Hard carbon in barrel

[xtratoy]

Pretty sure I'm safe with the Sweets. It was an over 20 year old bottle , had no ammonia smell to it and when left on bare mild steel for 2-3 hours it didn't affect the surface. It is listed as a copper and powder solvent. I've seen a lot of YouTube bore scope videos where there was evident microcracking/checking in the bore . I was surprised that my bore doesn't have any of this. I know..... if it ain't broke , don't fix it... but once you realize what you have, the rabbit hole is deeper than you wanted to fall into.

 

[Member 34319]

No, it is a hunting rifle in 30-06 caliber and had no problem hitting what it was aimed at. I was appalled at what the bore scope showed.

Moral of the story, don't buy a bore scope. lol.

 

[xtratoy]

Moral of the story, don't buy a bore scope. lol.

True story !!! Next I'll try it on my ears and see what I find....

 

[Explorer1]

Simple Green has shown it works on carbon. BUT NOT ON ALUMINUM (as it corrodes it).

 

[Member 34319]

True story !!! Next I'll try it on my ears and see what I find....

Lol, I would likely be in the same boat. I've got barrels that I don't really clean too well until I see noticeable decline in accuracy. One you might be able to dissolve a (older) penny worth of copper out of, but it shoots amazingly.

 

[osprey]

Sweets is a high ammonia content cleaner designed to dissolve copper fouling, not carbon. That high ammonia level can damage barrels, hence the warning to not leave in the barrel more than 10 or 15 minutes (can't remember exactly and my bottle is out in the garage ... and I'm too lazy to go out and look). I would highly recommend you not do that again, because you probably have already created micro-crazing in your bore and doing it again could make it worse.

CLR and KG1 both work well but take time. With CLR it's a pain to plug the bore and find a way to securely stand the rifle upright. It can damage stock finishes too. KG1 takes a number of passes up and down the bore. If there is light carbon it works great and is fast, not so much with heavy buildup.

For heavy carbon I'd recommend JB Bore Paste and KROIL. Five minutes with this and you will have a clean, highly polished bore that is carbon free. It's also great on copper fouling if that has been allowed to build up. For light copper a 5-minute soak with Sweets is the ticket.

Hope this helps.

J-B® NON-EMBEDDING BORE CLEANING COMPOUND | Brownells

The original, time-proven formula developed by Jim Brobst and produced under exclusive license. J-B has been getting burned-on, caked-in powder residue and copper jacket fouling out of gun barrels since the 1960’s, and hasn’t damaged an inch of ri...

www.brownells.com

KROIL | Brownells

A lubricating and penetrating oil that flows into the tiniest of crevices, lifts away lead and copper jacket fouling, frees up super-tight barrels, loosens frozen screws and bolts. Dissolves dried grease and oil, displaces water, without harming m...

www.brownells.com

Ammonia itself is harmless to steel. Ammonia reacts with copper in the presence of water. Sweets would not remove copper if there was no water present. The reason it is not a great idea to let sweets sit in bore too long is the water in it will eventually cause rust.

 

[DLS]

Condensed ammonia is a corrodent, and in anhydrous state it can cause stress-corrosion cracking of stressed carbon steels or high-strength, low-alloy steels.