Interesting Video On Copper Fouling

Interesting...thinking my rifle barrels aren't clean enough until I've removed copper streaks with Tipton Bore Cleaner or Sweet's 7.62 Solvent.
 
Fouling shot usually needed for tightest groups / expected POI so after a range session I’ll scrub the bore clean including copper streaks removal & fire a fouling shot then I’m ready to go hunting with that rifle.
 
He says the US military does not use copper solvent. That sounds like a pretty strong argument against "copper fouling" being a real problem.

Can anyone verify the fact?
 
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alpining said:
He says the US military does not use copper solvent. That sounds like a pretty clear indicator. Can anyone verify?
Click to expand...

Gunblue490 was a veteran in the USA Military and a gun expert in his field, military police, pistol and rifle expert and Vietnam Vet. I believe he resides in New Hampshire.
 
Years ago before I read about copper equilibrium in the rifle barrel I used to clean the #### out of my barrels and went through enough Sweets and Hoppes to choke a horse.

I shoot a lot more now then I did then and rarely run a jag down any of my barrels and when I do i use a squirt of Hoppes...I concur with everything this guy says and also learned the hard way cleaning is for windows.
 
Ideally the bore should be cleaned down to bare metal then inhibited with gun oil to prevent under deposit corrosion if that's the objective. I'm after reliable field accuracy so I like to clean the bore thoroughly including de-copper then fire a fouling shot.
 
I concur with the fellow in the video. The "fetish" that prevails in some circles that all copper must be removed
is just that....a fallacy that has been perpetuated by the manufacturers of "copper" solvents, and their sales
representatives. Carbon buildup is the real enemy, and removing it is a priority. Dave.
 
I think that there are extremes that need to be quantified here.
SBR shooters regularly clean right down to the metal to keep their rifles super accurate..
A guy who is looking for an accurate PRS rifle however , is not going to be so worried about a squeaky clean barrel.

My prone match guns don't get " decoppered " on regular basis, but they do get cleaned of copper every so often if I expect to keep scoring well from 500 to 1K for 10 or 15 rounds per target .

However, my favorite hunting rifle has not been " decoppered" since it was built in 2009. it has however had a regular cleaning with Amzoil or Mercury Quicksilver Power Tune to get the carbon out, and some G96 pushed through it.
I firmly believe that carbon build up in the chamber area of a rifle hurts accuracy far worse than copper from 200 rounds of match ammo.
Many years ago a champion silhouette shooter showed me his PH 1200 270 Winchester hunting gun, it looked like the barrel was painted with copper!
It had a total of two shots through it, and was sparkling clean before those two shots. He told me it would look the same after 100, and the accuracy would still be excellent.
Cat
 
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Best advice I ever got was from a sniper school instructor and Nam vet: clean when it’s convenient or when there is noticeable degradation of accuracy. That’s it! Barrel break-in not needed on match grade barrels, as they’re most likely lapped anyway. Shoot until accuracy degrades. Having been on his courses where we routinely shoot 500-800 rds per week, I can attest he’s spot on from an operations perspective. BR guys have a different methodology.
 
I use copper/metallic bore cleaner very sparingly. Mostly I use it only once on newly acquired milsurp rifles of questionable storage and condition. My hunting rifles I will use a metallic/copper cleaner once every 20 years, and my target rifles once every 3 or 4 years. You can run a patch with a bit of bore cleaner to see how much green it comes out? or if the white patches are always black it may need some attention.

I have the mind set that a brass brush and a few white patches takes care of most problems.
 
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