Is My Bore Moly Fouled?

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I've always been religious about cleaning my Savage 11F in .270WSM, especially because it is extremely prone to severe copper fouling. I cleaned it out after a recent sheep hunt with Sweets 7.62 until there was no more blue on the patches. Then, just to be on the safe side, I ran a copper brush with some browning nitro solvent through the bore, then a clean patch. The patch came out jet black.

I repeated the copper brush and patch routine a few times, with identical results. I ran out of time, so I ran a patch down the bore with Kleen-Bore gun conditioner and left the rifle over night. The next day when I ran a dry patch through that patch came out black as well.

I'd be tempted to think the blackness was just from crap left on the brush, but I rinsed the brush in solvent between scrubbings.

What I'm wondering is whether the first 150 or so rounds I put through the gun, which were all Moly-coated Ballistic Silvertips or Fail-safes, left a layer of moly down the bore, and since then I've just been scrubbing off the copper and powder fouling that was laid down on top of that.

I've also been having problems with pressure signs developping at very low charge weights, and was wondering if a severely moly-fouled bore, with a copper wash on top of that, could constrict the size of the bore enough to increase pressure.

Whatever's coming out is grey-black when I use the copper brush and solvent, or I also tried using the copper brush and gun conditioner. That residue was thick and brown- looked almost like mud.

Do I have a problem here?
 
Copper solvents eat copper, your brush is made of....?
Try a nylon brush and copper solvent, then a brass jag and snug fitting patch. You can also try some Rem-Clean or JB Paste in a patch then dry patch it. Repete as needed.
 
Just to clarify, I was using the copper brush with a powder/carbon only solvent. A nylon brush and the same solvent comes out grey as well, though less dark.
 
It's virtually IMPOSSIBLE to remove all the moly from your bore, it bonds very strongly with steel. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's 'fouled' though. Structurally, moly is like graphite - many overlapping thin sheets. Just because there's a tiny amount left in the bore (which is a GOOD thing, BTW) doesn't mean it's a problem.

I shoot moly/WS2 coated bullets exclusively in my varmint guns, and can say I've never had a problem with excessive moly build-up in the bore, and I've shot thousands of them. The trick is to find a balance between cleaning the bore right to the shiny steel every few dozen rounds and hardly cleaning it ever, as some moly advocates suggest. I've found the best way to keep things nice and consistent is to run a bore snake through ever 20 or so rounds, and bust out the solvents and rod every 2-300 for a more thorough (but still not to the bare metal) cleaning. Stop when the patches come out much lighter but not white. Usually less than a dozen patches. Wipe-out works reasonably well). And once a year or so I'll go to town on them and clean them right out good. After a cleaning like this, though, you pretty much have to 'break-in' the barrel with moly bullets (20 rounds or so) before getting good consistency.
 
Get some Wipe Out and all your worries will be gone. I had they same problem with my 270 wsm and my 220 Swift after using a bore brush. All I did was use a treatment of Wipe out, let it sit for 2 hours and cleaned. I checked the bore with a white cleaning patch, saw some black and repated the Wipe Out treatment again but left it overnight. I cleaned out the barrel in the morning, ran a white patch through and it was spotless.

Awsome stuff that Wipe-Out is;)

Cheers!!
 
Unless your rifle has dropped off in accuracy, I think you should relax and have a beer...

FOr some obscene reason some people think cleanig thier rifle after ever range or hunting session *whether they need it or not* is some sort of point of pride...:rolleyes:

If your rirfle is shooting well, then who cares if you have blue copper fouling or back gunk pouring out if it?

I have a coupel of rifles that haven'te been cleaned in about 150 rounds, that shoot better now thn they were bare metal. Some of them have visibe copper fouling at the muzze...Do you think I will clean them ? Not abloody chance- until the accuracy drops off...:dancingbanana:

Moy is supposed to PREVENT pressure, so I doubt that a bit of moly build up could increase it...Noit an expert in that realm, though;)
 
Gatehouse said:
Unless your rifle has dropped off in accuracy, I think you should relax and have a beer...


I'm all out of beer. :(

On the plus side, I've got permission for saturday in a field that had about 1500 geese on it tonight, so I can stop worrying about rifles for a bit.

Also tomorrow's the grouse opener.

Thanks for the tips everybody - I'd just never seen that kind of blackness coming out of the bore AFTER I'd already cleaned out the carbon and copper.
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