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Am I Fighting Copper Fouling?

M_16_4_REAL

RubiconJK
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 24, 2012
216
32
40
Seattle
Been shooting my Ruger Precision 556 a lot more lately getting ready for prairie dogging. Bought new, added a timney trigger, and a Surefire break. Other than that, it’s as it came from ruger.
Proper break in was performed, and it rewarded me with very acceptable accuracy.
After about 400 rounds I feel my groups were very good for a stock barrel. With handloads, 80g ELD’s, 75g BTHPs I was getting groups in the .4” range consistently at 100y.
I’m not running anywhere near max charges so I’m eliminating that as a factor. The weather has been pretty much 55-65 degrees, powder temp should not be an issue since my work ups were done in the same temps. Bullets, brass, powder are all same lots as I worked up with, and there’s been no change to my reloading gear or process.
After about 800-850 rounds, I see my accuracy has not been as good. Using same loads, same process, same setup, and even shooting from the same bench at the range, best I can shoot is around .7” group after group. I feel like I’m not shooting any worse, and my other rifles have verified this.
My normal cleaning process is every 250 rounds, I use breakthrough, brush, hoppes 9, brush, and alternating wet/dry patches until they come out clean. At 600 rounds I did a jb borepaste deep clean, just like I have with every other rifle I own. This didn’t change group size, was still around .4” using handloads. I use a coated rod, bore guide, all the normal cleaning stuff to not damage the barrel.
Within the last 150 or so rounds, my groups have noticeably opened up.
I don’t own a borescope, so I can’t exactly tell if I’m fighting cooper fouling, heavy carbon buildup, or what.

Do I need to get another bore cleaning product to add to my cleaning regime, or clean more often, or what.
Honestly, this is my first precision centerfire, excluding ar’s, that has a stock barrel.
Am I just at the point where a stock barrel has reached peak performance and is now dropping off? Am I being unrealistic in expecting a cold hammer forged stock barrel to hold sub half inch accuracy to 1k rounds?
 
Bore polish can do strange things, the most common that I have personally experiences is heavy carbon fowling - the kind that you think does not exist because the patches come out clean. If that is what is going on, C4 for the carbon (followed by C2 to get the copper as mentioned), followed by letting the barrel soak for a few days with Hoppes (run wet patches every day) should pull all the crap out of it including getting rid of the polish that causes carbon fowling. You could also just blow everything out the barrel with Wipe Out Patch Out, but it will strip everything.

Barrels are not all made equal, so while the JB may have not had adverse effects on other barrels it is the only thing that changed based on your post. I also agree that 1k is nothing for 556.
 
I would look at checking your cartridge length and how far you are off the lands now compared to when it was shooting well. You may be seeing the result of land erosion after using the paste and you have left the accuracy node.
 
^^ checked distance to lands with Stoney point comparator. Still same unchanged from new.
Picked up some wipe out tactical and accelerator. Just finished cleaning. Damn I was amazed at the amount of blue on the patches. Got a very small amount of brown/yellow on a couple patches at the beginning. Took 4 rounds of scrubbing to get clean. Whole shit ton of copper fouling. I’m confident now I am not going to be fighting copper any more.
Interested to see what groups look like l. Will head to the range on Sunday and update.
Thank you for turning me on to the wipe out. Guess now I’m on the hook to clean a few more rifles and see what I get out of them.
 
I know that some shooters use WO out the time. However, keep in mind that some copper is needed in the barrel, which is why I pointed out that it will completely strip out everything.

As for your barrel holding on to stuff after the JB, you likely have tool marks inside the barrel that the polish settled into and thus had the bullet pull polish down the barrel giving the jacket less room/causing causing accuracy problems.
 
How have you been cleaning your bore? Do you have good bore guides?
 
Not sure who Cooper is or why you’d be fighting him? *Copper*

Funny little typo I saw when scrolling
 
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Previous cleaning process was covered in OP. Yes I use a possum hollow bore guide and coated rod.