Bore cleaning

[bandit1250]

I know cleaning rifles some times is a subject that has a lot of different opinions especially rim fires. I am one the side of believing in cleaning my rifles after using them. Some say never clean a 22 but it doesn't work for me. I have tried it and my rifles seem to do their best accuracy between a couple fouling shots to about 80 rounds at least shooting groups. Just out plinking away you would not see a difference. I have left a few go longer and I will be on the porch shooting and the gun just doesn't seem to be performing like it usually does and I tell my wife who is sitting on the porch "this rifle isn't doing it this evening. She will usually say "Maybe it's dirty. I walk in the basement and wet patch it and a stroke or two with a brush and wipe it clean with patches and try again and it is back to shooting at it's best again. I don't have the cold bore flyers with most of my rifles but a couple do and I believe that is the nature of some barrels. I have many CZ's and Remington rim fires that will put the clean cold barrel shot right on POA with no problems. I clean my rim fires with a mix of 2/3 Sea Foam and 1/3 Kroil. Talk about bring the black junk out of a barrel. It is nothing I came up but has been used by bench rest and target shooters for quite a while. I really think my rifles are consistently more accurate and I am not having to be real concerned about shooting with a clean bore. I have tried Hoppes NO.9 with Kroil mixed the same as the Sea Foam mix but haven't tried it enough to say it as good or any better. I will say for sure I believe the Sea Foam mix brings more black out than the Hoppes mix on the initial pass. I believe another good cleaning agent is automotive or marine top cylinder cleaner. GM top cleaner and Mercury marine Quick Silver are among the best in the cylinder cleaners and work well on rifle barrels that I have used it on. What I am using now is easier to get and seems to be as good. My rim fires seem to lose accuracy faster than normal if switching ammo brands and not patching between brands. I think some rifles that folks claim shoot better the dirtier they get actually have rough bores that need the fouling build up to smooth out the rough spots. Just my experience and yours may be different but I am going to stay with what is working for me as you should if you are satisfied with yours. Shoot every chance you get time to get to the range.

[Mags]

Another tip: Drizzling Hoppes #9 Solvent into the chamber and out through the muzzle draws out a lot of the blue/green copper fouling too. Follow with a bore squeegee, chamber and out the muzzle. Repeat drizzle and squeegee until no more blue/green. Finish with a slightly damp patch of gun oil.

[Shakey Jake]

Never thought of trying Seafoam. I use it all the time with my Honda Goldwing. Maybe I'll try running a patch mixed with some Ballistol and see how it works.

[RanchRoper]

I also clean after every outing with my Henry.

[GFK]

I also clean after every outing with my Henry.

Me three.

[Mags]

My bad. Not always. If I know I'm going to be shooting again in the next few days, except for running a dry bore snake through, I let it slide until I know I'm going to be done for awhile.

[RanchRoper]

I guess it depends on how well you know your rifle and the feel of it. Shooting only 1 rifle often I can feel the difference if I skip a cleaning.

[GFK]

For me, I noticed that the action is smoother if I take the bolt out, and clean and lube it.

[Bugs]

I just run a bore snake through the barrel while it is still warm soaked with Ballistol after shooting.

[Viking]

What’s the best way to bore clean lever action rifles (Henry Long Ranger in my case). Is a bore brush good enough by itself? I have been told it’s not good idea to run a regular cleaning rod through the “end of the barrel “ Didn’t worry about it on my bolt actions but need some expert advise. And yes, at my age I should already know the answer,but..... I don’t. Thank you guys and gals! ........PS This is only my third post, so be gentle. GREAT FORUM!

[Mags]

I use a bore snake and a bore cable because I can clean from the breach and out through the muzzle. The bore snake has a nylon brush built into it. It goes into the breach and out the muzzle first. I then follow up that step with a Hoppes #9 soaked swabs on the end of the bore cable, multiple passes until clean, again breach and out the muzzle. Then a couple passes with a bore squeegee and finally a pass with damp gun oiled swab. More steps are involved if I find copper fouling.

Using a traditional cleaning rod won't hurt the muzzle or bore, but cleaning with one pushes the dirt/debris into the rifle chamber and inner working, were it can be more difficult to clean out then cleaning breach to muzzle to begin with.

What’s the best way to bore clean lever action rifles (Henry Long Ranger in my case). Is a bore brush good enough by itself? I have been told it’s not good idea to run a regular cleaning rod through the “end of the barrel “ Didn’t worry about it on my bolt actions but need some expert advise. And yes, at my age I should already know the answer,but..... I don’t. Thank you guys and gals! ........PS This is only my third post, so be gentle. GREAT FORUM!

[Viking]

Thanks Mags. I knew I’d get a great and fast answer here. I’m in Calif. and we have to use copper(non-lead) bullets for hunting. Just ordered some Barnes copper fouling solvent from Midway. What additional steps are needed for this if I can pick your brain a little more?

[Mags]

.
I think in one of your posts in another topic you mention waiting on a .22.
There is a school of thought that because of the lubricants used on .22 ammo a .22 rifle never needs cleaning.

What’s the best way to bore clean lever action rifles (Henry Long Ranger in my case). Is a bore brush good enough by itself? I have been told it’s not good idea to run a regular cleaning rod through the “end of the barrel “ Didn’t worry about it on my bolt actions but need some expert advise. And yes, at my age I should already know the answer,but..... I don’t. Thank you guys and gals! ........PS This is only my third post, so be gentle. GREAT FORUM!

[Mags]

.
My copper fouling cleaning story is part of this topic: http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4230

Thanks Mags. I knew I’d get a great and fast answer here. I’m in Calif. and we have to use copper(non-lead) bullets for hunting. Just ordered some Barnes copper fouling solvent from Midway. What additional steps are needed for this if I can pick your brain a little more?

[Viking]

Thanks again, we keep bumping into each other tonight. I’ll check that out for sure. I was more concerned about my two long rangers(308 and 223). I’m calling it a night. Gotta get up early to mount a deer head for a customer tomorrow.

[clovishound]

I've always cleaned my BBS from the muzzle with a standard rod. I save cleaning the action for last. During normal cleaning, I just wipe everything I can get to with the action open using a q tip with a small amount of CLP on it. It's always pretty clean. I doubt that I get much stuff in the action, and I pull the action down about once every thousand rounds for a complete clean and lube. Not spotless, but no buildup of anything I can see. I load my own target ammo with coated lead, so there is usually a lot more residue than factory, jacketed ammo. Still doesn't seem to be an issue with cleaning from the muzzle.

[Vaquero]

You do know It's not hard to remove the bolt and use the rod from the chamber end. Right?
That's the way I was taught.

RP

[DAVIDF]

The vast majority of time I use a bore snake sprayed with CLP in all of my firearms. If I have some leading, then I'll use a Lewis Lead Remover. You won't have that issue with copper bullets of course.

The last I heard one of the armorers speak who works with the Army Marksman Unit (if that is the correct designation), they cleaned the copper fouling only after two or three thousand rounds. I believe it was more often at three thousand. They found their rifles produced more consistent accuracy with some copper fouling. When it got to about three thousand rounds, the accuracy started to degrade slightly. Of course, this is talking about extreme accuracy, much better than I am ever dealing with. Also, they are using jacketed not pure copper bullets. I would imagine that there would be more copper fouling with the pure copper bullets from Barnes, but probably not enough to worry with cleaning out constantly unless there is an issue with a particular barrel.

[Mags]

.
For me, normal cleaning is as above. As for infrequent tear down deep cleaning, that's when I clean the action. Henrys appear well designed and don't seem to need often action cleaning. For the Long Ranger Henry doesn't want us to do tear down cleaning at all.

As for rod cleaning from the muzzle end, I've seen the swab on the end of rod bleed gunk into the chamber and seep downward into the action when the rod is reversed to pull it out.

I've always cleaned my BBS from the muzzle with a standard rod. I save cleaning the action for last. During normal cleaning, I just wipe everything I can get to with the action open using a q tip with a small amount of CLP on it. It's always pretty clean. I doubt that I get much stuff in the action, and I pull the action down about once every thousand rounds for a complete clean and lube. Not spotless, but no buildup of anything I can see. I load my own target ammo with coated lead, so there is usually a lot more residue than factory, jacketed ammo. Still doesn't seem to be an issue with cleaning from the muzzle.

[Mags]

.
I run my bore snake through dry to scrape and draw out any loose and easy loosened stuff. Then wet swabs, etc.

My Henry .30-30 was heavily copper fouled after 85 rounds (plus however many Henry did in test firing). It was amazing how much better it shot after copper foul cleaning.

The vast majority of time I use a bore snake sprayed with CLP in all of my firearms. If I have some leading, then I'll use a Lewis Lead Remover. You won't have that issue with copper bullets of course.

The last I heard one of the armorers speak who works with the Army Marksman Unit (if that is the correct designation), they cleaned the copper fouling only after two or three thousand rounds. I believe it was more often at three thousand. They found their rifles produced more consistent accuracy with some copper fouling. When it got to about three thousand rounds, the accuracy started to degrade slightly. Of course, this is talking about extreme accuracy, much better than I am ever dealing with. Also, they are using jacketed not pure copper bullets. I would imagine that there would be more copper fouling with the pure copper bullets from Barnes, but probably not enough to worry with cleaning out constantly unless there is an issue with a particular barrel.