Normal to use 150 patches to clean bore?

[Wolf74]

I've tried and tried to get the bore clean on my Mosin but no matter how much time I spend on it, I still can't get a clean patch to come out of it. I've literally sat with a jar of Hoppes 9 for over two hours, ran out of patches and still couldn't get a clean patch to come out. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to switch to a different solvent. Whats going on here man!

[Junk Yard Dog]

No, it's not normal , Two reasons the patches may be dirty forever, pitting in the bore, the pits are like tiny craters in the metal of the bore, each holding some crud that gets picked up with each pass of a patch, you will never get all the fouling out of a pitted bore. Second is plain steel, you are rubbing a slightly abrasive patch tightly against a steel surface, you will remove a tiny amount of steel, when you do this, it will look like gray staining on the patch. There is such a thing as over cleaning your weapon, especially when it's an antique. So long as you wash out the salts with boiling water the remaining fouling will not hurt the rifle, it's better to leave some behind than beat the hell out of the bore by scraping cleaning rods and patches down it a hundred times.

[Longcolt44]

Is that all? Seriously, you might never get a white patch back. Remember these were not taken the best of care in the Soviet Army and have been sitting for 50 to over a 100 years. Run a quart of boiling water through it, maybe some foaming bore cleaner and then a few Hoppes. Now go shoot it and clean it again. JYD beat me to this post.

[etprescottazusa91]

Yes

[desdem12]

Clean normaly....shoot....clean normal....shoot....clean normal, sooneer or later barrel will be clean.

[Kilroy]

I was having that issue as well...

But then I took a bore brush and boiling water to it about 3 times, THEN went over it with patches, then it only took about 15-20

[mogunner]

I've never gotten a CLEAN patch out of one, even after using an electronic cleaned in it and about 50 patches. I just clean it like normal then run a patch through it with light oil and put it away.

[Wolf74]

Good, I'm glad I asked or else I would have still been at it tearing my hair out in frustration.

[finloq]

You will never get it completely clean and shouldn't try.
Put a few rounds down it, they clean better hot.
Bot you will never be able to drink soup through it.

[SA1911a1]

I stop after the black tar stops. I have also tried to get them clean. It ain't gonna happen.

[Rongo]

Is that all? Seriously, you might never get a white patch back. Remember these were not taken the best of care in the Soviet Army and have been sitting for 50 to over a 100 years. Run a quart of boiling water through it, maybe some foaming bore cleaner and then a few Hoppes. Now go shoot it and clean it again. JYD beat me to this post.

Exactly. Boiling water & foaming bore cleaner are my Mosins' best friend. Boil, Foam then Saturate & plug the bore with Break-free CLP for a few months, pull the patch plugs, clear the oil out & take it on a range session. Clean it right after again with the water,foam & then coat the bore with a patch of CLP for storage. It won't get perfect-new again... But it should be serviceable.

I still have my 33 Tula soaking in CLP with a patch plugged on either end. Been soaking for almost a year now. I'm curious to see that bore.

[Driveshaft]

You will never get it completely clean and shouldn't try.
Put a few rounds down it, they clean better hot.
Bot you will never be able to drink soup through it.

Ditto! I clean right after shooting. Just take my hoppes and cleaning rod to the range and put some windex in the oil bottle. I never have pulled a clean patch out but have pulled out some really dark ones!

[dou44]

i use boiling water then hoppes 9 and after it starts to turn grey and semi clean i stop.

[Celt]

Shoot it clean and keep it oiled.

[countryboy3006]

One thing I have used that has sped up cleaning all my rifles is a bore snake. I tried the .30 cal one first but it didn't quite get the job done. Now I have an 8mm one and it does great. Really gets a lot of the fouling out. After I run boiling water down the barrel i dip the string before the wire brush in Hoppes no 9 and pull it through the barrel a few times then run some patches on a cleaning rod to make sure it is clean before I run a couple oil soaked patches through. Works great.