Len ...
i have a barrel that has a lot of carbon in the throat and muzzlebreak area. what solvent could i use to cut the carbon out without scraping or brushing it out of there? i was planning on letting this sit overnight-any sugesstions? this is not a benchrest barrel but i know you br guys use different products for getting the carbon out completely. LenH
No need to let your barrel sit overnight when you can have the carbon out in a few minutes regardless of barrel quality. And, no need to fiddle with caustic chemicals. Here's some information I've accumulated that reference the use of JB Bore cleaner by names you may recognize and a product I use often on my Krieger barrels.
"I personally believe in the use of JB Bore Cleaner... I use it after every yardage. 3 to 5 tight fitting patches with JB will get the powder fouling out... I do a full cleaning before I use JB and also after I use JB, to make certain I've got all the JB out of the barrel. ... Tony Boyer"
Source: The Benchrest Shooting Primer, ON THE TOPIC OF BARRELS, by Tony Boyer, Page 349, upper left.
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Krieger Barrels Inc,: Q&A
Q: Will a paste-type bore cleaner such as J.B. hurt a barrel during cleaning?
A: No. There is nothing that we can find that shows that it will harm the barrel provided you use a rod guide and refrain from exiting the muzzle.
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Instructions received from Krieger along with my Krieger barrel: Break-In and Cleaning, Under Cleaning:
"Abrasive cleaners work well. They do not damage the bore, they clean all types of fouling (copper, powder, lead, plastic), and they have the added advantage of of polishing the throat both in 'break in' and later on when the throat begins to roughen again from the rounds fired. One national champion we know polishes the throats on his rifles every several hundred rounds or so with diamond paste to extend their accuracy life."
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Dip a patch in the JB container then fold over and rub sides together between finger and thumb till small anount is spread around center of patch. If you get too much on a patch rub 2 patches together
Short stroke down your barrel, scrub big just in front of chamber well. Use a rod stop collar on your rod to keep the felt from existing the muzzle so you can short stroke effectively.
Since JB separates when it gets hot, stick your finger in and stir. Then scrape off as much as possible on the rim of the container. After that, use a patch to wipe off all of the JB that couldn't be scraped off your finger. That's the right amount for cleaning the bore.
J-B® Bore Cleaning Compound can be used with any cleaning solution.
We’ve tried this process, in an old barrel that was pretty badly jacket fouled, and it worked really well. First clean the bore with three or four patches dampened with cleaning solution. Run each patch through the bore eight to ten times, then leave the bore wet with solvent.
Next, wrap a cleaning patch diagonally around a brush, and rub a pea-sized amount of J-B® onto the patch surface. Run the patch through the bore fifteen or twenty times, pull the patch off the brush, and do it over again. The J-B® coated patches will appear to be covered with thin, black grease – that's normal. Finally, after running two or three patches through the bore, clean out the remaining J-B® with solvent on clean patches, then dry patch the bore. If fouling is still visible, repeat the process until the bore is clean.
J-B can be used two ways. Intermediate cleaning is done using a patch embedded with the paste. Preceded by using a good solvent and brushing. It is followed by "washing" the residue out with more solvent wetted patches, followed by dry patches, and finally a lube agent to take away the dryness. Lube agents can be thin gun oils, Kroil, NAPA Lock EEz, or Stan Buchtels colloidal graphite called Graphoil.
The second method of using pastes, and a much more aggressive process, is by using a nylon brush with some paste on the bristles and short-stroking as you scrub down the barrel. Again, precede and follow with solvent, patches and oil.
As to the products, the JB's have been around for some time. If they were harmful we would have already heard about it.
Another great product is Iosso. It comes in a tube and contains a slight amount of copper remover in addition its abrasives. Iosso also makes nylon brushes designed just for the short-stroke cleaning mentioned above.
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To maintain accuracy: "Keep the throat clean!"
With fine match barrels, ***"Carbon fouling is the real culprit."***
How do you find the carbon ring ???
1. Pull a NYLON bore brush back through the bore, from muzzle to breech.
2. You'll feel lots of resistance on the rod when it hits the carbon build-up.
3. That's where you need to scrub with Iosso or JB paste.
NOTE: we do NOT advise reversing a phosphor bronze brush through the bore. And NEVER short-stroke with a tight-fitting bronze brush!
