Cleaning an SVT-40 barrel

jcuffe6240

jcuffe6240

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I bought an SVT just prior to the big batches coming into Canada last year and the barrel is quite dirty. I have fired some MFS ammo through it and know it is quite dirty. Can anyone suggest a means of really scrubbing the barrel clean? Anyone use any special products to clean your barrels?
 
Windex and CLP. It seems a bit cumbersome to pour boiling water down a rifle's barrel, fairly long, risk of spilling some, but that's always people's first suggestion for cleaning corrosive ammo. As far as I know, MFS isn't corrosive, just dirty, so give 'er a good few run-throughs with your preferred cleaning agent and it should be fine. Hell, it would probably be fine if you just did that with the corrosive ammo too, I mean, how long did the Russians go without a good hard clean on these guns using almost exclusively corrosive, and they still work fine and haven't rusted shut? As long as you clean her well, doesn't matter too much what you use, but people always suggest using something water-based first to get the salts out.
 
jcuffe6240 said:
I bought an SVT just prior to the big batches coming into Canada last year and the barrel is quite dirty. I have fired some MFS ammo through it and know it is quite dirty. Can anyone suggest a means of really scrubbing the barrel clean? Anyone use any special products to clean your barrels?
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I tried boiling water with my SVT and it didn't clean the corrosive crap out...that is some nasty gunk.

Ever tried foaming bore cleaner?
 
F-Tang said:
Windex and CLP. It seems a bit cumbersome to pour boiling water down a rifle's barrel, fairly long, risk of spilling some, but that's always people's first suggestion for cleaning corrosive ammo...
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Never understood the Windex thing. Myth is the Ammonia does what's needed but Ammonia doesn't dissolve primer salts and there is no ammonia in Windex anyway. And it's 90-95% water by volume. Boiling hot H20 evaporates before it becomes an issue. Oil well after.

http://www.scjohnson.ca/msds/Windex Ammonia-D.pdf if you're interested.

I'm lazy and cheap - Been using WD40 to clean and the questionable viscous brown stuff found in Russian oiler bottles for the last patch through the bore. Same process in the SKS. Shot a ton of Czech and no issues after more than a year.

Probably rethink if I lived on one of the coasts, but it's dry as a popcorn fart out here. :popCorn:
 
Wipe out foaming bore cleaner will clean the bore right up, I've used it on my No1 mkIII and my No4 mk1 and it cleaned out 68+ years of fouling as for neutralizing corrosive salts I have no idea.
 
SVT40 cleaning

In my SVT's I have first used hot water to remove corrosive salts from the primers then a home brew cleaner called ED's RED, to get rid of the crud but not copper, it works great and super cheap to make, just google it. After that I use a homebrew copper cleaner made out of 10-14 % janitors ammonia mixed with Dawn dish soap. You can also google the home brew, it's again very cheap to make and cleans copper big time, then a good coat of oil. That cleaned mine up real nice, hope it helps !
 
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I use Eds Red as well with a brass bore brush.
Just many passes with the brush. Use a syringe and jet some hot water down the barrel to flush out the crud.
More bore brush and Eds Red etc etc.
Then the bore snake to clean it the last time.
Worked very well. I found out my barrel was in much better condition than I initially thought.
 
Lucite said:
Wipe out foaming bore cleaner will clean the bore right up, I've used it on my No1 mkIII and my No4 mk1 and it cleaned out 68+ years of fouling as for neutralizing corrosive salts I have no idea.
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x2, Wipe out is the best thing out there for cleaning powder and copper fouling.
 
Removing copper fouling and years worth of build up on milsurp rifles needs a stronger bore cleaner/solvent than Eds Red or Hoppes. You need to use a brass or aluminum rod as teh plastic coatings on other rods will get eaten. Also, remember to carefully discard the dirty patches carefully as to not spontaneously combust when mixed with other rubbish or chemicals.


I use Eds Red for everyday normal cleaning, but it doesn't remove copper fouling or salts.
 
fiddler said:
Removing copper fouling and years worth of build up on milsurp rifles needs a stronger bore cleaner/solvent than Eds Red or Hoppes. You need to use a brass or aluminum rod as teh plastic coatings on other rods will get eaten. Also, remember to carefully discard the dirty patches carefully as to not spontaneously combust when mixed with other rubbish or chemicals.


I use Eds Red for everyday normal cleaning, but it doesn't remove copper fouling or salts.
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I shot some Wipe Out down the bore of a 1942 Lithgow SMLE wire wrap that I thought had a decent bore. After 24 hours, I patched out what looked like purple toothpaste, a few swabs with CLP, and I had a pristine bore. Wipe Out is by far the best product out there.
 
I use Butches Bore Shine. The amonia in it is quite apparent!
The ammonia not only breaks down the metallic salts from corrosive fulminate primers but also removes copper quite nicely.
 
I used to apply Sweet's 7.62 copper cleanser, but Wipe Out is so much easier and less smelly as well. Just take care that you don't let it leak onto any wood stock pieces-I had to refinish my SVT40 because of my sloppiness...
 
On a heavily greased up Moisin Nagant I used car brake cleaner to dissolve the grease. It was amazing how well it worked. Once the grease was out, I gave it a very thorough workout with Hoppe's #9 and eventually with Gunslick bore foam to check for any copper fouling. I wouldn't use the brake cleaner for regular cleaning, but for the first post-surplus storage clean, it's pretty effective as a starter.
 
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