Author Topic: Copper Fouling woes.... (Read 966 times)

Burnsome · « **on:** January 31, 2003, 11:20:20 AM »

My Marlin 35 Rem seems to love to copper foul like crazy. I've used sweets with lots of elbow grease to try to get it all out of the barrel to no avail. yes, sweets gets most of it, but there is still some left in the barrel no matter what.

Is copper fouling that big a deal with regards to accuracy, or is there another method to keep the barrel from fowling? :?

tia !

John Traveler · « **Reply #1 on:** January 31, 2003, 11:25:51 AM »

For a lever action hunting rifle like yours, copper jacket fouling is merely a nusiance. It should not affect shooting enough for you to notice any difference in accuracy.

For competitive high-power shooters, benchrest shooters, or anything approaching precision, it is ruinous to accuracy!

Also, ammunition/bullets has lots to do with fouling, not just the quality of the bore finish. Many lot of WWII and Korean .30-06 ammo for instance was notorious for copper fouling.

If the fouling really bothers you, try the old high-power competitive shooters trick of swabbing and polishing the bore with Brasso brass polish. It will not harm the bore, and will make it smoother and less likely to foul again. Many comp shooters consider this s normal part of breaking in a new barrel.

Cheyenne Ranger · « **Reply #2 on:** January 31, 2003, 01:35:53 PM »

I got one of the Foul Out II's and it does a right nice job of getting rid of both lead and copper fouling. Costs about $70 and do get the A/C adapter as you will be going through batteries if you don't.
I degrease the barrel and the rod. Plug the barrel and pour some solution in (it comes with two, one for lead and the other for copper).
Then carefully and slowly add the rod. If I put too much liquid in I catch it as it overflows. If I was short liquid, I add it after the rod is in.
Then just attach the two alligator clips, turn it on and let it work.
If it is very badly fouled, you have to remove the rod and wipe off the lead/copper that has attached itself to the cleaning rod. One gun took a whole Saturday to get clean but there was no effort on my part. (This gun was the reason I got the system in the first place).
Also, if badly fouled the lead/copper may bridge the space between the rod and inside of the barrel. Again just remove the rod, clean it and reinstall.
While this is a pricey way to go it sure beats the elbow grease method.
just my two cents....

w30wcf · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2003, 07:12:03 AM »

Burnsome,

Some guns shoot best with some degree of copper fouling and some don't. Too many variables.

One thing you might try is shooting some cast bullets through your barrel.
I discovered quite by accident that lead alloy bullets have the ability to remove copper fouling.

I purchased a .30 W.C.F. (.30-30) Winchester1894-1994 Centennial rifle a few years ago and wanted to replicate some discontinued factory loads that were available circa 1922-1950 with a 110 gr. H.P. bullet at 2,720 f.p.s. . I soon found out that after shooting 20 rounds or so, a fair amount of bore scrub a dub was required to remove the copper fouling.

Then, one day, I was at Ridgway Rifle Club’s NRA High Power silhouette range having a ball shooting down the steel javelina @ 327 yards with a .30-30 handload using a replication load using a fast stepping 110 gr. Sierra H.P. bullet. After shooting about 30 rounds, a glance at the end of the bore indicated that, sure enough, copper wash was present.

I was pressed for time and had some 200 gr. cast bullet .30-30 loads I wanted to try on the steel rams @ 500 meters, so I decided to shoot them without cleaning the barrel. When I got home, I was in the process getting set up to clean the bore when I noticed the copper wash was gone! Thinking that possibly the powder fouling was covering it up, I wet a patch with Hoppe’s and ran it through the bore. To my surprise and delight, the copper fouling was indeed gone.

Since that day I have repeated the scenario several times with the same results and just recently a cast bullet cleanup also worked in my Marlin 336A after a range session with some jacketed bullets. In both cases, the cast bullets were .001-.002” over groove diameter and about 10 cast bullet rounds were fired. It appears that the lead alloy bonds with the copper wash much the same as the old 50/50 tin /lead solder did with copper pipe and carries it out of the barrel.

One learns something new every day.
w30wcf

w30wcf · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2003, 07:18:09 AM »

Burnsome,

Some barrels will shoot better with some degrees of copper fouling while others won't. Too many variables.

I found out quite by accident that cast bullets have the ability to clean copper wash out of a barrel.

I purchased a .30 W.C.F. (.30-30) Winchester 1894-1994 Centennial rifle a few years ago and wanted to replicate some discontinued factory loads that were available circa 1922-1950 with a 110 gr. H.P. bullet at 2,720 f.p.s. . I soon found out that after shooting 20 rounds or so, a fair amount of bore scrub a dub was required to remove the copper fouling.

Then, one day, I was at Ridgway Rifle Club’s NRA High Power silhouette range having a ball shooting down the steel javelina @ 327 yards with a .30-30 handload using a replication load utilizing a fast stepping 110 gr. Sierra H.P. bullet. After shooting about 30 rounds, a glance at the end of the bore indicated that, sure enough, copper wash was present.

I was pressed for time and had some 200 gr. cast bullet .30-30 loads I wanted to try on the steel rams @ 500 meters, so I decided to shoot them without cleaning the barrel. When I got home, I was in the process getting set up to clean the bore when I noticed the copper wash was gone! Thinking that possibly the powder fouling was covering it up, I wet a patch with Hoppe’s and ran it through the bore. To my surprise and delight, the copper fouling was indeed gone.

Since that day I have repeated the scenario several times with the same results and just recently a cast bullet cleanup also worked in my Marlin 336A after a range session with some jacketed bullets. In both cases, the cast bullets were .001-.002” over groove diameter and about 10 cast bullet rounds were fired. It appears that the lead alloy bonds with the copper wash much the same as the old 50/50 solder did with copper pipe and carries it out of the barrel.

One learns something new every day.

Burnsome · « **Reply #5 on:** February 01, 2003, 03:26:25 PM »

thanks to all with all that good info. i ran some brushing thru the bbl with brasso and its still there. sweets got some of it out, but not all. perhaps the lead cast bullet or foul out should do it.....i'll take it one step at a time i suppose....

i love this forum...

thanks guys.....

:roll: