Endless cleaning of 98k bore

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maple_leaf_eh

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I got a Russian capture 98k recently. After stripping it to record the Waffenampts and inspection, I started to clean the bore. My brushes and jags are .30cal and my patches are British military surplus flannelette in a roll.

So far I've soaked it with Hoppes No.9 and now get clean oily patches and slightly black dry patches. Switch to RB17 bore solvent, and I'm pulling rusty brown patches off the jag. Scrub with a bronze brush. Run the patches until they come out clean. Switch to Foaming Bore Cleaner. It isn't getting much out, but it floats off anything lingering. Switch to some abrasives - JB Paste and an old yellow bottle of Remington scratchy liquid. The patches go from clean to black. Then the cycle repeats. I think I am progressively working through very old layers of fouling that have been there since WWII.
 
I know it's a bit rough but try a stainless steel bore brush.it will aggressively get into the hard to clean spots.maybe soak the stainless steel brush in bore paste and have at 'er.
try running some hot or boiling water down the pipe.the heat will help lift the fouling--just scrub with a bore brush while the barrel's hot.
this really helped on a '49 sks I'm working on--I got the bore looking decent now...
 
boss351cleveland said:
did you try shooting it first? If it shoots a decent group theres no need to muck with it . Sometimes removing that fouling will make your groups worse .
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Good advice! I have an old V24 that was a tad ugly down the bore. No matter what I did, the rags would come out dirty. I took it out and dusted about 25 rounds of that nasty Yugoslav early 50's cupro-nickel , or whatever it's called, through it. The bore looked a way better now. I ran a couple of soaked swabs of Fluid Film through. I will give it another go when I get around to it.
 
Been there. done that.

I scrub the bore with an abrasive, like JB or RemClean, then scrub with a copper solvent like WipeOut of Sweets. I leave the rifle muzzle down on a pad of paper towel over night. The next day I put through a clean patch and a few strokes of a brush, then repeat the process.

Sometimes it takes a week before the towel is clean the next morning. There can be layers of copper and carbon fowling, so it will take awhile.
 
had the same issue with an israeli k98. Finally had enough after using clp/hoppes and several uses of the foaming cleaner. Got the push rod with a phosphor bronze bore brush and just went to town on the barrel for about 5 min. That ate thru all of the accumulated gunk/fouling built up in the barrel and got down to the actual bore. Prior to this the barrel looked pitted with all the areas of gunk/copper .
 
It is not unusual to clean a rifle with one brand of cleaner and think it is clean. The next day try a different cleaner and you seem to be starting all over.
Wipe Out uses that fact as part of their advertising.
 
Got a Mosin like that. It shoots well, but can't get a clean patch out of it to save my life, with multiple cleaners. Rifling is strong, so I give it an extra good cleaning after each range trip and slowly the bore gets a little lighter each time. Should be shiny in about 20 years...
 
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Some of the ugliest bores can come out shiny and good. It is good clean as best as you can, then to fire about 10 rounds of ammo through it, and then clean again. pull t This seems to break loose a lot of the crud.

When using the foaming bore cleaners, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS for best results. Wipe-Out is good. Pull the bolt out, plug the chamber with a good wad of cleaning patches or toilet paper. Have a handy rag around the barrel to catch the overflowing foam, give it a shot, wipe the excess foam from the muzzle then put the rifle away HORIZONTALLY for 12 hours or so. Then scrub with a good stiff brush. Get a 38 calibre brush and use it for the 8mm bore---it will not hurt it but will get into the nooks and crannies to clean.

Using the .30 calibre brushes on an 8mm (.323) bore just does not get into where it needs to with the smaller .30 calibre brush. The .30 calibre jags are all right as you can use a bit bigger patch thickness.
 
Shoot clean. Then shoot again and clean. It is almost impossible to clean those mil surp bores without regular shooting.
 
I have a pattern 1914 that I'm cleaning up now, I've just been leaving wipe-out bore cleaner in it overnight for the past couple nights. I've wiped it out 3 times so far lots of copper and powder fouling. This is my slow/lazy method.
 
If it's really bad, stop up the muzzle, fill the barrel with solvent and leave it for an hour or so. Then clean as per normal. Gives the solvent time to work.
Flannelette remnant can be had in a discount fabric shop by the yard. Couple yards runs under $10 depending on the width.
 
Abrasive cleaners like JB or Brite Bore will always turn the patch black, regardless of how clean the bore is. Use these to start and follow up with a regular solvent afterwards.

I concur that the real question is how the rifle actually shoots. Lots of barrels will never have a patch come out spotless.
 
I tried this method on a really badly fouled, well used Mosin Nagant M91/30 and got excellent results, cleaned it right up and removed an incredible amount of built up rust, copper and carbon fouling -

 
I've made and used my own electrolytic bore cleaner. It works. I run it 15 minutes, empty it out, and repeat a couple more times. It is worth the effort. Then, clean as normal. Presto, good to go.
 
RMXC51 said:
Got a Mosin like that. It shoots well, but can't get a clean patch out of it to save my life, with multiple cleaners. Rifling is strong, so I give it an extra good cleaning after each range trip and slowly the bore gets a little lighter each time. Should be shiny in about 20 years...
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As do I, my M38. I did a bore inspection when I got it and was pleased to see that the rifling was on the high side of good, and went all the way to the crown. I ran an oily patch down the barrel after getting it and put it away until I eventually shot it. Shooting it, I found that it was rather stunningly accurate for a Mosin [and an M38, no less] and upon cleaning it for the first time I got WAY more gunk out of the bore than should have been deposited by the simple 70 rounds of Chinese light-ball surplus I blasted off that day. I kept cleaning and cleaning until the patches were a darkish grey, then checked the bore and couldn't help but notice that my rifling had gotten SHARPER than it was as I received the rifle. I oiled it and put it away as I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes in the garage and I wanted to have a beer or six after the long day.

I have a feeling that if I spent another few hours on it, I could maybe clean it up even more. I also had a Yugoslavian SKS that had a bore that was so crappy I was about ready to send it back to Marstar, until I shot it and discovered that it shoot just as well as any other SKS I have. Cleaned it that night and while it's somewhat frosty, it's much better than I thought and like I said, shoots just fine.
 
I run pot of boiling water thru the bore before cleaning.

Wait 10 min,Dry the bore and clean it with diesel fuel or Hopps 9 while barrel is still warm.Grease bore for overnight.

Using this method I cut down cleaning process to 3-4 days.

Greasing bore after shooting (like Swiss method) helps keeping bore rust free much better than gun oil for storage too.
 
donor said:
I run pot of boiling water thru the bore before cleaning.

Wait 10 min,Dry the bore and clean it with diesel fuel or Hopps 9 while barrel is still warm.Grease bore for overnight.

...
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I ran a boiling tea kettle of water down the barrel and attacked it with RG17 cleaner on a .338 bronze brush. It dripped more black gunk than before. Dry patch and careful inspection of the flannel. The fill is certainly in the grooves. The next step was to leave in vertical with the muzzle plugged and a few squirts of foaming bore cleaner inside. What was surprising (or not) was how long the barreled receiver stayed too hot to the touch. Only the back of the receiver was safe to hold.

All good advice fellas. I have had good luck with a reverse electrolysis rig for cleaning rusty old C No.7 rifle chest hardware. The only trouble was finding washing soda at the stores. Once again, Home Hardware on Bank St South in Ottawa proved it is worthy of my business. They had boxes on the shelf and the first clerk I spoke to knew exactly what I needed. (If anyone wants WWII chest hardware, I have dozens of sets available.)
 
tletang said:
I have a pattern 1914 that I'm cleaning up now, I've just been leaving wipe-out bore cleaner in it overnight for the past couple nights. I've wiped it out 3 times so far lots of copper and powder fouling. This is my slow/lazy method.
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I've got it's twin sister from the sound of things. There is very minor pitting throughout the bore and no matter what I do I cannot get a perfectly clean patch out of it. It was someone's beater deer rifle that hadn't seen a cleaning rod since it left the army. It's been soaked with various cleaners, scrubbed, flushed, etc... Eventually I just decided the thing shoots alright, might as well leave it alone before I do more harm than good. Put a couple patches through after shooting and leave her be so long as there's no corrosion.
 
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