The scoop on copper etching

[rimfire458]

Seriously. Not what You perceive or think by theory, but in actuality how long will it take for copper to etch a bore if not cleaned out? Keep in mind the gun is ALWAYS dry. Some say never. My orig 71 in one example . The bore was a pumpkin when I got er. I swear not a cleaning for 80 yrs. Groups were more patterns than groups. 2 cans of bore foam later it was clean and under all that copper and carbon lay bountiful accuracy. I can sight many other cases, yet I wonder because all of the electrode cleaners on the market a decade or so ago were to save us from ruining guns. Lots of reading I do now says to much solvent and those electric cleaners may have done more etching than a layer of copper could think of doing

Thoughts

 

[cosmic]

What are you talking about? Galvanic corrosion?

 

[rimfire458]

What are you talking about? Galvanic corrosion?

Yes I've heard that term grasped at as well. But whatever You want to call it

DOES COPPER FOUL ERODE BORES??????????????????

 

[hunter5425]

I had a 1918 Lee Enfield that had most probably like yours never had the copper cleaned out but had been cared for in terms having carbon and corrosive primer fouling cleaned out with the bore oiled when stored and the bore was fine, so it seems many decades at least, if ever, for copper to wreck a bore by some sort of electrolytic corrosion.

 

[ultimate_monkey]

cant say im up to par on how copper and stainless/cromoly act with each other on a molecular level.. but from some of what iv seen pass threw my hands, moisture , even just relative humidity, and carbon will do way more damage to a bore then copper could ever think of doing.

does copper fouling effect accuracy, it sure does, how much? that will be different for every barrel / caliber

 

[amosfella]

Unless you're adding hydrogen peroxide to it, I wouldn't worry about it too much...