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How often should you remove copper fouling from a rifle barrel?

Once a year, when you finished shooting for the season!

I never worried about copper fouling until I started using KG12 copper solvent. I didn't know if my gun would blow up after 50 rounds, or maybe I could stretch it to 60 rounds before engaging in some long winded cleaning process. Then I recalled a question someone had posted on this forum regarding military rifles and how often they remove copper, and I believe the answer was 'never'? I shot all season long this year and only used Shooters Choice about every 100 rounds, then once I had finished for the season, I cleanded it with the KG12 and removed very little copper. My barrel is a Shilen Ultra Match jobby, but is probably no better than any other good match grade barrel.

de-coppering is more about preventing the build up of copper in a barrel than cleaning it out. So if you are having to do it something is wrong or you are not cleaning properly. Certainly my barrel after ~100rnds would have no evidence copper coming out with sweets or C2r, but after ~250 some, so i de-copper lightly after ~150 or so. As the barrel aged & the surface degraded the need to de-copper went up, till at ~5-6krnds its shagged & i get a new one. People who dont run barrels in properly &/or then dont clean it properly the barrel ageing accelerated & accuracy diminishes after 3-4krnds vs 5-6. De coppering is as much about extending the life of a barrel as it about maintaining accuracy.

When running in a new barrel the process is performed till after a number of shots & using a decoppering solution there is no evidence of copper coming out on a ammonia solution-ed patch. I.e. all the surface imperfections in the surface of the barrel have been smoothed out & they are not stripping copper off the bullet. Then its about maintaining it in that state.

Cabarfeidh58 wrote:How often should you remove copper fouling from a rifle barrel?

All depends - on how well you expect your rifle to shoot.

If you want the best possible accuracy from a decent barrel, you need to keep it copper-free. After a day's shooting, clean out the powder fouling with something like Butches Bore Shine then attack the copper.

The are three good copper solvents - Sweets, ProShot Copper Remover and Bore Tech Copper Remover. (There may be one or two others but you won't go wrong with these and they should be readily available).

Pass a loose-fitting patch soaked in the solution through your bore. After 15 mins patch-out with a tight-fitting patch - it it's blue at all - repeat. Once they stop showing traces of blue, patch out with Butches or similar - some copper solvents can leave a slightly sticky deposit - you don't want to shoot off that.

No one likes cleaning barrels so you will get lots of replies to that effect but, honestly if you want to maintain accuracy - get the copper out.

OK, with a sh***y old military barrel it might benefit from a less than thorough cleaning but with a decent quality barrel - CLEAN IT!

Schultz & Larsen have a different view of barrel cleaning:

Schultz & Larsen recommend that you do not put solvents near the barrel. Solvents do not only attack copper and long term will eat into the surface of the bore. If the bore is thoroughly purged of any solvent residue and lightly oiled it would come to no harm but best to not use solvents at all.
Schultz & Larsen barrels are cut rifled and every barrel is lapped. There is no need to “shoot in”, just take it out and start using it. The bore after lapping is micro rifled. Micro rifling are the very fine longitudinal grooves left in the surface after lapping. This micro rifling, together with the slight choke in the muzzle helps prevent copper fouling.
The maker says you probably don’t have to do a thorough clean until 300 rounds.
This will vary depending on calibre and load.

Within the rifle shooting world there is not a single subject more riddled with nonsense, FUD and dogma than barrel care.

Thanks for the input, I will give it a clean with Forrest bore foam and see how much copper comes out.

I suppose it depends how much its used,i like the once a year idea but ive a 22,250 thats only used for long range problem foxes that either somebody else has had a go at and its very shy or the odd sighting in job it doesnt shoot that many rounds but it gets a forest more than the rest,dont know why it just seems to suit it but its very accurate.

Up front... I am biased... C2R is My product

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