What are your favorite cleaning products for your big bore rifles?

I need a new rod, brushes and the like. Anyone care to share their favs? I do use a wipeout and bore tech solvents/accelerators. I have a .416, a .470 and a .500.

I use a fiberglass rod with shotgun style cleaning brushes (coil type), brass jags and cleaning pads, and then shotgun style soft mops. Hoppes #9 or CLP for cleaning, Ballistol neat for protection. If I’m shooting black pwder, I use 10:1 ballistol for cleaning and ballistol as before for lube.

I use ballistol, mostly because it works well on black powder fouling but also seems to clean smokeless out fine too.

AZSkibo said:

I use a fiberglass rod with shotgun style cleaning brushes (coil type), brass jags and cleaning pads, and then shotgun style soft mops. Hoppes #9 or CLP for cleaning, Ballistol neat for protection. If I’m shooting black pwder, I use 10:1 ballistol for cleaning and ballistol as before for lube.

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You use a 12ga coil brush on big bore rifles?

Anyone else have any favorite rod and brush suggestions for big bore rifles?

I use Dewey rods for everything from .22 lr to .416…

I got some stuff from Trader Keith. I'm not sure how to find his website but he is usually at the shows.

Boretech:

Key Cleaning Components & Steps:

• Tools: One-piece rod, bore guide, jag matched to caliber, bronze brush, and patches.
• Solvent: Use Wipe Out Patch Out paired with an accelerator for maximum efficiency.
• Process:
  1. Prep: Place rifle in a vice, remove the bolt, and insert a bore guide to protect the action.
  2. Solvent Application: Apply 12-15 drops of solvent and 3 drops of accelerator to a patch, running 2-3 wet patches through the bore.
  3. Brushing: Use a wet bronze brush for 20 passes to scrub the barrel.
  4. Repetition: Repeat the patch-and-brush cycle until patches come out clean.
  5. Dry: Patch the bore out dry with clean patches.
  6. Action & Chamber: Clean the chamber and bolt lugs, taking care to keep solvents away from the trigger.
• Consistency: The process emphasizes consistency, which is crucial for maintaining a rifle's accuracy.

Important Considerations:

• Copper Removal: Use specialized copper removers (e.g., CU+2 Copper Remover) to remove fouling that can negatively affect accuracy.
• Barrel Care: While cleaning is essential, excessive, frequent cleaning can sometimes degrade performance until the barrel is re-fouled.
• Action Cleaning: Focus on cleaning the locking lugs and bolt face, using a nylon brush and a cleaner

NIGHTHAWK said:

Boretech:

Key Cleaning Components & Steps:

• Tools: One-piece rod, bore guide, jag matched to caliber, bronze brush, and patches.
• Solvent: Use Wipe Out Patch Out paired with an accelerator for maximum efficiency.
• Process:
  1. Prep: Place rifle in a vice, remove the bolt, and insert a bore guide to protect the action.
  2. Solvent Application: Apply 12-15 drops of solvent and 3 drops of accelerator to a patch, running 2-3 wet patches through the bore.
  3. Brushing: Use a wet bronze brush for 20 passes to scrub the barrel.
  4. Repetition: Repeat the patch-and-brush cycle until patches come out clean.
  5. Dry: Patch the bore out dry with clean patches.
  6. Action & Chamber: Clean the chamber and bolt lugs, taking care to keep solvents away from the trigger.
• Consistency: The process emphasizes consistency, which is crucial for maintaining a rifle's accuracy.

Important Considerations:

• Copper Removal: Use specialized copper removers (e.g., CU+2 Copper Remover) to remove fouling that can negatively affect accuracy.
• Barrel Care: While cleaning is essential, excessive, frequent cleaning can sometimes degrade performance until the barrel is re-fouled.
• Action Cleaning: Focus on cleaning the locking lugs and bolt face, using a nylon brush and a cleaner

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I have their products but not in big enough calibers. One question i have (which they address on their website) is the use of a brass brush. I think many/most will throw "blue" on the patch as the brass interacts with a good cleaner. I am working with them on suggestions.

Their bore guides seem fine. Their patch bore guides seem a little gimmicky to me. Their action wipers interest me as do their action brushes. Have you used either of those?

I feel like I do about shotguns- I need one rod, one jag and one patch loop for .516-.500 and I need different brushes for separate calibers.

Thoughts?

Pro Shot rods and jags, Wipe Out bore cleaner. Haven't used a brush in 15 years, most people don't leave the Wipe Out in the barrel long enough. And I clean after every 20-40 rounds depending on the rifle. With Wipe Out you need 2-3 fowlers, because the bore is actually really clean if you use it right.

Hornedfrogbbq said:

I have their products but not in big enough calibers. One question i have (which they address on their website) is the use of a brass brush. I think many/most will throw "blue" on the patch as the brass interacts with a good cleaner. I am working with them on suggestions.

Their bore guides seem fine. Their patch bore guides seem a little gimmicky to me. Their action wipers interest me as do their action brushes. Have you used either of those?

I feel like I do about shotguns- I need one rod, one jag and one patch loop for .516-.500 and I need different brushes for separate calibers.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Using bronze, brass, or copper brushes with dedicated copper-removing solvents is discouraged because the solvent will attack the brush, creating a false-positive blue/green color on patches and prematurely destroying the brush. Instead, use nylon brushes with chemical copper removers, or save bronze brushes for carbon fouling with standard cleaners…

uplander01 said:

Pro Shot rods and jags, Wipe Out bore cleaner. Haven't used a brush in 15 years, most people don't leave the Wipe Out in the barrel long enough. And I clean after every 20-40 rounds depending on the rifle. With Wipe Out you need 2-3 fowlers, because the bore is actually really clean if you use it right.

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I do have the wipe out and the accelerator already. Just gotta get the right rod and jags i suppose. Do you use a bore guide and if so, whose?

Hoppes #9 and Gunslick Ultra Lube

I am a BIG believer in KG products, especially their metal safe copper remover. Harmless and fantastic! I have the two piece bore guides Speedy Gonzales recommends...brand escapes me at the moment. They are black plastic with an O ring at front, and a bore specific insert at rear. Also a solvent port.

Will preface this with, I am an old nationally ranked bench rest shooting competitor and learned over time a number of tricks of the trade to maintain high precision in a rifle bbl. While far less critical when applied to a hunting rifle, once you are bitten by the accuracy bug, it spreads to all of your shooting.

• Rods & Jags - Pro Shot and Dewey one piece rods and only brass jags. Avoid hard carbon steel rods. You want a coated rod or stainless and always use a guide.
• Brushes - I have both nylon and bronze brushes but almost never use them unless I am dealing with extreme copper fouling.
• Hunting rifles are almost never shot enough to foul badly.
• Solvents - Bore Tech Carbon Remover, KG #2 Bore Polish, Kroil (I avoid using copper solvent except in extreme cases)
• Bore Guides - Various.

My normal cleaning regimen is short and simple and is meant to smooth the inner surface of the bbl all while keeping some copper in the pores of the microscopic surface of the steel bore. Let me repeat, I do not want to remove all of the copper fouling. Only the material that has built up enough to be an issue.

1. Remove bolt and insert bore guide.
2. Wet a patch with BT Carbon Remover and push thru from action end to muzzle.
3. Wet a new patch with 4-6 drops of KG #2 Bore Polish.
4. Push the patch with polish down the bore using short reciprocating strokes that become longer every 4-6 strokes until the patch emerges at the muzzle. This is usually about 16-20 strokes depending on bbl length. As the patch works its way down the bbl you will feel the effort becomes less after 2-3 repeated strokes over each portion of the bbl. This is a very mild polish and it is not necessary to scour the bore. In fact the goal is to polish out the surface copper while leaving the copper that is embedded in the small pores of the surface. Think of it as filling the potholes in the road. This creates a surface that is smoother than the bore was when it was new. Even hand lapped match grade barrels have some microscopic imperfections in the surface of the bore. This technique improves the surface which makes the cold bore shot hit closer to the warm bore shots (important to any hunter). This technique was 1st develpoed and used by some military snipers but I learned it from a former National Champ shooter. Just remember that less is more and do not go crazy with it. You can damage a bore with too much aggressive cleaning.
5. Push 2-3 wet patches thru using carbon solvent only until it is mostly clean. It will never look perfect and does not need to.
6. Push one dry patch thru.
7. If the rifle is to be stored long term or is in a humid environment, then push thru a last patch wetted with a few drops of Kroil as a rust prevention step. The Bore Tech Carbon solvent has some preventative properties so for a match rifle that will be fired again in a week or two, this step can be omitted.
8. Rifle is now ready for storage.
9. For hunting rifles, I will fire one fouling shot or two prior to taking the field. This is to foul the bore lightly and prep for shooting.

Big bores that get shot a lot with Barnes or other monolithic copper bullets can foul a lot. I had one that looked like it was copper plated along the last 8" of the bore right at the muzzle. Using a more aggressive approach with brushes and solvent and more aggressive bore paste polish compound I removed "most" of this from the bore and then repeated my normal cleaning technique. Following cleaning it was fouled with about 4 shots. This improved the 100y groups from 1.5" to sub moa typical using Barnes ammo. Keep in mind this was a 52yr old rifle with decades of use and had spent most of its life in Alaska where big bores get used more than most. It is rare to need to do this sort of cleaning and is usually only needed with well used rifles.

I normally clean this way after each range outing or after the hunting season is over. If only a few shots were fired, I might skip the polishing step and only clean with the carbon solvent and a few dry patches. But, I mostly polish very lightly after every outing. It is impossible to have the bore kept in a consistently dirty condition but you can store it in a consistently clean condition and that generally results in the most consistent precision and POI with most rifles.

I have friends who say, "I cleaned my rifle for the first time in 20yrs and it shot terrible until I fired 10-20rds thru it". But, upon asking what did you clean it with? They usually say it was a copper solvent and a bronze brush. By cleaning out virtually all of the copper, it can require many shots and sometimes shooting and cleaning it correctly a few times to repair and replace the copper in the potholes. Below is a three shot group from my 30-06 rifle fired from 400y off a bench. It measured about 2.25"

Dewey rods and accessories and Boretech solvents.

Hornedfrogbbq said:

You use a 12ga coil brush on big bore rifles?

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I misspoke. No, I do not run coil brushes through the bores but I have used smaller than diameter coil brushes with cleaning pads over top when finding a .500 jag was difficult. I do use shotgun bore mops for oiling though and shotgun brass bristle brushes for basic cleaning.

I utilize a Borescope after cleaning. This is a Krieger .500 Schüler barrel:

I like the Bore Tech products. Their rods are as good as any out there. Dewey rods for frequently cleaned small bores. Wipe out is also useful. I never use a bronze brush only nylon. Also, use bore paste from Iosso and for problem bores will use JB bore compound. I use bore mops for paste.
Bore scope is very helpful, just wish a quality one for 17-22 cal was available
I clean .17 to .50 calibers. Was in Oregon shooting Sage Rats last week and put 2550 rounds thru 6 rifles,