To all you experienced folks:
Please forgive my ignorance and asking of dumb questions. But...
I'm wondering if the bore of of my rifle is actually getting clean. I've been shooting some plinking loads in my 45-70 - some commercial cast stuff. Due to the roughness of my unlapped bore and the .458 sized bullets, as well as estimated velocities of around 1500 fps with a plain base bullet, I'm getting some leading that comes out pretty easily using the copper pot-scrubber material trick.
However, after the lead is out, I alternate using patches on a good jag, and using a bore brush. I've worked for hours, and after running the bore brush through 8 - 10 passes each time, I always get a patch that comes out grayish-black around the jag. I've probably done upwards of 12 - 15 cycles at a time of patches and the bore brush. I eventually just give up and figure that it's clean enough.
I have tried, after cleaning, wetting the bore well with solvent, and letting it sit for a couple of hours. The next patch is clean, but I still get a dark patch after running the bore brush through again. I clean my brush with carbureter cleaner to make sure its not old residue that I'm seeing.
I have shot some jacketed stuff through it, 60 rounds that I bought before I was set up to reload for it, all but 6 rounds previous to switching to cast. I cleaned it rigorously to make sure there was no jacket fouling, though I figured 60 rounds was insignificant as far as jacket fouling.
I read on a commercial bore cleaner's website, MPro7, that a light gray on the patch is carbon from the "pores" of the bore that will eventually go away? I thought maybe it's the same thing.
Any thoughts? Oh, I'm using Pro-Shot cleaning solvent, which seems to work much better than the Outers Nitro Solvent that I used to use.
Thanks for any help.
Ray Floyd
Please forgive my ignorance and asking of dumb questions. But...
I'm wondering if the bore of of my rifle is actually getting clean. I've been shooting some plinking loads in my 45-70 - some commercial cast stuff. Due to the roughness of my unlapped bore and the .458 sized bullets, as well as estimated velocities of around 1500 fps with a plain base bullet, I'm getting some leading that comes out pretty easily using the copper pot-scrubber material trick.
However, after the lead is out, I alternate using patches on a good jag, and using a bore brush. I've worked for hours, and after running the bore brush through 8 - 10 passes each time, I always get a patch that comes out grayish-black around the jag. I've probably done upwards of 12 - 15 cycles at a time of patches and the bore brush. I eventually just give up and figure that it's clean enough.
I have tried, after cleaning, wetting the bore well with solvent, and letting it sit for a couple of hours. The next patch is clean, but I still get a dark patch after running the bore brush through again. I clean my brush with carbureter cleaner to make sure its not old residue that I'm seeing.
I have shot some jacketed stuff through it, 60 rounds that I bought before I was set up to reload for it, all but 6 rounds previous to switching to cast. I cleaned it rigorously to make sure there was no jacket fouling, though I figured 60 rounds was insignificant as far as jacket fouling.
I read on a commercial bore cleaner's website, MPro7, that a light gray on the patch is carbon from the "pores" of the bore that will eventually go away? I thought maybe it's the same thing.
Any thoughts? Oh, I'm using Pro-Shot cleaning solvent, which seems to work much better than the Outers Nitro Solvent that I used to use.
Thanks for any help.
Ray Floyd