Excessive Copper fouling

DENWA

I have a Ruger M77V in 308 with the tang safety that shoots really good groups for a ruger (< 1 inch at 100 yds) that after only a few shots looks like I've electroplated the lands of the bore with copper wash.

Cleaning it takes forever! Even using copper solvent this barrel takes 3-4X more scrubbing and it still leaves copper in the barrel.

Is this the sign of a poor barrel?

MIKE WISKEY

"Is this the sign of a poor barrel?"... yup, standard ruger fare until they started making their own barrls in the 1990's. I had a 77v in .25/06 that when cleaning would leave cotton 'fuzz' from the cleaning patch all the way down the bore.

rudiored

Go to Cabela's or Midway and get some bore lapping bullets. About $25 I think. Load them up and follow directions. I did this to my 300 Win/Mag in the old M77 and it made a big difference. Better accuracy and easier to clean. Good luck

DENWA

Is that the TUBBS system?


Anyone else use them?


Thanks

Maxx424

Yep - My son used it on an old 30/40 Krag that had a rough bore. Helped a lot so should work good on a newer one.

JustC

first off,...start using "wipe-out" bore foam. Leave it overnight and you will be suprised the copper that runs out the barrel.

next,...try lapping compound on a tight patch before fire lapping a bore. That is the last resort/ Fire lapping opens the bore slightly,..and can decrease MV and possibly change the load the barrel wants. I have hand lapped rough bores,..and had good results.

how many rounds through it???? many rifles will still shoot < 1" with bores that have eroded away the first 2-3" of rifling. The only symptom is the copper fouling being so great. That is when they ask a gunsmith to bore-scope it, and find all the erosion and firecracking which leads to the increased fouling. As will a gouge from a cleaning rod.

Wolf.

===

Get some JB compound from Brownells and hand-lap the bore yourself. Hopeully you can acces the bore from the rear to do this.

First, clean the gun very well and get ALL the fouling out. Use Wipe-Out Bore Foam, KG12 or straight 10% ammonia (Ace Hardware. The 3% supermarket ammonia doesn't work). The first two you can get from Brownells. Leave the bore cleaner in at least an hour; plug the bore with paper towel or cotton on both ends while it's working. If you use the ammonia method saturate a very thin, long piece of t-shirt material in the ammonia or saturate a BoreSnake and run it in the bore, leaving it in for at least an hour. Swab out the ammonia and clean the gun normally. Any of these three products should attack the copper fouling and remove it. Repeat as necessary to get the fouling out.

Then, hand-lap the barrel
..You need a good, strong, preferably one-piece rod.
..Put a standard brush on the rod.
..Saturate an all-cotton (important) patch of the proper size in any good solvent, put a good layer of the JB compound on the brush and also on both sides of the patch and wrap the patch around the brush.
..Run a clean swab on a loop, saturated in gun oil, through the bore to oil up the bore.
..Attach the JB brush/patch assembly to the rod and, from the chamber-end of the barrel, push the swab up into the barrel about four inches. Pull the swab back, but NOT OUT of the bore and into the chamber; keep it in the bore. Repeat this four-inch, back-and-forth stroke eight times. Do not pull the the brush/patch out of the bore!
...Now, push the brush/patch eight inches into the bore, draw it back four inches and go back-and-forth in the bore only in that next four-inch section of the barrel. Do this eight times.
..Repeat this process until you have hand-lapped the entire bore in four-inch increments. Make sure (important) that when you get to the end of the bore that you push the brush/patch out of the muzzle, BUT only about 1/4" each time.
..When done, pull the rod all the way back to the chamber, leaving the brush/patch in the bore. Push the brush/patch the full length of the bore, back and forth, eight times, coming out the muzzle only about 1/4".
..Draw the rod completely out of the barrel and remove the brush/patch assembly. Inspect the patch and brush to see what they look like. The brush may be pretty much matted down and unusable at this point.
..Clean the gun, using a clean brush and plenty of solvent. Keep running patches until they come out clean. Check out the bore visually and with a clean, dry patch on a loop attachment to see if the bore is abrading the patch at all. If you feel the bore is still rough, you can repeat the above hand-lapping process one more time.

OTHERS MAY HAVE THEIR OWN METHODS OF HAND LAPPING THAT ARE BETTER THAN MINE, SO STAY TUNED.