CHAPTER 1 7

CLEAN ING TH E BARREL

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A rifle in the cradle ready for cleaning.

Jn.r. are many ways to clean a barrel and some are better than others. Over
I -unyy.ars of experimenting, i have found that keeping the barrel free of copper
and powder fouling greatly improves the ability to shoot good consistent groups. in
addition to doing a good job of cleaning, another requisite of a good cleaning process
is to minimize the damage that cleaning can do to your rifle.
As you fire a bullet, a great deal of force is exerted on it from burning powder.
Some of the force is required to accelerate the bullet from dead stop to over 3300
feet per second while opposing the friction of the bore surface. Some of the force is
used to create spin. A bullet leaving a typical 1 in 14 twist barrel will have spun over
250 times by the time it reaches the 100 yard target.
The result of these forces is that some of the copper from the jacket gets ripped
off and layered on the bore. In addition, even with the clean burning powders and
primers used toda¡ some carbon and other by-products of combustion also get
deposited on the bore. An effective cleaning program will attack these unwanted
elements and leave the rifle at its peak of accuracy.

197
198 THE BOOK OF RIFLE ACCURACY

Let's start by listing the equipment you will need. Keep in mind that if you do
not use a 6mm, adjust brush sizes accordingly:
. A Cleaning Cradle is a highly recommended convenience item used to hold
the rifle while cleaning. There are many cradles available for purchase, and
you can build your own. A cradle will hold the rifle snug, will not mar the
stock, provides easy access to the action and will be inclined downward at
the muzzle so cleaning fluids will draw out the muzzle and not back into the
action. It should also be set at a height that allows you to comfortably run the
cleaning rod through the barrel, and keep it straight (no bending). After saying
all that, I must tell you that I do not have very much room in my motor home
so we do not carry cradles with us to matches. Faye and I clean our rifles on
the table we place outside, under the awning of the motor home. I believe that
if I had the room I would be carrying cradles.
. CleaningRods. Get two cleaning rods with bearings in the handle. The rods
can be stainless steel or Teflon-coated composites. There are a number of
great cleaning rods available. I happen to use Dewey rods because they feel
comfortable to me. You should also get (or make), a couple of cleaning rod
protectors which are nothing more than long tubes (often thin walled alumi-
num) where you keep the rods when not in use. Anything you can do to keep
your equipment free of dirt helps. When you buy cleaning rods make sure to
get the right length. The way you calculate this is to measure the longest rifle
that you have and purchase the next larger length. You do not want to get a rod
that is too short or it will be forced to bend Lrp over the stock to get the patch
or brush to clear the muzzle. A rod that is too long may also be a problem in
that it may get too whiPPY.
. Brushes. Your primary brushes for regular cleaning should be brass cored
with bronze bristles and made for your caliber (6mm in my case)' Never use
steel core or steel bristled brushes as they may damage the bore or the crown
of the barrel! There are very stiff nylon bristied brushes available that can be
trsed with the high ammonia cleaners, such as Sweets 7.62 Solvent ot Montana
Extreme and some shooters find these to work well for them'

This area needs to be filed out or barrel crown will be damaged'

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Example of a cleaning rod with misaligned brush'

 CHAPTER 1 7: CLEANING THE BARREL 199

Pay close attention to the brush to cleaning rod mating area. I have never
had a brush I did not have to "doctor up' in some way. When you screw the
brush on the rod, look very carefully at the mating areas to see if anything
sticks out that can bump the crown of the barrel or hold dirt as the brush goes
in or out of fhe mtzzle. Often I have to flle a small amount of the brush stem
so that it does not hit any'where.
In addition to the regular cleaning brush, two other brushes are needed. One
brush is intended to clean the carbon powder from the bore. It is a 6mm brass
cored brush with soft nylon bristles. This brush should be used with Iosso as

discussed below. The other brush removes carbon buildup from the neck area
of the chamber. This brush is 6.5mm with a brass core and bronze bristles.
lags. My normal jag is a straight .22 callber jag
with a patch piercing tip made
for my chosen brand of cleaning rods. The reason that I use a.22 callber jagin
a 6mm bore is that it works well with large l3/+ inch patches. This large patch
gives me the correct feel in the bore while providing a good amount of surface
area for scrubbing. Occasionally I also use a non-piercing jag that holds the
patch wrapped around it. This jaglpalch combination fits more tightly in the
bore and is used for going after tight spots I may feel in the bore as I clean.
Bore Guide. This is a three piece set. The first part is a hollow tube with an
O-ring on the end and an opening to put cleaning fluids on a patch or brush.
It is shaped so that it fits in through the back of the action and down into the
chamber of the barrel. The O-ring keeps fluids from flowing out of the barrel
into the action and possibly gumming up the trigger or ruining the gluing or
paint on the stock. The other two pieces are sleeves that fit snuggly over each
of your rods (before you attach a brush). The way this all works is:
. Put the main tube in the action.

' Take a sleeved cleaning rod (if it has a jag, put the patch on first) and start
the cleaning rod into the tube until you can see the patch (or brush) through
the opening.
. Add cleaning fluid to the patch through the opening.
. Push the rod in a little more until you feel the resistance of the lands.
. Slide the sleeve down the cleaning rod into the tube.
When this is done, the rod is centered with the bore and held in place on one
side by the patch (or brush) and on the other side by the sleeve. You should still
try to keep the cleaning rod as straight in alignment as you can, as you work
 THE BOOK OF RIFLE ACCURACY

the rod back and forth, but this will minimize the amount of contact between
the rod and the bore. I use a TI( Nolan Throat Saverbore guide system ani
find that it is long enough to maintain good rod guidance and is tight enough
to allow patches through it without pushing with excessive force.
Patches. Depending on caliber and jag, it may be necessary to experiment ;
bit to get a good tight fit. For 6mm bore, using a .22 callber jag I use l% tnc'r
patches.
CleaningFluid.I use I44PE-OUT'" with ACCELERATOR* and find it a gooc
compromise between mild and harsh mixes. There are other cleaning fluid.
that work well (Butch's Bore Shine, Montana Extreme, Shooters' Choice, efc.
and depending on your cleaning system you may find one works better tc:
you. This, like many other things, is an area where you need to experiment.
Bore Mop. A very common item used to clean the bore in the barrel. I usuaLl-
place a l3/+ inchpatch over the bore mop as it goes into the chamber so tha: -

keep the bore mop clean.

Bore Lubricant. Light duty oil such as Kroil, gw oll or Lock-Ease Lubrictu;:
Below we will discuss how and when to apply the lubricant to the bore.
Lug Grease. Any EP (extreme pressure) type automotive or industrial greas.
can be used to lightly lube critical mating areas.
Borescope. An optional item, but I use mine so often that it has become ind-.
pensable to me.

REGULAR CLEANING
Regular barrel cleaning should be done after every twenty rounds. Why twenty? I ha'' .
gone more than that, sometimes up to forty and did not see an appreciable decreas"
in accuracy. Other times, especially in hot weather, going past twenty rounds ¡¿:.
start to show accuracy degradation. Being on the cautious side, I decided to settle ,--.-

twenty for normal practice and barrel evaluation. At a match, if I have time, I nr.'
clean after every target even though I may only have 7 or 8 shots through the bar:¿,
Other times I may go two targets before cleaning.
The sooner ).ou clean after shooting the easier it will be to remove the carbr,,
that builds up rn the bore. If I am going to clean a barrel after I shoot a target, I .:-
. , 1,, -: rS St-roir as I get back to rnr- loading area. Ilpossible, I clean when the bar:.,
 CHAPTER 1 7: CLEANING THE BARREL 20i

Some barrels do not fit comfortably into the "rule of twentyi' and you need to
keep an eye on them for accuracy degradation. There are also barrels that need
cleaning after 10 rounds. Finall¡ there are others that act stupid for the first few
rounds after cleaning and then their accuracy improves. They may go as many as
50 rounds before accuracy starts to deteriorate. Ifthe barrel is not accurate until it
shoots three rounds then you should go to the sighter target and shoot those shots
before you go to the record.
I start my cleaning by putting the rifle on a towel covering my cleaning table (if
you have a cleaning cradle it would probably be easier to do it that way). I then put the
scope caps on the scope (keeps solvent particulates from getting blown onto the optics).
I insert a bore guide through the back of the action into the barrel chamber and cover
the tailstock with a solvent guard (which is nothing more than a piece of leather big
enough to cover it and keep solvents from messing up the paint and bedding).
I run two through the bore soaked with wIpE-our'- with
l3/+ inch patches
ACCELERATOR*. After I run the wet patches through, I soak the nylon brush with
WIPE-OUT'.'tuith ACCELERATOR* and do enough strokes with the brush until the
barrel feels smooth, generally 10 to 20 strokes. I know you would like me to give you
an exact count but the reality is that if the barrel is shooting well and it feels smooth
after 10 strokes I may stop there. If it starts shooting badly or throws some shots
(shots that I cannot attribute to condition changes), then I may do 30 brushings.
After the brushing I follow with two dry patches and one patch with a couple
of drops of Lock-Ease on it to lubricate the bore. Next I remove the bore guide and
swab out the chamber with the bore mop that I cover with a patch (patches are a lot
cheaper than bore mops). The last thing I do is clean and grease the bolt and rvipe
the mtzzle of the barrel.
It is not always that simple. As I run the brush and dry patches through the bore,
I feel for rough spots or constrictions. If I feel any, then I will take a tight patch, put
losso orlB Bore Paste on it and run it back and forth on that spot until it clears up. I
then run a couple of dry patches through (do not be alarmed if you see black residue
coming out dry patch after dry patch) and repeat the normal cleaning (wet patches,
brushing, dry patches). once again, I pay close attention as I run the brush and dry
patches through the bore to make sure no rough spots remain. It does not happen
very often, but there are times when I have had to clean the bore more than twice.
Be especially careful when the weather is hot. During hot weather barrels seem to
foul more. This is another good time to use a borescope and check the bore.
202 THE BOOK OF RIFLE ACCURACY

Dashed lines indicate rod bowed up and bowed down

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Figure illustrating keeping the cleaning rod straight.

You must get used to running the rod straight into and out of the bore guide. I
see alot of shooters with the rods bowed as they clean their rifles and in spite of gooc
bore guides you can still get the rod to scrape the rifling. Have a friend watch you fron
the side and tell you if you are bowing your cleaning rod or keeping it straight.

CARBON RING
One of the things that used to plague me was having a barrel that had been shoot-
ing well suddenly start throwing shots that made no sense. Over time I discoverec
(using a borescope) that a ring of hard carbon fouling builds up in the barrel, just ai
the end ofwhere a case neck reaches.

Carbon fouling build-up

Barrel <utaway.

This ring increases in size with each firing as more and more carbon gets depc.
ited. You have probably noticed that case necks grow longer after each firing and tb .
not all cases grow at the same rate.
 CHAPTER 1 7: CLEANING THE BARREL 203

The ring starts to squeeze down on some of the loaded case necks, increasing
neck tension and therefore pressure. Other effects are also possible in that the carbon
ring does not grow with perfect concentricity. It is therefore also possible for a case
neck to get pushed offto the side, affecting the bullet to bore alignment.
These causes lead to what I would call "stupid shotsj' shots that could not be
readily explained when looking at conditions. I suppose if you trimmed all your brass
after each firing this would not make much of a difference, but in the practical world
it is better to get rid of the ring periodically so that it never gets to be substantial
enough to be a problem.

ADDITIONAL CLEANING
The tlpe of cleaning that I am about to describe should be done at the end of every
aggregate or after approximately 60 shots. If you wait 200 or 300 rounds before doing
this cleaning, it will become extremely difficult. You may not be able to get it out
short of removing it with a reamer, which i would not recommend and the reamer
would probably be damaged!
The process of getting rid of the carbon buildup starts by cleaning the barrel in
the normal fashion (minus running Lock-Ease thruthe bore or swabbing the chamber
yet). After the normal cleaning it becomes a two-step process. The first step attacks
the carbon in the first to 10 inches of the rifling where it seems to accumulate the
B
most. The second step attacks the carbon ring described earlier.
Stepl: Put a soft bristled bore brush (brass core with black nylon bristles) on a
cleaning rod. Put some losso bore cleaning paste on the brush. Use a volume close
to the size ofa bullet and spread it evenly on the brush. Hold the rod so that it does
not turn and do 30 or 40 passes on the first eight or ten inches of the barrel. Do not
go all the way through the bore with the brush, just try to keep the brushing to the
initial throat area. This will remove any carbon build-up that regular cleaning did
not get out.
step 2: use the 6.5mm bronze bristled brush (assuming you are using a 6mm
bore), put some Iosso on the tip area and gently push it into the neck of the chamber
(illustrated below). Make sure you do not push it into the lands as it would snag
and you would have to muscle it through the bore.
 THE BOOK OF RIFLE ACCURACY

Brush does not go in past the neck area!

When you have it positioned against the encl of the chamber neck, spin the rod
in place 20 or 30 times. The leading bristles, along with the losso Bore Paste, will eat
away at the carbon ring until it is gone. It sounds simple, but there are times when it
is difñcult to get the carbon ring out. Assuming you were successful, clean the rifle
by running a couple of dry patches through the bore to remove most of the black
residue, and then do a normal cleaning.
If I am at a match, and this is the last cleaning of the day, I will leave the bore
soaked with WIPE-OUT* with ACCELERATOR'"'to remove any residual copper
that the cleaning did not get out. The next day i will dry out the bore and flnish the
cleaning in a normal manner.

a-..-

Example of pushing the cleaning rod too far out of the muzzle.
Patch or brush should just clear the muzzle

It is quite difficult to know for sure if the bore is clean without looking inside
and seeing it for yourself. Some time ago I bought a Hawkeye"borescope and nor'v I
use it all the time. This is a tool I really depend on to make sure that the barrels are
clean. I would highly recommend you get one and use it.
A few more thoughts on the subject of cleaning a rifle:
. If you use the 6.5mm brush on the carbon ring before each regular cleanins
(before inserting the bore guide), the regular cleaning with I4¡1PE- OUT'" witl:
ACCELERATOR* will will still have to clean
clean out the carbon ring. You
the carbon buildup in the bore approximately every 60 rounds, but you will
not have to specifically clean the carbon ring.
 CHAPTER 1 7: CLEANING THE BARREL 2Os

r Never leave a patch or an1'thing else in a bore. If you do, sooner or later, you
will forget it is there and "attempt" to fire the rifle. That would be Extremely
Dangerous.

' Do not reverse abronze bristled brush in the bore. Once you start a stroke
in a forward or backward direction always continue until the brush exits the
bore. If you try to reverse it mid-stroke it may get stuck and cause you some
dificulty in removing (brute force). you may even damage the barrel.
' Avoid long strokes with patches or brushes out the bore. lust clear the bore
and that is it. The longer the stroke, the more the cleaning rod will rub any
dirt it picks up against the crown.
' If dry patch gets stuck in the bore do not try to beat it thru with cleaning
a
rod. Instead, tilt the rifle up and drip some bore cleaner down the muzzle.The
patch will get wet in a few minutes and then you can just push it thru.
' The barrel dictates how often it needs to be clean. Some barrels act up after
B or 10 shots and consequently have to be cleaned more often. other barrels

should not be cleaned until there is deterioration in accuracy, sometimes up

to 50 rounds. With some of these barrels, the more rounds fired before clean-
ing, the better they shoot, to a point. This can be true for a new barrel, but it
manifests itself more often in an old barrel that has seen many rounds.
' Pick up the patches that you use and put them in the garbage. Do not leave
patches all over the ground at the range. Someone will have to pick up after
you, and quite frankly that is just rude!