Copper fouling...acceptable amount opinions.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Was having the discussion with a buddy about fouling.

What do you deem acceptable? Let's say you shoot 1 box through a rifle (20 rounds), you do one soak of wipeout overnight....get 1-3 blue patches, then soak it once more and it is clean....would that be satisfactory?

Each of my rifles are a little different....I hear people saying " wow my rifle fouls a lot"....what does that actually mean?

Or people say, "this barrel fouls very little.." What does that mean...how do you measure the level of fouling?

LC

[Huntnut]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

.how do you measure the level of fouling?

LC

When my groups open up and accuracy goes to s**t then they're fouled too much.

[Cappy]

What Hunnut said. I've let my match rifles go as many as 500 rounds before I had to patch them out. Other rifles have to be cleaned much more frequently then that. If they get wet or are going into the locker for awhile they get cleaned then too.

As far as how a barrel fouls. Smoother barrels with less tooling marks generally foul less as there are less imperfections for the copper to get into.

[260 Rem]

With decent equipment and technique, there is no problem cleaning (centerfire) after every outing. I did this for years, but now clean after 30 - 40 rnds and have noticed no fall off of accuracy. For me, that is the safe range for my rifles as I do not want to be at the Range with loads to test and then find out the rifle is not up to its best. I believe keeping the barrel clean is a small price to pay for the comfort of knowing the barrel will shoot its best.

[Leeper]

Fire two shots through any barrel and a patch with an ammonia based cleaner will come out blue. This is a result of copper in the barrel but not necessarily copper fouling. With each shot, some bullet jacket material is left behind. In a good barrel, this amounts to nothing more than a wash which though it may show some colour, has no measuable dimension. This wash does no harm and may, in fact, be beneficial. Copper fouling begins to be a problem when it builds up in the bore and does have dimension. At this point, it will cause pressure spikes and may also damage the bullet in subsequent shots. Accuracy will deteriorate badly. Sometimes, such fouling is relatively easy to remove. Other times it may take considerable time and effort.
I am not a fan of counting on a chemical reaction to tell me if there is copper in my barrel because the copper is always there. My concern is excessive copper and I can see that (although I do need some optical aid now).
If a barrel fouls badly and accuracy falls off after just a few rounds, I like to try and cure the fouling problem rather than just clean often. This may mean lapping or polishing the barrel or running through a break-in procedure. Leeper