Does oil in the bore prevent copper fouling?

[Pathfinder76]

I’ve never thought of this before, but have noticed something as a result of something unrelated.

With another dust up over barrel break in I thought I’d look at it more closely. I had a brand new barre, a bore scope so thought why not? The barrel as received from the gunsmith was cleaned, and oiled and put away. I use Eezox in the bore as it goes on wet, but is considered a dry lubricant. It is not supposed to have an effect on the fouling shot and my experience seems to bear this out. So my first shot in this break in process would have been over this synthetic oil.

The first shot produced some copper fouling in the front half of the bore increasing as it approached the muzzle. Not uncommon. And it cleaned up fairly easily. A few patches and good. This time I did not oil the bore. The bore was scoped to confirm this and then the next shot was fired.

This time the fouling was similar in placement but more of it with noticeably more at the muzzle. Cleanup was much more difficult and one land at the muzzle was particularly stubborn. Again, this is not uncommon, but we were progressing backwards. After cleaning I had the though of the oil and so put a light film of Eezox in the bore.

After the third shot, the fouling is again noticeably less, even than the first time, and clean up was easy.

Now none of this has any real scientific process, nor can any theory be proven. But, if copper atomizes in the bore, would it have less tendency to grab the metal if oiled, or if it’s washed in would the same principle apply?