the tapered plug you need. The hole needs to be smaller in diameter than the Foul Out rod. Stick one of the end rods through the hole, and insert the plug into the muzzle. The rod should only clear the forcing cone by an inch or so, depending on the size of the revolver, of course. Orient the revolver with the muzzle down of course, I clamp my revolvers in my bench vise with soft facing. Then just fill up the bore and process as normal.

I too have heard of barrels being ruined by Foul-Outs, and I have a theory about it. I once cleaned an ancient Super Blackhawk for a friend. This thing had never been cleaned, and had jacket fouling from one end to the other. It took forever to clean, with a couple of solvent changes, and the solvent even bubbled over once. It was kind of a rusty looking foam that came out of the barrel. It turned out to BE rust. When the barrel finally showed clean, the bore was slightly pitted, and a flat grey color, kind of like it had been sand-blasted. We decided that the barrel had surface rust trapped under the jacket fouling which left some pitting. The solution? We took the revolver out shooting, and the bore polished up bright, shiney & smooth from the shooting. It went back on the Foul Out for a couple of hours, and cleaned up perfectly.

[dgslyr]

Yea I'm getting rust too.Got it from used rifles that had been shot a lot and not clean real good,and oiled afterwards.Yep powder fouling copper and rust in layers.The lands and grooves do appear to be sharper than before I started.It seemed to have a tight spot too thats gone now.26 hours.

[imashooter2]

You don't need to cut up a rod to clean a forcing cone. Get an extra set of rubber plugs, and drill a very small hole in the tapered plug you need. The hole needs to be smaller in diameter than the Foul Out rod. Stick one of the end rods through the hole, and insert the plug into the muzzle. The rod should only clear the forcing cone by an inch or so, depending on the size of the revolver, of course. Orient the revolver with the muzzle down of course, I clamp my revolvers in my bench vise with soft facing. Then just fill up the bore and process as normal.


Great tip. I'm embarrassed that I didn't think of it.

[crabo]

Foul out 3 is smaller and comes with a different formula that works faster.There ain't anything unsafe about using one.I had some of the new formula stuff but ran out.My local gun shop had a sale on the old stuff and I got several quarts of each,lead and copper for really cheap.Its been almost 24 hours and the ruger still ain't clean.

Midway's ad says,

The Foul Out 3 Bore Cleaning System is compact and quick to use. It is truly an improvement over other electrochemical bore cleaners because the caliber specific O-rings keep the cleaning rods from touching the inside of the barrel. The system includes Foul Out 3 control unit, electrode, assorted bore plugs and O-rings, 8 oz of Cop Out Plus and Lead Out Plus cleaning solutions, dispensing cap and AC adapter. 17 caliber O-rings are not available. For use with Foul Out 3 solvents only. Not for use with Foul Out 2 solvents.


Don't know why they say it. After reading this, I needed to see how much it would cost to get one.

[.38 Special]

Mine is the Foul Out II. The directions warn about changing the solution if it turns color, because bore damage can occur if you do not.

[Lloyd Smale]

I would guess that it didnt ruin your barrel but liike was said you had a bad barrel that was being hidden by fouling. Its one of the reasons i dont use one. Your barrel can be actually to clean. A little fouling whether it be lead or copper will fill small flaws in your barrel and actually make it smoother and in my opinion a handgun will usually shoot much better when it is slightly fouled then when it new clean. Personaly i rarely ever take even a brush to my handgun barrels and ive got guns with round counts over 50000 that havent seen a brush. A little solvent to take out the powder fouling on a patch usually takes care of it. If the fouling is to bad for that to work then the gun needs work of some kind. I find that with a good gun a couple jacketed bullets or even gas checked bullets at the end of the day and a wet patch take care of any barrel cleaning. Now i will brush out the fouling in my cylinder. I guess i just dont understand. Why would someone pay money to buy one when if anything the money should go toward fixing your gun so it doesnt foul so badly to start with.

[dgslyr]

Well If it hasn't ever been cleaned like it should be for 27 years you get powder fouling,copper fouling and some rust in amongst the layers of crud.When I bought this thing at a very old long established dealer on the other side of town it needed to be cleaned.They have hundreds of original blackpowder guns that are clean and servicable after 150 years or so.How this one didn't get cleaned is why they sold it so reasonable I guess.I bought a remington 25/06 once that was green at the muzzle because of the copper,it didn't shoot worth a crap.After 30 or so hours of the outer's foul out it would stay around 1 1/2 to 2 inches at 200 with 115-120 gr bullets never shot lighter ones well though.A lot of people don't know how to clean a firearm,many are to lazy.I know some one who claims to be a firearm proffessional and his guns are all rusty to the point of being junk on the outside he dosen't clean the bore much either so they look like this one I got now.Oil and rust prevention are not his thing.I went to a gun show with him once when he was trying to sell a pistol that looked like it had been laying on the floor of his truck for a year or 3,he didn't even dust it off.Couldn't figure out why no one wanted it.There are a lot of people out ther like that.So when I get a used firearm I figure it ain't never been cleaned properly.Having been in the Marine Corps rifle cleaning was beaten into me in 1968.

[.38 Special]

Mine was a nearly new rifle. I wanted all traces of copper removed from the bore preparatory to fire lapping. Things went fine for the first few hours, but after the second change of fluid and wiping off of the rod -- and the rod was almost spotless -- I was surprised that the thing didn't show me "clean" light after several more hours. I finally got tired of waiting, so pulled the rod and drained the fluid. The fluid didn't look unusual, but there was a rust colored spot on the rod that corresponded with a 2 cm. patch of rust pits in the bore. I don't believe there's any possible way I could have missed it prior to using the Foul-Out, nor do I think pits of that size could have been completely filled with copper from the 30 rounds I had put through it from new.

So I don't know if I screwed up or if the bore had some wacky metallurgic goof or if the device has a hidden danger -- maybe it merely decided to go on the fritz right then. Under any circumstance, that was a $2000 rifle and I wasn't too pleased with the outcome.

FWIW, I'm not trying to start a fight or even declare that the Foul-Out is a bad thing. Just want to pass on my experience "for informational purposes only".

[dgslyr]

Mine was a nearly new rifle. I wanted all traces of copper removed from the bore preparatory to fire lapping. Things went fine for the first few hours, but after the second change of fluid and wiping off of the rod -- and the rod was almost spotless -- I was surprised that the thing didn't show me "clean" light after several more hours. I finally got tired of waiting, so pulled the rod and drained the fluid. The fluid didn't look unusual, but there was a rust colored spot on the rod that corresponded with a 2 cm. patch of rust pits in the bore. I don't believe there's any possible way I could have missed it prior to using the Foul-Out, nor do I think pits of that size could have been completely filled with copper from the 30 rounds I had put through it from new.

So I don't know if I screwed up or if the bore had some wacky metallurgic goof or if the device has a hidden danger -- maybe it merely decided to go on the fritz right then. Under any circumstance, that was a $2000 rifle and I wasn't too pleased with the outcome.

FWIW, I'm not trying to start a fight or even declare that the Foul-Out is a bad thing. Just want to pass on my experience "for informational purposes only".

Did you tell outer's?Did you have some one look at that spot with a bore scope?My gunsmith friend says that you could indeed fill a spot in the barrel with copper in thirty rounds.From the color of the spot you describe I would guess the same thing.
My barrel came clean in 47 hours.I put the lead out solvent in and the light that says it's clean came on in about 3 minuites.