Copper Fouling

[JEBar]

as background info .... when it comes to hunting ammo, my teen years back in the '60's I've been a strong proponent of the "speed kills" line of thinking .... in addition, I firmly believed in practicing with the same ammo that you planned to hunt with .... consequently, no matter what caliber or firearm, I worked up loads based on the max recommended charge .... in all that time, I've fired untold tens of thousands of jacketed rounds and until recently, I've never had a firearm that developed any detectable copper fouling .... so, I've never had a need to purchase any copper removal products .... our 45-70 has become an exception .... earlier this year I notices copper streaks inside the barrel .... knowing very little about removal products, I spent some time on YouTube and in reading consumer evaluations of a variety of products .... bottom line, I bought a bottle of Sweets 7.62 Solvent ===> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O ... UTF8&psc=1 <=== from Amazon .... its 5-star rating by 150+ individuals impressed me .... today I used it for the first time and the major lesson learned was, follow the instructions to the letter .... when it says to swab the barrel for 1 minute, 10 seconds won't do .. .. it should be noted that the fouling hadn't caused any detectable problems with accuracy or anything else .... so I don't anticipate any detectable improvement in accuracy after removing the copper .... while I haven't changed the brand of bullets (Nosler) we have used since the mid '60's, we have added calibers and Nosler has introduced new products .... I can't help but wonder what is causing the fouling in our 45-70, about all I can do is deal with it .... I can't say it works better or worse than any other brand but what I can say is, the Sweets 7.62 Solvent works .... it still remains to be seen how often it will need to be used on our 45-70

[ruhler]

I also use sweets 7,62, but I use kg12 aswell both works great. Dont forget to check if impact of the first shot/shots with clean barrel if its different, not saying it has changed but some rifles need a few shot to get back to point of aim.

[GFK]

Thanks for the feedback.

[JEBar]

I also use sweets 7,62, but I use kg12 aswell both works great. Dont forget to check if impact of the first shot/shots with clean barrel if its different, not saying it has changed but some rifles need a few shot to get back to point of aim.

I've heard that about a clean barrel but never have owned a firearm where it seemed to make any difference .... I must admit that I'm growing more and more perplexed as to the reason .... no copper fouling in either our Henry 44 Mag or 357 Mag even though both of them have has thousands of more rounds run through them .... with no experience in this, I can't help but wonder if it will be a lasting issue or if it will pass as the rifle barrel "matures"

[ruhler]

I also use sweets 7,62, but I use kg12 aswell both works great. Dont forget to check if impact of the first shot/shots with clean barrel if its different, not saying it has changed but some rifles need a few shot to get back to point of aim.

I've heard that about a clean barrel but never have owned a firearm where it seemed to make any difference .... I must admit that I'm growing more and more perplexed as to the reason .... no copper fouling in either our Henry 44 Mag or 357 Mag even though both of them have has thousands of more rounds run through them .... with no experience in this, I can't help but wonder if it will be a lasting issue or if it will pass as the rifle barrel "matures"

Probably a little rough barrel, dont know the amount of shots fired between cleaning but by the sound of it I suspect hundreds of rounds? Then I wouldnt worry about it dont think there is much you can do other than to clean more frequently maybe after each trip to the range for a while and see if you getting less fouling each time, maybe try other bullets or lower the fps with a different charge/powder. There is probably some tricks to use some polish method like benchrestshooters do but I dont know if it applies to normal barrels.

My new 44 Henry also has alot of copper fouling but maybe when shooting pistolbullets with higher fps than out of a pistol barrel it will leave more fouling, but when shooting hardcastbullet almost no leading at all.

[Rugerfanboy]

I must admit that I'm growing more and more perplexed as to the reason .... no copper fouling in either our Henry 44 Mag or 357 Mag even though both of them have has thousands of more rounds run through them .... with no experience in this, I can't help but wonder if it will be a lasting issue or if it will pass as the rifle barrel "matures"

JEBAR....The Henry 44 Mag rifle has a bore diameter of .431". The Nosler 240gr JHP (part# 44842) has a diameter of .429. Your not gonna get any copper fouling with this bullet. Even the Nosler 300gr JHP (part# 42069) has a diameter of .429". Same thing goes for the Henry 357 Mag rifle. It's bore is bigger than the Nosler bullet.

I'm like you...I practice with my hunting ammo. It's all hand loads that I've work up for my Henry BBS 44 Mag rifle. My rifle has a scope on it and I have it dialed in so that I know what the settings are at 50 yds, 100 yds, 150 yds and 200 yds. Even thou I have several hundred of these bullets loaded up for hunting and about a 1000 on stand by in there factory boxes. I do not plink with them. I use the Zero 240gr JSP .431" for plinking.

If you want to test my theory of bullet diameter cooper fouling your barrel on the Henry 44 Mag. Get you some Zero 240gr JSP bullets and load them up for your rifle and shoot them. They will cooper foul your barrel cause they are .431" in diameter. They won't do it really bad, but just enough to see the streaks in the bore. I know this cause I use them for plinking and there allot cheaper than the Nosler bullet for 44 Mag and 357 Mag.

Good thread....cause this reminds me, I'm getting low on Zero 240gr JSP, 125gr JHP and 158gr JHP bullets for 44 Mag and 357 Mag. I need to get ready and order some more before I run out.

[JEBar]

The Henry 44 Mag rifle has a bore diameter of .431". The Nosler 240gr JHP (part# 44842) has a diameter of .429. Your not gonna get any copper fouling with this bullet. Even the Nosler 300gr JHP (part# 42069) has a diameter of .429". Same thing goes for the Henry 357 Mag rifle. It's bore is bigger than the Nosler bullet.

your bullet diameter comment makes sense to me ( that may or may not be a good thing ) .... we use Rose Distribution Zero bullets with our 357 .... no issues with copper fouling .... I'm now transitioning to using Nosler's Ballistic Silvertips ===> https://www.nosler.com/ballistic-silvertip-bullet/ <=== which as can be seen have a coating that is supposed to help

[JEBar]

Probably a little rough barrel, dont know the amount of shots fired between cleaning but by the sound of it I suspect hundreds of rounds? Then I wouldnt worry about it dont think there is much you can do other than to clean more frequently maybe after each trip to the range for a while and see if you getting less fouling each time, maybe try other bullets or lower the fps with a different charge/powder. There is probably some tricks to use some polish method like benchrestshooters do but I dont know if it applies to normal barrels.

My new 44 Henry also has alot of copper fouling but maybe when shooting pistolbullets with higher fps than out of a pistol barrel it will leave more fouling, but when shooting hardcastbullet almost no leading at all.

suggestions appreciated .... we routinely clean the barrels in all of our firearms within a couple of days of firing them .... as is typical, the number of rounds we might fire does vary from 1 to several hundred but we clean them all .... what we haven't done is include copper remover in the cleaning .... we do fire pistol bullets in our 44 & 357 without any observable issues .... the fouling has come from rifle bullets fired in our 45-70

[Shakey Jake]

I got a full jar of Shooter's Choice Extra Strength copper remover. I run a patch or two with down the bore each cleaning after running some cleaner/conditioner through the bore.. I usually let the second application soak in for 10 to 20 minutes before running another clean patch. I follow that with some patches soaked with Rustproof.

[JEBar]

rainy, cool day in our neighborhood .. .. such days = time to catch up on firearms cleaning .... since their last cleaning our Henry 44 Mag has had a couple of hundred full power, 240 gr Nosler JHP's fired through it, our 45-70 50 +/- 300 gr Nosler Ballistic Silvertips, our 357 mag 150 +/- 158 gr Nosler JHP's and one of our Ruger 10/22's well over 200 Winchester copper coated 22LR's .... the last time I cleaned the Henry rifles, I found it took a while to deal with a copper buildup in our 45-70 .... I'm happy to say that this time I only found a little .... what was there may well have been missed at its last cleaning .... with both the 44 and 357 I couldn't see any sign of copper fouling but Sweets 7.62 Solvent soaked patches revealed light fouling .... it didn't take long to thoroughly clean both .... I continue to be impressed with Sweets Solvent .... as has become our custom, after cleaning with Sweets we followed up with Ballistol .... I can't help but wonder if the barrels are smoothing down a bit from all of the bullets that have passed through them