Educational Zone #48 - Cleaning a Rifle Barrel

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Educational Zone #48 - Cleaning a Rifle Barrel - Page 2

I wet the bore and then change to a bronze bore brush in the appropriate caliber.

The Mosin has a .310 to .312 bore, but they are usually worn, so I use a .35 caliber bore brush to get a tight fit.

I apply some Kroil/Shooter's Choice to the brush and then push it through the bore, 6 to 8 strokes, both ways.

I then run another soaked patch through and it will push out a bunch of black nasty stuff.

This is a mixture of powder fouling and copper fouling from the jacketed bullets.

I then push another soaked patch through the bore and set the rifle aside for 30 minutes or longer.

This will allow the solution to chemically dissolve the copper fouling in the bore.

I take this time to clean the bolt.

I scrub it with solvent and an old toothbrush, being sure to clean the bolt face and under the extractor.

I spray more solvent on it to wash off the crud, and then use high pressure air to blow it all clean and dry.

After letting the solution "work" a while, I wet another patch and push it down the bore.

You will notice the green color of the stuff pushed out of the bore.

This is evidence that the solution is dissolving the copper.

I then use another soaked patch and can do the whole procedure again, if desired.

Some ask, "How many times do you have to do this?"

The answer is different for different rifles. A new rifle, with an excellent bore will probably be clean enough after one cycle of the procedure. A "rough" bore may benefit from more than one cycle. Even a new and excellent bore may require more than one cycle, if it hasn't been properly cleaned in a long while.

I once helped a friend clean a .25-06 Remington hunting rifle that he had bought at a gun show. The bore was filthy and it shot "patterns" of about 6 to 8 inches, instead of "groups".

We cleaned the rifle in this manner several times before it cleaned up properly. He then took it to the range and it shot into 1 1/2 inches at 100 yards. A clear case of poor shooting because of a filthy bore.

But keep in mind that on an old C&R rifle like this one, you could do this procedure dozens of times and every time you would get black stuff after the brush scrubbing and get green patches after letting it soak.

The truth is that after a while on these old C&R rifles with rough bores, you are just removing more and more rifling from the bore. It will never be 100% perfect again, no matter how much you scrub it. And excessive scrubbing does more harm than good.

I usually do only one cycle of cleaning on these old rifles.