Jacket fouling issue.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I bought Ruger Flattop .44 Magnum that I have shown a few times here. It had been stored in a zipper pouch and had what appeared to be a lot of lint in the barrel.

I ran a patch through the bore and could see strong rifling and felt no pitting so I bought it.

I shoot mostly cast bullets in my sixguns and noticed that this one fouled with loads that shot very clean in my other revolvers.

I noticed that my regular cleaning process didn’t get a nice pretty bore though.

So today I got out the Sweets 762 out and after a lot of tight patches, I finally have a beautiful clean bore. Quite a bit of work and I’ve never seen a revolver with this much jacket fouling in it.

I’m betting that this gun was shot with jacketed bullets years ago and put up without cleaning the bore.

[Griff]

I’m betting that this gun was shot with jacketed bullets years ago and put up without cleaning the bore.

That'll do it!

[Scott Tschirhart]

Fortunately there’s no evidence of pitting or any other issues.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Typically when I get home from the ranch, I follow a simple regimen of cleaning.

I run a patch soaked in Hoppes No.9 through each chamber and the bore. I follow that with a dry patch or two, then a patch with a little Ballistol to prevent corrosion. I wipe down the outside of the gun with another Ballistol soaked patch and put it away.

This has been my cleaning regimen for years. Never had any difficulty with any revolver until this one.

[Griff]

I had a Ruger 3-screw stolen back in 1974. In 1988, I got a phone from a neighboring city police detective asking about my gun. Apparently it was recovered following a robbery. 2-time loser so he used a knife in the actual robbery, so according to CA law the gun didn't have to be destroyed. I went to pick it up and besides looking like it'd been drug down a gravel road at high speed, the bore was full of copper fouling. I had to replace both front & rear sights; and it took multiple sessions cleaning to scrub the bore of the fouling. The funny part was after signing for the pistol the detective said, (paraphrasing here), "I can't remember, didn't the theft report include a case of .357 ammo as part of your loss?" I told him , no I've never had that much .357, as we can't use it our duty guns. He said, yeah, neither can we, you sure it's not yours? Indicating I should agree by nodding his head in an affirmative motion. So, of course I agreed. The gun & ammo both went down the road in a trade for a .30-30 as I recall..

[earlmck]

I don't hardly shoot jacketed bullets but have certainly acquired some used guns with ungodly jacket fouling. Foaming bore cleaner sure saves a lot of scrubbing.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I’m betting that it will shoot some better now that it’s clean.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I went back and cleaned it again. I was able to remove even more fouling.

I used a bronze brush this time and I almost never put a brush of any kind in a revolver bore.

Kinda makes me suspicious that something else is going on here. It looked clean last time but I could see some fouling a couple of days later. This may be a really stubborn job.

[Griff]

I went back and cleaned it again. I was able to remove even more fouling.

I used a bronze brush this time and I almost never put a brush of any kind in a revolver bore.

Kinda makes me suspicious that something else is going on here. It looked clean last time but I could see some fouling a couple of days later. This may be a really stubborn job.

If the copper fouling is of a cumulative nature, it will probably take far more than a few applications of cleaner & brush to get it all out. My only advice is to never change directions on the brush while in the bore, push it all the way thru, and whatever you do, don't shoot more jacketed thru until it is absolutely, positively free of any prior fouling.

[GunnyMack]

Only fouling I ever really had/seen/caused was a brand new Henry. MY Henry 41. The only bullets I had on hane were Berry plated. No I couldn't wait to shoot it let alone wait for some other bullets to appear. We'll I spent a lot of elbow grease on getting it cleaned! Once I stopped getting blue patches I ran JB BORE paste through it a few times. Now it stays clean of fouling. I attribute the fouling to a roughly bore from the factory.

[Scott Tschirhart]

My only advice is to never change directions on the brush while in the bore, push it all the way thru, and whatever you do, don't shoot more jacketed thru until it is absolutely, positively free of any prior fouling.

I don’t intend to ever shoot a jacketed slug through this barrel.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Some better but it still fouls easily. I will get out the JB Bore paste next.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I love how these bullets fill the chambers.

Some elbow grease and some JB Bore Paste and tight patches slide down the bore like glass.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I guess you don't have to worry about pitting when the bore is practically copper plated.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I guess you don't have to worry about pitting when the bore is practically copper plated.

I suppose that’s one way to look at it, but I hope there’s nothing bad under the fouling.

But the group I shot last Sunday is about half the size of the previous groups. 10 gr of Unique is about my limit for a fun load in this light gun and it shoots a bit high with the sight all the way down. Thats the next project to figure out.