Cleaning for Carbon

DocRDS · Wednesday at 10:49 PM

Had my first carbon ring cause issues and of course, now am paranoid.

Got the borescope gave it a thorough cleaning. What the F am I looking for?

Here'a pic with and without a piece of brass

Which area am I trying to scrub out--when i was getting marks on bullets, im guessing it was in the throat, but there is that black shadow right there at the edge of the chamber--which one am I trying to remove?

spife7980 · Wednesday at 11:04 PM

Both.
Clean the dirty chamber so that crap isn’t built up on the case mouth pinching it.
Clean the dirty throat where carbon has accumulated and is scratching against the bullet.

DocRDS · Wednesday at 11:17 PM

so it looks like throat is ok, gotta clear up the end of the chamber

JerkyFreak · Thursday at 3:18 AM

The green line is the carbon ring. The red is what you have to scrub

StraightJacketArmory · Thursday at 11:27 AM

Get a bore mop or shotgun mop and soak it in a carbon remover, twist that in there and let it sit, repeat that a couple times then flush fith brakecleaner and see if it goes away.

I would stay away from bronze brushes. If its super stuck a nylon brush can be used and just twist away

DocRDS · Thursday at 12:26 PM

@spife7980 and @JerkyFreak
Thanks, I needed to know what I was looking at and what to watch for when cleaning. Time for some (gentle) elbow grease.

matt33 · Thursday at 4:16 PM

I had an older 6.5 CM barrel that still had some life left in it with a carbon ring. I let it soak with Boretech for a while, but patches did not do anything.

Because it was an older barrel and I had little to lose, I chucked up a bronze 30 caliber brush on a section of cleaning rod in a cordless drill and used a high quality bore guide, I carefully spun it for about 15 seconds without letting the rod come in contact with anything. This process took the carbon ring out very quickly and did absolutely no damage to the barrel whatsoever. I proceeded to shoot a sub .3 MOA group with it after cleaning.

I would not make a habit of attaching a bore brush to a drill, but a bronze brush when properly/carefully used is not going to hurt anything.

Stugots · Thursday at 5:40 PM

matt33 said:
I had an older 6.5 CM barrel that still had some life left in it with a carbon ring. I let it soak with Boretech for a while, but patches did not do anything.

Because it was an older barrel and I had little to lose, I chucked up a bronze 30 caliber brush on a section of cleaning rod in a cordless drill and used a high quality bore guide, I carefully spun it for about 15 seconds without letting the rod come in contact with anything. This process took the carbon ring out very quickly and did absolutely no damage to the barrel whatsoever. I proceeded to shoot a sub .3 MOA group with it after cleaning.

I would not make a habit of attaching a bore brush to a drill, but a bronze brush when properly/carefully used is not going to hurt anything.

I've done this as well with the same results.

carbonbased · Thursday at 6:22 PM

I recently discovered a way to get rid of carbon rings pretty easily without a brush or a drill.

Rifle Competition Events - Cleaning for Competitions

Everyone and their mother has a different cleaning regime. Different products, different process and different definitions of what cleaning is. For many years my cleaning process for precision rifles has been follow boretech instructions. Maybe do a cycle or 2. Gun shoots well again and is...

www.snipershide.com

FYI. I’m not wading into a debate about brushes and drills. I just follow @Frank Green ’s advice.

JerkyFreak · Thursday at 6:35 PM

A bronze brush with a petroleum solvent will not damage barrel steel. There are literally decades of proof out there.

Any brush (nylon and bronze) used with an abrasive (Ilosso, JB, Butch) can damage barrel steel if used incorrectly.

DocRDS · Thursday at 8:54 PM

Couple further questions (feel free to mock my noob-ness and use of borescope)

Here is the start of my throat (lands to upper right). Do I need to worry about the discoloration? I've pounded this barrel with cleaner and elbow grease (Its the same barrel as above). My though is, its clean enough to shoot (1500+ rounds on this one). I stand to be corrected.

Near the throat the riflling looks a little carbon-ized. Is this something to obsess over or just drive on.

R_A_W · 2025-06-27T08:35:40-0400

Don’t worry about it

Carbon ring is gone, Carbon staining is standard

memilanuk · 2025-06-27T11:17:18-0400

Not sure which thread it was in, but someone mentioned cleaning til the carbon was gone, vs cleaning til all the carbon *staining* was gone.

I'll admit, that was a face-palm moment for me. Probably been cleaning way more than I needed to, to get those last black streaks out.

Marine52 · 2025-06-27T12:39:52-0400

memilanuk said:
Not sure which thread it was in, but someone mentioned cleaning til the carbon was gone, vs cleaning til all the carbon *staining* was gone.

I'll admit, that was a face-palm moment for me. Probably been cleaning way more than I needed to, to get those last black streaks out.

I’m probably guilty of this also. Also, I’ve noticed that sometimes the dark streaks are shadows of the lands. As I gain experience with the borescope, turning it as it moves in the bore eliminates the land shadow and reveals the carbon or lack thereof.

DocRDS · 2025-06-27T14:30:24-0400

THanks guys I appreciate it. I'm calling it good for now. Main goal is to avoid those pressure problems and not go OCD over complete bore cleanliness like the F-Class doods (no offense F-class doods). IF I evver get good at F-class, maybe I'll let the OCD go hog wild, but I got too much **** to do to spend hours cleaning a rifle.

billm2067 · 2025-06-27T19:46:54-0400

Recently had to deal with trying to get a carbon ring out of my Bergara B14R. I tried a couple of things to clean it and what took care of it was the BoreTech carbon remover. Soaked a patch and let it sit in the chamber for 15 minutes. Then I used a bore tech nylon bristle brush and it barely got any of it out. Then I soaked the brush in the carbon remover and gave it 20 strokes on the chamber with a brass pistol rod. This got a good bit of it out. Repeated the soaking brush in carbon remover /scrub and it was nice and. I was using a borescope at each step so I could clearly see the progress.

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Cleaning for Carbon

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