I was fortunate to acquire an Enfield dating from 1942 that is complete and fully number matching (frame, bolt, magazine, etc) for my son. It was completely cleaned prior to heading to the range where we used some surplus British ammo that I believe had corrosive primers.... all 10 had copper primers and came in five round clips. The rifle shoots great but I'm curious about cleaning.
We used both water based black powder solvent and hot water before switching to Hoppes #9 and finally oil. Multiple passes continued to result in almost black patches, scrubbing with a brass brush in between. We ran between 25 and thirty patches through before getting down to only a greenish color on the patches. I'm guessing that was copper fouling from who knows when. Is this normal? I've never cleaned a rifle after 10 rounds that had so much fouling. I can only think that there was still really old fouling although the bore is very shiny and the rifling is sharp. Thoughts and comments are appreciated....