Tried a new (to me) Bore Cleaner

I have used the SLP 2000 EWL  from

oil for really massively stubborn carbon on things like the FAL gas piston Face.

It seems to work better than most advertised "cleaners oddly enough!

I typically shoot about 40 to 50 rounds then clean with Hoppes 9, twice a day for two days, leaving it soak. Just using a 1.5 x 3 inch patch rolled on a Parker Hale jag. 

Here’s after cleaning with Hoppes, about 5 inches forward from the frond end of the chamber.  There was no copper, but some carbon accumulation. 

After cleaning with C4, following instructions on the bottle except brushing with a new bronze brush, about 8 strokes. 

But, the first two inches of rifling remained fairly dark with carbon, pic below.  It seems to be too hard for the C4 to remove completely. I think this is fine, but perhaps do a full clean of the first few inches of the bore with JB every 500 rounds or so. 

Yeah, Hoppes will eat it all eventually but I always did a patch out (till dry & clean looking) swab in (3 wet patches) every night followed by a swab in (3 more wet patches) the next morning. Rifle stood muzzle down the whole time.

It cleaned really well, even corrosive, I called it patching out for 5 minutes, for a week!

Then in came the pneumonia & out went the Hoppes!

So, first, the bore after three days of cleaning with Hoppes 9, wiping dry then applying Hoppes twice a day and letting soak (rifle horizontal).  This is about 2 inches into the rifling from the breech end. 

As above, but about 6 inches into the bore, no firecracking, but grooves still pretty dark with carbon and some on the lands too. 

Now, similar locations after cleaning with C4 per instructions.  Note cleaner grooves and very little remains of carbon on the lands. 

This barrel shows signs of fairly severe pitting, primarily in the grooves, which may be a result of improper cleaning after corrosive primers, or incomplete cleaning because of the carbon layer that can trap moisture and/or corrosive primer salts. 

I think I may switch to using C4 on my routine service rifle barrel cleaning. It does appear to be much more effective than Hoppes 9. One application removes most of the carbon, much more than 3 days of soaking in Hoppes. 

 It does seem that bores in good condition clean much more easily than those that are pitted and rough from firecracking.  The Bartlien barrels in my AR clean up much easier with Hoppes than these two No. 4 barrels I’ve shown here on this thread.   Same is true for the relatively “new” barrels in my No. 4 7.62 conversion and the No. 4 (T), 2200 thru the 7.62 and 1200 thru the T. 

Well, I finally came to the decision to rebarrel the Mk 1/3 Long Branch. The rifle was built up by Fultons in 1963 and they installed a new BSA match barrel, beautifully made. Hate to separate the barrel from the action body, but after 10,000 ish rounds, it is not the shooter it was.  I’ve been struggling with this, because I’m probably not the shooter I was too, but trying to be objective.  This rifle was truly a MOA rifle, but groups are now 3+ MOA and I can’t get it to hold the 10 ring with the fliers (it used to hold the X ring prone at 200 yds with the standard Mk 1 rear aperture sight). 

I’ve decided to go with the Criterion barrel.  I’m going to ultrasonically clean the action body and parts, then do a test fit. Hopefully the barrel will index correctly. Should have this reassembled in a few days. 

I dug out the Criterion barrel, it gages between .3025 and .3030, the .3030 pin gage does not enter the bore from either end. It’s a 5 groove left hand twist too, I didn’t remember that. Also came with breeching up washers so should have no trouble indexing the barrel.