How clean is clean?

[L. Boscoe]

this is probably silly, but in all my years of shooting, I have never seen it posed, so: When cleaning the bore of a pistol, after you run cleaning agents through it and begin dragging patches thru, how clean are the patches after a
few have been dragged through ? Spotless? no residue
at all, minimal traces of gray stuff, After 10 or 12 patches,
still some gray stuff? What is clean, then-failure to really
go after the bore with Hoppes #9, brass brush etc???

[Prof Young]

Well, I don't know that I have an answer, but I surely have the same question. I think my bores are clean when I finally get tired of dragging swabs, and brushes, and cloths through them.

Life is good.
Prof Young

[ballardw]

Numbers of patches may be less of interest than time the cleaning solution is in the barrel.
I've tried some cleaners that that "spray and wipe" doesn't do much, "spray - wait an hour - wipe" and things get pretty clean.

So first pass with solvent might greatly reduce the number of patches if allowed to soak long enough.

Color will also vary a bit based on what you are shooting. With jacketed or plated bullets may see more green, gray might be metal from cast/swaged lead which might want a different method than the gray of burnt powder...

[JohnKSa]

How clean do you want them? Seriously, you can clean them back to bare metal every time, if you have the time, know-how and motivation.

I use a bright light and look in the bore if I'm trying to get back to bare metal for some reason. You can tell when there are no more deposits and no leading/copper fouling.

That level of clean is really never required from a functional standpoint and you will spend a lot of time on cleaning if that's where you are headed.

Trying to gauge how clean a bore is just by looking at patches is potentially problematic for a number of reasons.

If you scrub a bore with a brush or an abrasive cleaner hard enough and long enough, you're going to start to see fouling on the patch from the bore or the brush metal wearing.

If you use certain solvents in conjunction with certain types of cleaning equipment, you can get "false positives" due to the breakdown of the cleaning equipment from the solvent exposure.

If you don't keep your jag and brush clean during the process, they can contaminate the patch with crud from the previous time they were in the bore.

It can be difficult to get that last little bit of fouling out of the bore even after the bore is clean enough for all practical purposes.

Just take a look in the bore with an appropriate light. With the possible exception of lead fouling, the other types of fouling will show up pretty easily. When it looks good, stop cleaning.

[jetinteriorguy]

I used to clean bores until the patch came out clean using what I thought was a good quality brand name bore cleaner. Then one day after a ‘clean’ bore I ran a patch down the barrel with some Slip2000 and whoa, it came out pretty black. I now only clean using Slip2000, I run a wet patch through, walk away for a few hours then come back with a brush, give it another rest period and run patches through until they come out clean. Works great in rifles and pistolas.

[EchoFalcon23]

Interesting timing—I was just wondering the same thing after trying a new cleaner. I used to stop once the patches came out mostly gray-free, but now I’m realizing it depends a lot on what solvent you’re using and how long you let it sit. Has anyone tried the foaming bore cleaners? Curious how they compare to Slip2000 or Hoppes in terms of deep fouling removal.

[JohnKSa]

I like foaming bore cleaners. I tried a bunch of them some years ago and decided that the Outers Foaming Bore Cleaner (which doesn't seem to be available any longer) and BreakFree's Foaming Bore Cleaner worked really well. Haven't tried Hornady's product.

Two other good cleaning solvents are the standard (non-foaming) Hoppes Elite and M-Pro 7. They do a surprisingly good job, both as general gun cleaning solvents and also as bore cleaners.

[Hawg]

I'm good with gray.

[orionengnr]

Quick scrub using a bore brush and Ed's Red.
Let it sit for a few while I scrub a few others, then 2-3 patches.
Quick look with a good light, 99% of the time we're good.
Note that my shooting involves 50-100 rds of my lead handloads per gun, so they are not getting filthy, and I'm not going for Marine Corps Boot Camp clean.

[FITASC]

I like foaming bore cleaners. I tried a bunch of them some years ago and decided that the Outers Foaming Bore Cleaner (which doesn't seem to be available any longer) and BreakFree's Foaming Bore Cleaner worked really well. Haven't tried Hornady's product.

Two other good cleaning solvents are the standard (non-foaming) Hoppes Elite and M-Pro 7. They do a surprisingly good job, both as general gun cleaning solvents and also as bore cleaners.

Even regular Hoppes works well as does the Shooter's Choice solvent

[Super Sneaky Steve]

We all shoot dirty guns. After the first trigger pull, you're shooting a filthy gun.

I just clean the critical parts and run a few patches through the barrel. Not much point of getting it super duper clean every time if you actually shoot your guns.

[georgehwbush]

what exactly does copper fouling do in a production barrel ? i can see a hand lapped precission barrel acting funny if copper starts to build up., it probably wont build evenly; and would thus degrade accuracy. but in a production piece does it really make any difference ? i didn't notice any change in accuracy for the first 900 rounds through my high powered long range gun. then it seemed to be throat erosion causing the issue. cleaning didn't change it in any noticeable way.

anyway, i normally clean and lube all moving parts and leave the bore alone. </think what you will>

[Outpost75]

More guns are worn out or damaged by improper or excessive cleaning than from shooting. At end of day carry guns are de-linted and dusted off with a soft brush to remove dirt and grit, charge holes and bore wet patched and dried, leaving a VERY LIGHT protective film of Kroil in bore and charge holes. Then functional check done, reloaded and holstered.

Monthly my carries get a field strip and thorough cleaning and inspection, critical points lightly lubed, with mineral.oil USP dispensed from a pinpoint needle oiler, any excess wiped off, and carry ammo exchanged out for fresh rounds. Rotated out rounds shot for practice.

At annual requals armorer LTI and adjustment.

With correct ammo you should get no leading or significant coppering. If the bore needs more than a few solvent wetted brush passes and light patching to remove, or if lead residue binds cylinder rotation you MUST change ammo! Reloads with undersized and excessively hard bullets with hard lubes which do not flow to provide boundary layer lubrication are usual cause. Commercial hard cast reloads are notorious for this.

My revolver reloads use bullets Cast no harder than 12BHn - Wheelweights +1% tin, which are sized to cylinder throat diameter, lubed LIGHTLY with Lee Liquid Alox just enough to turn bullets a uniform brassy color. No more is needed. My training and practice loads are standard pressure loaded with the fastest powder which provides the desired velocity at the lowest charge weight. This provides a clean burn with minimal powder residue. In .38 Special and .45 ACP TiteGroup and WST are the powders of choice. Bullseye is acceptable, but when current stock is exhausted WST or TiteGroup will replace it.

[JJMarsh]

I keep seeing advice to clean "down to bare metal" after every range session. But what about hard-to-reach gunk in the firing pin channel or slide rails - is a full disassembly really needed each time, or can I get by with a quick field strip for weekly practice?

(Don't wanna over-maintain, but also don't want to wreck my gun through neglect!)

[JohnKSa]

You absolutely do not need to do a full disassembly every time. Took an armorer's class some years back, and the instructor started out by saying that although he taught classes on full disassembly and obviously knew how to do it himself, he only rarely fully disassembled his own guns.

[TailGator]

I keep seeing advice to clean "down to bare metal" after every range session. But what about hard-to-reach gunk in the firing pin channel or slide rails - is a full disassembly really needed each time, or can I get by with a quick field strip for weekly practice?]

That "down to bare metal" advice is hyperbole at best. A field strip is adequate for routine cleaning. With most pistols, you can reach the innards well enough with Q-tips to get them functionally clean. Slide rails are easy to reach by removing the slide, the first step of a field strip after clearing the pistol. A patch wet with cleaner wrapped around some kind of tool to reach into the rail grooves will get them clean with just a couple of swipes. Firing pin channels in a lot of pistols can be accessed by stripping the slide, which is a lot less trouble than a full strip of the frame, at least in most pistols. By a more basic cleaning after each range session, with attention paid to the breech face, you in some measure keep material from working its way into the firing pin channel. With that, the firing pin channel is likely to only need cleaning once a year or so, if you continue to shoot pretty frequently.

I saw your other thread. I'm like the others in not choosing a handgun based on ease of cleaning. Any of the common brands will be easy enough for routine cleaning, and the manual will tell you how. If you look to YouTube for advice, discard anything inconsistent with the manufacturer's recommendations in the manual. Some people get carried away with cleaning and tinkering to the detriment of their pistols.

[Jack19]

Most often, Balistol down the barrel followed by a bore snake.

More rarely do I used a cleaning kit and run it until the patches are clean.