10-09-2012, 07:16 PM
noone Wrote:I have heard, and believe that more barrels are worn out through careless cleaning than from shooting them out. Most people who purchase a high end barrel go to the trouble to learn how to care for it properly. It is the people who get a sectioned steel military cleaning rod because it is cheap, then scrub back and forth in the barrel that ruins things. They will either ruin the crown, or the throat of the barrel doing this.
If you use a good coated rod, and clean from breech to muzzle you will probably have your barrel last a long time. If you make the mistake of dragging the rod back into the barrel after it has exited the muzzle, you will wear an oblong groove in the lower part of your barrel where the rod is dragged back into the bore.
I rarely use a brush, and bronze brushes only on a really good rifle barrel. I use a bore guide, and push from breech to muzzle, remove the device from the cleaning rod, carefully lift the rod and take it through the bore in a way that doesn't allow it to drag on the lower part of the muzzle's crown. I first use something like hoppes, then remove that. Then if necessary, I'll use something like Sweets 7.62 or another ammonia product to get the copper out. When I'm satisfied that enough copper is out, I use lots of dry patches. Then I'll swab with Hoppes again, dry, oil, then dry the bore to make sure I have neutralized all the ammonia.
This is probably overkill, but I would rather not worry that it was my leaving ammonia in the barrel that ruined a fine rifle barrel.
I only leave oil in the bore if it is going in for long term storage (over 6 months).
In my directions from Precision Firearms they say after the Sweets use hydrogen peroxide to neutralize the Sweets then dry patches