My Krag has a very dirty bore

[Hunter]

After all the ruckus I created about the marksmanship regs, and becoming enthusiastic about shooting my Krag again, I have discovered that the barrel/bore condition of the rifle is worse than I remembered. I have been cleaning it extensively this evening and I am confident that she will be fine. On a side note, Hoppes #9 no longer has the banana smell it used to. Like Pepsi and Coca Cola, in a blind smell test, I find the smell of Outers bore solvent more pleasing than the current Hoppes formula. Like the New Coke of the 80's, I find the current Hoppes to be inferior in nostalgia. In spite of this, Hoppes #9 seems to work as well as it ever did. I've gone through enough patches to make the finest officers tent ever constructed  . It's such a burden for me to have to give so much attention to a 113 year old rifle steeped in U.S. military history. It's a cross I'll just have to bear I guess... I hope everyone is doing well and God Bless.

Respectfully,


Wesley J. Bodine
Member #439
NRA Life Member I.D # 001834062

[St. George]

'Hoppe's #9' is a nitro powder solvent...

If you want to 'clean' your bore - use 'J-B Non-Embedding Bore Cleaner' and you'll find you waste less time and effort.

Re-cleaning the weapon after shooting over the following couple of days will ensure that you've gotten 'all' of the powder and copper fouling residue that'll continue to 'bleed' after a shooting session.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Niederlander]

Hello!
     I just used an Outers Foul Out to clean a couple of pretty dirty bores.  Great results!  Just make sure to follow the directions exactly.

[Capt. Montgomery Little]

Weelllll, since I don't have any guns with dirty bores, maybe I shouldn't say anything but I'll at least explain why.  J-B from Brownells is great stuff and works well but so are Hoppe's #9 PROFESSIONAL GUNSTRIPPER BY Castrol and WIPE-OUT Brushless Bore Cleaner by Sharp ShootR Precision Products from Paola, KS. If your bore is HORRIBLE, start with an "electro" bore cleaning system (maybe you can borrow one) and then maintain cleanliness with any of the above products. WIPE-OUT also does great on BP fouling anywhere on the gun. BTW, I usually only clean uyp my guns when they are so dirty operation is difficult (not recommended for others).

[Hunter]

It's getting better, but she has a lot of copper and pitting. I'm just going to continue soaking the bore with patches wetted with Hoppes #9 until they stop coming out green. I'm not too confident that this rifle will shoot cast bullets well, but I'll just have to wait and see.

[Hunter]

I'm begining to think the barrel on my Krag is MADE of copper !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Delmonico]

I bought a pint of some of the last of the old Hoppe's when they made the change.  Will last me the rest of my life cause I just put a drop behind each ear when I dress up and go some place fancy.

(Long story but a good friend was drinking coffee in a Village Inn years ago and some gal asked him what the name of his cologne was, she wanted to buy her brother some because it was what her Dad used to wear all the time.  Since the only thing he could guess was it's was Hoppe's from gun cleaning he asked if her Dad was a shooter.  Yep, so he explained it to her and she looked at him funny and laughed.)

BTW don't ask, I'm keeping all of it I have.

[River City John]

If you want to 'clean' your bore - use 'J-B Non-Embedding Bore Cleaner' and you'll find you waste less time and effort.

The nice thing, too, is that it seems for the last several years that little white glass sample jar with the black screw cap on the display card seems to have become a standard giveaway prize in shooter's bags for many events. My shooter's box seems to be cluttered with four or five at any one time.

It works well, and I've seen it correct a severely fouled barrel when nothing else would. Ask Books O'Toole about how it saved his bacon at one match.

RCJ

[Hunter]

I'm thinkin about buying a pint of something I tell you 

[Delmonico]

A lot of those Krags, early Springfield 03's and other military rifles have been full of copper fouling since they were first shot.  Rhe older ammo uned Cupor-Nickel jackets instead of the more modern gilding metal.  Today in some rifles those so;id, pure copper Barnes bullets foul pretty bad, like my 99 Savage.  I use Sweet's 7.62, run a wet patch through, wait a couple hours, run a dry patch through it and if it comes out blue or green, swap it with some 0000 steel wool and re-wet it, keep it up till they ain't blue no more.  Once this is done I doubt you'll have near as much trouble with modern gilding metal jacketed bullets, esp if you don't allow it to build up like that again.

[Bull Schmitt]

Check this out. It may be very helpful:

http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews/copperout/index.asp

Col Bull