How to clean a really bad bore

sharp shooter

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My neighbour brought over a really old 94 in 30-30 the other night. It was rough. Needs a new firing pin, etc. The bore is, well, disgusting. How do we get it cleaned up? i wrecked about two brushes on it and its not even close yet. What can we soak it with?
 
I sccussfully cleaned a Mosin barrel that was completely frosted using electrolysis. Mix 1 part each of water, vinegar and 10% ammonia. Most ammonia is only 5% so I reduced the amount of water I added. Used a bung for the bore on the receiver end. Stuck a steel rod down the bore and stuck it into the bung which I drilled a shallow hole into. Taped a funnel to the top of the bore and poured in the solution. Stripped an old cell phone charger and added alligator clips to +\- ends. Negative attaches to the rod, positive to the bore. Use a multimeter to verify which is +\-. Run it for 15mins, drain, scrub and patches, repeat a couple times to get it where you want. I found after I took it out firing the rest of the buildup that wouldn't come off with patches blew out. Hope this helps.
 
DISGUSTING BOREs I would use a bronze bore brush and one of the abrasive cleaners and a drop of WD-40. Now SCRUB, you may wear out a couple brushes there is no magic solution for this. I have had to clean a couple very nasty bores on old military rifles.
Bores will come clean, however the pitting will remain and the bore will still appear dirty. A pitted bore with good rifling will usually still shoot OK. You can also use a lapping compound 1000 grit or finer with a bit of oil.
 
Plug the muzzle with a foam ear plug, put it muzzle down, fill bore with ATF, let sit over night, clean and repeat.
 
The best combo I've been able to find is Wipeout and Gunzilla CLP.
Gunzilla will remove powder and carbon fouling with brushing, Wipeout removes copper without brushing.
You will wear out some brushes, but hey they are like $1-$2. It will take a few days. Start by scrubbing with gunzilla until patches are moderately clean. Invert gun, muzzle down, fill with foaming wipeout and let it do it's thing for an hour. I put a piece of white paper at the muzzle to capture the color of crap coming out. Blue is your copper. Give it another shot after and hour and new paper. If it's still blue keep using the wipeout at 1 hour intervals. If it's gray or blackish then it's back to the gunzilla.
I guarantee if you keep at it like that, you will get everything out of the bore, down to the original bare metal.
 

I know its a 94 not a milsurp but this vid has some great content on cleaning a fouled bore.
He also has a good video recommendation at the end of this one called Copper Fouling-why should I care?

Cheers.
 
On a really pitted and eroded bore, where nothing is to be lost, I have wrapped a smaller bore brush
with very fine steel wool, soaked it with oil or better yet, Kroil, and scrubbed the heck out of it.
I had an M17 30-06 with a bore that looked like an old stovepipe, and it actually shot not bad after this.
Surprisingly, it does not seem to harm a dirty old bore. I would not dream of using this on a good bore
but when little is at stake.....why not? Regards, Dave.
 
Try some bore tech eliminator. I found its really good for getting copper and carbon out. It's doesn't damage bored if you leave it to soak. I just use it with patches.
 
I've had a couple "found in shed dead" rifles: my Sears Model 45 (re-branded Marlin 336) and a neighbour's Lee Enfield with sewer pipe bores and I used a lot of elbow grease and everything I could find on bore brushes to clean them up. I have a foam cleaner, (not Wipe Out) and also used a lot US milspec bore cleaner I got at a surplus store. Worked very well. I think I had a synthetic or nylon bore brush, not bronze, so that the bore cleaner didn't disintegrate the brush.

I think I used Fluid Film to start, just to loosen the crud up.
 
I found a stainless steel barrel brush (losts of wire bristles) years back at a garage sale, works awesome a removing everything from a barrel, although I find that old guns are not worth the effort, in the end you still have an old wore out gun.
 
My neighbour brought over a really old 94 in 30-30 the other night. It was rough...The bore is, well, disgusting. How do we get it cleaned up? i wrecked about two brushes on it and its not even close yet...

J-B Bore Cleaner
<http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning-chemicals/solvents-degreasers/bore-cleaning-paste/j-b-bore-cleaner-prod39515.aspx>
 
KG 12 copper solvent works much faster than any ammonia based solvent, but it will still take a couple days if the bore is really bad. Use a nylon brush so it doesn't get dissolved by the solvent. Basically soak the bore with a wet patch, wait about 4 hours and repeat throughout the day until it is clean. If using JB bore paste (or other abrasives) that will clean it up with about 200-300 strokes up and down the bore. Just don't use it on a brush of any kind, that will scratch the bore severely. You can wrap a worn out brush with patches to cover all the bristles, then apply the JB to the brush.
 
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