now for the cleaning

sniperman

being new to this 223 rifle/shooting im asking a few things,how do you guys clean yours,and what solvents do you use?thanks for your help:)

Cass

I use KG, and Forest Foam products mostly. KG 1 for carbon removal, and Forest Foam or KG 12 for copper removal. It's important to remove the carbon first otherwise when the patches come out clean you think the barrel is. It's not. It's only the carbon cleaned out. The copper will stain the patches a blue/green colour. When the the copper solvent patches are running wet, and clean then the barrel is clean.

My routine would consist of the following:

1. KG/Forest Foam for regular barrel cleaning. (Wipe out/Butch's Bore shine now and then for heavy cleaning.)
2. Run a KG1 soaked patch through the barrel. This is a carbon remover to get the grime out first.
3. Leave to sit for a few minutes.
4. Run another wet patch with KG 1 through the barrel to moisten the fouling, and remove the first lot of carbon..
5. Run a nylon brush up and down the barrel about a half a dozen times. Clean the brush each time with a spray oil to prevent a build up of gunk on it.
6. Run another KG 1 patch down the barrel to remove fouling while treating the barrel again.
7. Leave to sit for a minute or two.
8. At this stage have about 15 or so oiled patches at the ready.
9. Start running them down the barrel one after the other until they run clean. The patches need to remain wet to prevent dry carbon sticking to the bore.
10. If they come clean before the 15 great. If not use more or repeat steps 2-9 again.
11. When they run clean and wet, then start using the dry patches.
12. Run as many as is needed until there is no more oil on the patches coming out.
13. Now repeat steps 2-9 using the copper solvent instead of the carbon remover. You are looking for wet, and clean patches. If there is any hint of blue or green then there is still copper in the barrel.
14. Use KG 12, Forest Foam or in the case of heavy fouling Wipe out. In the case of Forest Foam you simply fill the barrel and let it sit for 10 - 15 minutes or so. The KG 12 can be left to sit for a little while also, but make sure you use wet patches when patching.
15. When you are all done and have dry patched the barrel use the mop and run it up and down the barrel again about a dozen times. The Mop should be clean throughout this. Any sign of dirt and the barrel is not clean.
16. On the last run leave the mop half protruded from the muzzle. Wipe around the muzzle and clean any fouling on the crown. The mop will prevent anything running back down into the barrel.
17. Remove the bore guide and use a tooth brush, patches and bore brush to clean out the chamber, breach, etc.
18. If you have it use a shotgun mop/nylon brush to clean the chamber thoroughly as a fouled up chamber can cause stiff bolt lift and ejection problems.
19. Wipe down the rod, brushes, jag, and bore guide. Never leave them up dirty.
20. If the rifle is being stored away for a few weeks i roll up a soft cloth and place it into the chamber up against the breach and store barrel up.
21. On the off chance that i have somehow missed some residual this will collect it.

Most will have there own method. Its as personal as ammo choice, rifle choice, etc. One small tip though. Each time you run the rod up the gun have a cloth in hand to wipe the rod. This prevents any residue or gunk from the barrel sticking to the rod, and being run up and down the barrel like a paste.

sniperman

thanks cass,how often would i need to do that sort of clean?

Cass

Not being smart, so please don't take offence, but that is a standard clean. It should be done every time you want to clean the rifle. Cleaning should not be a quick process. Too many times people spend good money on a top rifle and glass, suppressors, etc. and ignore or fall down on the maintenance side of things.

Copper build up will effect accuracy and poor cleaning is almost as bad as not cleaning at all. The entire process above should take between 45 - 60 minutes. I usually leave mine sitting for a little at a time while i'm tidying the gun room, or working on two rifles at the same time, so the time seems to pass quick enough.

As said it's a standard clean. A heavy clean would be the same process, but using a much "harsher" cleaning product. Wipe-Out, Bore Shine, etc are pretty strong yet safe products.

If you are asking about frequency then it's up to each person. My bolt action 223 gets a cleaning about every 75 - 100 rounds as i don't shoot anywhere near as much as i do with the semi auto 223. If i haven't hit the 75-100 round mark but a few months have passed i'll clean the bolt action 223 about every 3-4 months. The semi auto sees far more shooting because i use it for targets as well as field work. As such i'll clean it every month regardless of round count (which is usually about 300)

Mississippi.

So Cass if say you were out a day and fired 5 rounds through the bolt action would clean it at all that evening ?

Cass

Mississippi. wrote: »

So Cass if say you were out a day and fired 5 rounds through the bolt action would clean it at all that evening ?

Nope. As above:

Cass wrote: »

My bolt action 223 gets a cleaning about every 75 - 100 rounds as i don't shoot anywhere near as much as i do with the semi auto 223.

Mississippi.

Cass wrote: »

Nope. As above:

Ok thanks, I just wondered if you had a smaller procedure of a few patches after each outing but that's fine.
A half a dozen rounds does me on my outings.

Cass

The reason i don't clean to often is the rifle likes to be a little dirty. The first 3 rounds or so after cleaning may be slightly off from perfect zero. Nothing that would make me miss a fox or rabbit, but on paper they're not perfect.

By cleaning after every outing i'd be in a constant state of cleaning, fouling for perfect zero, then cleaning, fouling, etc, etc.

TBH you could let hundreds of rounds go between cleaning and depending on the rifle it may not make a huge difference, but my OCD won't let me go to that round count without cleaning.

FISMA.

sniperman wrote: »

being new to this 223 rifle/shooting im asking a few things,how do you guys clean yours,and what solvents do you use?thanks for your help:)

Don't neglect nor be overly concerned about cleaning the inside of the bore.

Generally speaking, barrels do not wear out, they burn out. All the cleaning in the world will do nothing to prevent burn out.

I give the barrel a good clean when the rifle is going away for weeks or months. But for shorter time periods, I often do nothing inside the bore, a bore snake at most.

I like Hoppe's #9 on most calibers and use KG40 on my large calibers.

I don't like to clean during competition days or hunting season as the next shot will be most like the last.

Cleaning resets a lot of variables back to unknown. Bad enough having to deal with a cold barrel let alone one that is clean or has cleaning liquid in the grooves.