Clean Bore = Big Difference

Let me start out by saying I am very fussy about keeping my MLs clean. I always use a bucket of hot soapy water to clean the barrel after shooting, and use a bore preservitave to keep out rust. I then check the bore with a light, to make sure it is clean and shiney, before I put it away. When I take it out of the gun cabinet, I always wipe the bore with a dry patch before shooting to wipe out any oil/lube. Well today I decided to take my T/C Penn. Hunter Carbine, flinter out for a shooting session. This has not been one of my most accurate MLs, the last few years. I remember a while back seeing on the forum, someone saying that thier ML was not shooting accurately. The reply was to take the bore back to raw steel. Scrub, and clean, until all traces of residue were removed. So I decided to use a commercial bore cleaner, (Shooter's Choice Black Powder Solvent) I'm sure other brands will work too. My clean, so I thought, ( It looked clean and shiney with a bore light) was not so clean. The patches with the solvent were badly discolored, and after running a bronze bore brush thru, and running patches with solvent, they were black. I continued until the patches came out clean, and wiped the bore dry. Now it is time to shoot. Goex FFFG, T/C .018 pillow ticking patch, Hornady .490 round ball, my usual recipe. To my amazement I shot a cloverleaf at my 50 yard target. (Very Happy!) No fliers at all. I did not think this ML could shoot this good. When I have a good shooting, accurate ML, it feels great! So if you experience poor performance in your ML a good scrubbing, down to raw steel just may do the trick!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I have had problems in the past with build up. I used hoppes No.9 and Brass bore brush. Well I never could get the patches clean just lots of black. I talked with a friend about the problem. He told me it was the solvent, it was eating away at the bore brush causeing the black. After he told me this I took a new brush and put some of the solvent on it and after a few miniutes I wiped the brush with a patch, it left black on the clean patch. Since then I only use hot water and soap to clean with. I use a bore brush everytime I clean to get the bore back to metal and have had great groups since I have been removing the buildup. :thumbsup:

Landngroove,

Try cleaning with plain cool water once. Just dry carefully after and lube with some reputable product after.

Also try cleaning with an alcohol swab just before shooting to prevent the bore preservative from killing your charge and also to remove it.

I like to fire a test shot to see where the clean bore shot goes. Any sniper or hunter will agree that this knowledge is most valuable.

Some of the black in your bore is likely graphite which causes people concern, but represents little or no real problem.

Old dried lube material, on the other hand can be a problem.

I hope that some of this is helpful.

CS

Here this fall I changed cleaning practices a little. I have always used hot water and Ballistol, after swabbing down the bore with that stuff, run some dry patches to dry it out, then - the new twist, running a patch about half soaked in Butch's Bore Shine up and down the bore. This seems to leave the barrel sweaky clean. I suspect it is also leaving the bore bare of any protection. The last patch therefore has a couble of drops of Ballistol on it. This seems to work betterr than previous methods. If anyone has any negative commentss about Butch's I would like to hear about them.

Do you guys use caliber size bore brushes? If so, how do you get them out of the barrel? Just dumb and had trouble with brushes hanging up at the breech.

Walker357 said:

Do you guys use caliber size bore brushes? If so, how do you get them out of the barrel? Just dumb and had trouble with brushes hanging up at the breech.

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New brushes with sharp bristles have hung up on me a couple times...I just rotate the ramrod clockwise and as soon as the bristles begin to get a curve in them, they loose their 'bite' into the walls and will slide right up out of the bore.
After a couple uses, they seem to lose that needle sharpness on their tips and don't hand up any more

As a " so-called" professional gunsmith I face corrupt barrels every day. Several times a day actually! Bronze brushes vary in consistency and some batches will scrub right down to steel and others mysteriously leave lead and fouling after a single pass. I fear steel brushes.
I ALWAYS plug the flash hole and fill up to the muzzle with solvent before scrubbing. ( I also use ultrasonic cleaner.)
The average shooter needs only use a very tight patch and solvent to prevent needing my services as a gunsmith!! Most neglect until they lodge a ball or completely lose accuracy bere sending them to me. Unless they want a scope mounted on their ML!!! (Barrel are barrels even if mounted on a modern cartridge gun.)
I chuckle to myself over the hunt for the elusive "clean patch. In decades I seldom see a bbl w/o at least some residual fouling. :thumbsup:

A brush must be able to retreat! Else it will certainly lodge and cause trouble. The bristles must be able to "reflex" and this is beyond reasonable force. Even best brushes soon "dull", too.
I dream of a day when all ML's will carefully clean their barrels and I can at last retire.!!! :v