By Neill Goodfellow
LRTR Rifle Cleaning
Here is how R2 and I clean our LRTR rifles. My original 308 has close to 8000 rounds thru it. It no longer shoots sub moa groups but it does shoot nice round 5/8 inch groups on a regular basis and stills holds very well at the long edge of the guns range. So I would deduce that my cleaning process has not hurt the gun. I have used the same process on all my long guns with the same results.
The recipe.
One bronze brush.
Quality stainless steel cleaning rod, i.e.: DEWEY.
One bronze patch loop or jag. I tend to use the loop more.
One container of JB Bore compound.
One container of Hoppes standard solvent.
One container of Sweets 7.62 or Barnes CR10, I tend to think the CR10 is a tick better.
Flannel patches I cut from cloth purchased at a local fabric store cut into 6 inch squares, then further reduced for specific gun application.
Two shop towels, red, or white, or blue…………..does not matter.
Bore guides for the action or for the muzzle if cleaning an M14 or M1 Garand.
Open action, remove the bolt, insert the bore guide with one shop towel folded in half and placed under the bore guide. Bore guide holds the rag in place and absorbs any excess solvent.
Place a generous amount of Hoppes on a bronze brush. Push this brush completely thru the bore 8, 10, 12 , 15 times whatever your little heart feels might be necessary to loosen up the crud. Kind of depends on how many rounds have been fired thru the barrel. Do not reverse the cleaning rod while the brush is in the bore, will not hurt the bore but is hell on brushes.
Remove the bronze brush, install the loop, insert a patch that fits the bore into the loop, soak the patch with some Hoppes and run it completely thru the bore. Repeat this process several times. The smoothness and finish of the bore will determine how many times this needs to be done. Usually in quality barrels 4 or 5 times will be adequate.
When the patch starts to come out relatively clean I run a dry patch thru the bore.
After the dry patch, I begin a similar process as noted above regarding the Hoppes, but now I am using the Barnes CR10 to make sure that I remove as much of the jacket / copper fouling as is possible. All barrels foul differently. Chrome lined barrels may not even copper foul. Chrome moly barrels will always foul to some degree. Stainless barrels may or may not foul and that mostly depends on how the barrel was finished at the barrel makers factory and to some degree how it was broke in by the end user. Break in is a whole different topic. I will let the Barnes CR10 set in the barrel no longer than 10 or 15 minutes. I then remove it and use another soaked patch. With each pass thru of the cleaning rod I take the second shop rag, blue, white or red, does not matter, and wipe the rod down. Doing this insures I am not introducing something I do not want in the barrel.
During this process if there is metal fouling present you will notice a bluish color on your patch. This is the metal fouling reacting to the cleaning agent. After 4,5 or 6 patch’s have been run thru the bore I then saturate a tight fitting patch with the dreaded JB BORE COMPOUND. This stuff really helps to remove copper fouling. It does speed up the cleaning process. While I run all the patch’s clear out of the bore and reverse the patch as it re-enters the bore crown, I DO NOT DO THIS WITH THE JB BORE COMPOUND. Not real sure this is necessary but it is what I do. At this point I SCRUBB THE BORE BACK AND FORTH NUMEROUS TIMES. MAYBE 10 OR 15 TIMES. I then remove the patch. You will be shocked at the dark color. You will also be surprised as to how well it removed the metal fouling. In heavy magnums you may have to do this twice or three times. Usually with the .308 once is adequate unless you have put a lot of rounds down the bore, or if your bore is a bit rough.
I then run several more patch’s on the loop using the Barnes CR10 until I am happy with the clean patch that appears with very little or any metal fouling showing up on the patch.
Do not get anal about getting all of the metal fouling out. You probably never will especially in over bore cartridges and magnums.
Once I am satisfied the barrel is clean I then run two soaked Hoppes patch’s thru the bore to remove any of the Barnes CR10 solvent, then a dry patch and then a oil patch if I feel it necessary depending how or what the gun may then be used and or stored.
Of the points so noted in the previous summary as posted by TJ, I have heard everyone of them at one time or another. I would not dare say this is the only way to clean a gun barrel as I am sure there are other ways that work as well or better. This is simply what I do, it has worked for me and I do not think I have ever damaged any of my bores.
Neill Goodfellow
PS: many years ago we cleaned the M1 Garand with mil spec cleaning solvent and never worried about the jacket metal fouling. Same with the M14s used in the DCM program. One day I decided to clean my guns bore with some Sweets 7.62 and dang near fainted with the amount of jacket fouling that came out of that bore. It took several days to get that bore cleaned.
Clean barrels do shoot better however I have watched two master class CMP shooters share a gun over two days shooting two full matches each while never cleaning the gun and by the scores they both shot you would have never known they had shot them with a very dirty bore fouled firearm.