How to clean those small bores

[Guest]

I cleaned my bushmaster .223 for the first time the other night after shooting about 50rounds. I could not get the barrel fully clean. I used generous solvent,brushed it 4-5 times and ran a patch thru about 15-20 times. The last one still came out grey. Any hints? Also,I had to cut up the patches into sixths just to get them thru.Do they make mini patches for smaller bores?

[tekkieman]

What brush size are you using? For a 7mm magnum, I used a .22 brush. They do make small patches, they come about 500 to a bag. Usually when I see that the bore is not coming clean well, it do to cheap ammo - like Federal. Who's the manufacturer of your ammo?

[Guest]

ultramax ammo
.22 brush

[tekkieman]

I found these in a quick google search. The description puts the small patches at 1 1/4". that should be just acout right. As for the ammo, I would want to leave that to someone who knows more about it for your particular model.



Here's the lonk to the site with the patches.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/browse/browse.asp?c=75&s=12&p=s&bt=

[Guest]

Thnaks T

[thayne]

When I was in the Marine Corps and we wanted the barrel really clean, we used carborator cleaner....

[Capmaster]

Buy an assortment of brushes that are slightly too large. As they wear they get looser.

Use Hoppe's #9 Lead and Copper solvent. Wet bore and let soak overnight. Works wonders.

When cleaning the next day, alternate gun oil patches and Hoppe's #9 regular solvent. In a pinch use kerosene. Finish with oil patch

[Guest]

Buy an assortment of brushes that are slightly too large. As they wear they get looser.

Use Hoppe's #9 Lead and Copper solvent. Wet bore and let soak overnight. Works wonders.

When cleaning the next day, alternate gun oil patches and Hoppe's #9 regular solvent. In a pinch use kerosene. Finish with oil patch

Overnight- do you have to plug the ends or do you just poor some in and llay it horizontal?

What does the alternation achieve? Have youtried the oil/cleaner combo products?

[Capmaster]

Buy an assortment of brushes that are slightly too large. As they wear they get looser.

Use Hoppe's #9 Lead and Copper solvent. Wet bore and let soak overnight. Works wonders.

When cleaning the next day, alternate gun oil patches and Hoppe's #9 regular solvent. In a pinch use kerosene. Finish with oil patch

Overnight- do you have to plug the ends or do you just poor some in and llay it horizontal?

What does the alternation achieve? Have youtried the oil/cleaner combo products?

Just wet it and set it down as close to horizontal as you can. Apply it with a brush or patch. No need to plug the barrel. Never a good idea to plug your barrel with anything because of trapped moisture.

Oil acts as a solvent. Many gun owner's manuals recommend cleaning with only oil. I'll bet you didn't know that Alternating oil and solvent seems to work better than one or the other. I've had some stubbornly dirty barrels that require a good 50 patches of alternating before they're mirror-clean.

[sterno]

It's an AR-15, not a showpiece. A gun doesn't need to pass the "white-glove" test to operate reliably. If it's a brand-new gun you should probably clean it frequently, but once it's broken in it'll come clean more easily and you should be able to go 500+ rounds between cleanings with no ill effects. Excessive/improper cleaning can actually do more harm than good.

For .223 and .22 barrels I just use a standard Hoppe's patch cut in to quarters. It's a little tight, but it's fine.