F T/R Competition got to love factory barrels

[savageshooter86]

Gun wasn't shooting right. So looked down muzzle and it was a copper mine field!! So got out the cleaning box. Used carb out first. Then dry patched clean. Next I used accelerator and wipe out. And still showed the copper spot. Did wipe out again and let it sit for about 3 hours. Still had the copper at muzzle. So broke out JB paste and scrubbed. Copper was still there. Got Kroil and bronze brush to barrel. Put a patch of wipe out and pushed down barrel and let the patch sit on the spot for about 5 hours. Patched it out and it is finally gone!!! Have never seen this before in my barrel. Just cleaned it well 45 rounds ago.

Was like the copper was stuck there about 1.5" long just at muzzle

Hoping my accuracy will come back next time I shoot
Savage FTR 308 barrel

Looks like I did surgery on my cleaning bench. About 100 patches with all kind of colors and used just about every cleaving tool I had.

 

[cornhusker]

some of those factory barrels are rougher than a cob..Maybe all your scrubbin smothed it out some in that spot..Good luck with it shootin...let us know how it goes for ya..

 

[Tempest 455]

How many rounds total?

 

[jim_k]

The best copper remover is Bore Tech Copper Remover. 40-50 swabs with a nylon oversize brush, then 4-5 wet patches, and finish with any carbon remover, like Bore Tech, Hoppe's #9, Shooter's Choice. Your barrel needs to be diamond-lapped, most likely. Diamond-lapping makes cleaning easier, and minimizes copper fouling. Krieger and Shilen diamond-lap their high-end barrels. Lapping also improves accuracy. It may need to be repeated after about 500 rounds, if fouling or diminished accuracy occur.

 

[savageshooter86]

640 rounds total. I "broke" in barrel and have cleaned with wipeout and carbout every 150-180 rounds. Have JB it one other time

How/where does one get barrel diamond lapped?

 

[sakobob]

first thing is stop using a bronze brush, it gives a false reading on your patches.
let the wipe-out sit and patch it out the next mourning,place the gun muzzle down in a plastic container and you will
have a puddle of blue water in the mourning.
fyi kroil dont do squat to fouling.

 

[savageshooter86]

I use aluminum jag with copper solvent. To eliminate false reading. The bronze brush was only used after all else had failed. I use Kroil with JB to help get under all the fouling. Also just use Kroil to remove initial loose stuff

 

[jim_k]

Call a gunsmith in your area about diamond-lapping. If that doesn't find one, go to a high-power match, and ask around there about who is doing diamond-lapping.

 

[gigamortis]

I ran the Tubbs Final Finish system through my stock Savage 10fp barrel with great success. The barrel was once a copper magnet. It always shot good, but I like to have a clean barrel. From the looks of the ID of my barrel, I think it may have been the last blank that got drilled with a tired drill bit when it was made! After about the 3rd grit of the Final Finish kit, I definitely noticed patches were easier to push down the barrel than before. The drill marks are still there, but the tops of those drill marks are much smoother as verified by easier patch passage and vastly reduced copper buildup.

The Final Finish kit comes with 5 grits of mildly abrasive coated bullets containing 10 bullets of each grit. The directions say to clean the barrel after every 5 shots. I went one big step farther and cleaned after every shot for the 50 shot regimen due to how rough the ID of my factory barrel was. I was promptly rewarded with 1/3 to 1/4 MOA groups at 100 yards with a much easier cleanup than before. I was very pleased with these results being from a factory barrel.

All I do for cleaning now is to use Boretech Eliminator as per its instructions, and follow it up with two 1/2 hour soakings of Gunslick foaming bore cleaner. All copper is gone after this simple cleaning regimen.

Every couple of hundred rounds, I use two shots of the Tubbs throat maintenance kit. It contains 50 bullets of the #3 grit bullets from the Final Finish kit. These smooth out the heat checking commonly found in the throat area to help preserve accuracy over the life of the barrel.

 

[damoncali]

Why spend money lapping a problematic barrel with no guarantee that it will fix it when you can put that towards a good barrel that won't have these problems from the start? Just a thought.