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 Foaming Bore Cleaners 
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Location: Round Rock, TX
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I've recently been overhauling my gun cleaning techniques. Have been working on my Thompson Contenders and Remington XP-100 this weekend.

My old cleaning technique consisted of swabbing bore with wet patch of CLP, then scrubbing with a bronze brush, another wet patch of CLP, followed by dry patches. No real complaints. Eventually transitioned to two stage bore cleaner followed by lubricant. Using KG12 Copper Cleaner followed by a light coat of M-Pro LPX or similar gun oil.

This weekend for the first time tried a new to me product, Sharp-Shoot-R Wipe-Out foaming bore cleaner. Basically you just spray it into the bore where it expands like shaving cream to coat all barrel surfaces then leave it in place for anywhere between an hour to overnight application for tough cleaning jobs. At the end you just push through some dry patches.
- If patches are dark blue, heavy copper fouling is indicated, reapply overnight and repeat
- If patches are black, heavy powder fouling is present, reapply overnight and repeat

Reading reviews it seems the product is best suited for copper and powder fouling removal as well as coating from moly bullets. It is not designed for lead removal.

What I really like about this product is that you just apply, let soak, then 2 or 3 dry patches. Repeat as needed. No heavy bore scrubbing with brushes needed.

What I don't like about the product is that the foam expands everywhere causing a mess when first applied. I think this will get better as I learn the tricks of applying it more efficiently.

Anyone else have experience with different foaming bore cleaners? General impressions or opinions about different brands?

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Sun May 21, 2017 7:08 am
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Thanks for the review.

I have not tried any of the foam products, I was thinking they are mostly a gimmick. When I use some of my stash down a bit, I might give Sharp-Shoot-R Wipe-Out a try.

One note, there are no products that actually dissolve lead. But in my experience no need to go all old school with screen and chore boys and such. Well unless you buy a gun that is completely deeply leaded. Guns from new can be kept low lead by bronze brushing every 3rd-4th outing using a penetrant such as Kroil. I mix Kroil and Hoppe's #9. Anyway, the idea is not to dissolve the lead, but rather get underneath it and have it flake/break away from the steel in tiny tiny bits.

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Sun May 21, 2017 7:18 am
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Pablo wrote:
Thanks for the review.

I have not tried any of the foam products, I was thinking they are mostly a gimmick. When I use some of my stash down a bit, I might give Sharp-Shoot-R Wipe-Out a try.

One note, there are no products that actually dissolve lead. But in my experience no need to go all old school with screen and chore boys and such. Well unless you buy a gun that is completely deeply leaded. Guns from new can be kept low lead by bronze brushing every 3rd-4th outing using a penetrant such as Kroil. I mix Kroil and Hoppe's #9. Anyway, the idea is not to dissolve the lead, but rather get underneath it and have it flake/break away from the steel in tiny tiny bits.


Admittedly don't have a borescope so I have no way to verify how much fouling is removed by the Wipe-Out product. It is definitely highly reviewed on Midway and Amazon so figured I would give it a shot. If the patches are any indication it is removing quite a bit of copper from my XP and T/C centerfire barrels where I use copper plated bullets exclusively.

Thanks for the tip on lead removal. I do have Kroil kicking around and recently bought a can of Aero Kroil for the hell of it. I will put that to work this weekend on my Thompson Center 22LR match barrel where I shoot exlusively Wolf Match Target lead bullets.

On my revolvers I've been using a bronze brush wrapped with additional bronze wool. That definitely removes lead though requires a lot of elbow grease. This works for 38/357 bores and up quite well though I have 22LR bores where I need to occasionally remove lead also and have been searching for a good technique.

Will definitely try the bronze brushing with Kroil though I will probably mix with Bore-Tech Carbon Cleaner just because that's what I have on hand.

Thanks again Pablo

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Sun May 21, 2017 7:30 am
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Interesting, thanks for the report. Might have to give the foaming stuff a try. I guess the real test would be to use the foaming stuff as indicated, and then do a more traditional clean right afterwards to see if that removes any more?


Sun May 21, 2017 10:05 am
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Nehebkau wrote:
Interesting, thanks for the report. Might have to give the foaming stuff a try. I guess the real test would be to use the foaming stuff as indicated, and then do a more traditional clean right afterwards to see if that removes any more?


I think the beauty of foam stuff is there's a long wait for the chemical action but little work involved. Only need to swab 2-3x with a patch to remove the remaining crud after soaking.

Without a bore scope I think that is a pretty good approach to try traditional cleaning after Wipe-Out. Of course, the Wipe-Out manufacturer claims that if you use their product after any traditional cleaning methods they will remove lots of missed material :bigsmile:

So there's two possible experiments:
- After a long shooting session try traditional cleaning method followed by Wipe-Out
- After a long shooting session try Wipe-Out followed by traditional cleaning
- Either approach followed by borescope inspection (unfortunately I am not rich enough at the moment to own one)

I just mixed up a batch of 50% Kroil and 50% BoreTech Carbon Cleaner and will be running that on my 22LR barrel which runs lead bullets a bit later today after I swab out the current soak of Wipe-Out. Will be interesting to see what happens.

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Sun May 21, 2017 10:29 am
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I love foam bore cleaners. Foam the bore, watch adult swim, get up at commercial and swab and repeat if necessary. The only down side is the foam pushes more shit up the gas holes in the barrel.

This is my standard cleaning procedure for barrels unless they're lead or copper fouled. Then they get something stronger.

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Sun May 21, 2017 11:34 am
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I've become a fan of boresnakes. Dip the part before the bristles in Hoppes, pull through a few times and call it good.

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Sun May 21, 2017 12:17 pm
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golddigger14s wrote:
I've become a fan of boresnakes. Dip the part before the bristles in Hoppes, pull through a few times and call it good.


Yeah . . . for non-corrosive ammo situations, I agree. And even the boresnake only gets used once in a blue moon.

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Leave it cleaner than you found it.


Sun May 21, 2017 12:39 pm
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I've been using Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner for well over a decade. Fill the bore with foam, go watch TV, mow the lawn, have a short nap, come back and give it another squirt, flushing out the original fill. Wait another half hour and start patching out the bore. With my barrels the finish process takes 3-5 patches and a look inside with the Borecam shows nothing but shiny bore/rifling. No copper or carbon fouling.

Most of the "New" foaming cleaners work pretty much the same but cost more due to the "hype" and advertising.

For old Milsurp barrels it's great to clean out the crud but the final work is only going to get done with some J-B Bore Cleaner or Bore Bright. No cleaner will make a bore smooth but some serious work with fine grit (600-800) and metal polish will work wonders.

Even a famous barrel company here in WA State finishes their barrels with Simichrome polish and one of the owners uses it to remove any hard carbon buildup after a lot of shooting.

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Sun May 21, 2017 1:28 pm
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If in no hurry, I swear by the Wipeout foam (or the liquid from the same company) and the accelerator. I do have a borescope and I'm satisfied with the results. I shoot a lot of non-leaded hunting bullets so copper is always a concern.

If I need to be in a hurry, Boretech Eliminator works for me.

I'm a chemical junkie so I've tried everything that has come on the market and these work for me. I have a cabinet full of partial bottles!


Sun May 28, 2017 1:15 pm
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Thanks Rodell appreciate the info...

I saw that Sharp-Shoot-R is now making the Patch Out product which is basically the same cleaner as Wipe-Out but in a liquid formula. Also have the Accelerator product to cut down the wait times.

Thanks for the tip on BoreTech Eliminator. I have a bottle of their Carbon Cleaner and will pick up one of the Eliminator product also.

Interesting test I ran last weekend. I ran about three or four cycles of Wipe-Out until my XP-100 7mm BR and T/C Contender 7mm TCU barrels were coming up clean. These barrels run exclusively copper plated bullets. So I'm pretty confident all the copper and powder fouling had come out.

Then ran a patch of Bore Tech C4 Carbon Remover and let soak overnight in case there were any crufty carbon deposits remaining. Patch came out pretty black in the morning.

Do you see any evidence on borescope inspection that Wipe-Out is best at removing powder and copper fouling but may leave some of the hardest carbon residue?

Planning to buy a borescope next March at annual bonus :bigsmile:

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Sun May 28, 2017 1:42 pm
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I've been using Break Free Foaming Bore Cleaner for a few years. Seems to work pretty well, especially for light copper removal. Not as good as Sweet's 7.62 of course, but better than Hoppes #9. If extremely filthy it still needs a lot of scrubbing and multiple applications.


Sun May 28, 2017 10:04 pm
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