Geweher 98

[JSH]

Ok gents, I have fooled with 1903's, K31,M39,Krags and some others.
I have not had the privlage of having one with a really fouled bore I guess.
Buddy of mine,young fellow was gifted one of these several years ago and is just starting to fool with it.

I figure it has layers and layers of carbon and fouling. I had read some time back one gent cleaned his till it was clean. Then it shot worse than any of the prior outings.
I am wondering if it would be best to leave this alone or go forward and see what happens.
I have a Lyman 323??? Loverin mold along with plenty of gas checks.

Any and all in put on this is appreciated.
Jeff

 

[Pistolero]

Not sure if it would be worse, but I used a Foul Out electroplater, and then had to scrub with
a bore brush and Hoppes, then wipe with acetone and start again. I had 3 layers with yellow
stain (I believe they were nickel jackets) and then one with rusty red. Between each layer the
carbon shut down the plater, and literally was hanging in black strands in the barrel, scrubbed out
quickly with Hoppes. This was a US 1917 Rifle, P17 in common parlance. Bore was very nice
underneath the goop.

I would be surprised if a clean bore shot worse than an ultra fouled one but perhaps someone has
had that experience.

Bill

 

[9.3X62AL]

No "Foul-Out" system here, but I had a similar barrel sitch with a SMLE No.1 Mk III (BSA 1918) I have in the safe. I went Hoppe's--then Sweet's--then acetone (with patch-out between steps) and mined several decades'-worth of jacket metal, powder fouling, and other foreign material before getting down to bare metal. I left the Hoppe's on overnight, then started with the Sweet's for 20 minutes, removed that--acetone for 20 minutes, removed that, then Hoppe's again and set it aside to soak for the day/night. It took about 10-11 days, but the debris did get removed. At the start, the rifling was barely discernible--at the end, the lands and grooves were and are pretty strong, and what looked like gross pitting at the beginning was just cratered crud--the bare metal underneath was only slightly marred by corrosive priming neglect. Throat is .3155", grooves about .315". I had Buckshot make a .316" H&I sizer for a semi-custom Lee bullet I had made at 195 grains/.317" in 92/6/2. It shoots well with The Load For Milsurps--16.0 x 2400.

 

[Ian]

Between each layer the
carbon shut down the plater, and literally was hanging in black strands in the barrel, scrubbed out
quickly with Hoppes.

That's the trick to operating the FO system, alternate electro-cleaning and brush/solvent until the layers are all removed. It's a pain to degrease after each carbon-cleaning routine, so I took to just using carburetor cleaner on brushes/patches for carbon and then a quick rinse with straight ether or denatured alcohol before putting the electrolyte back in.

The only time a fouled barrel shoots better for me is if it's ONLY fouled with a stable bullet lube/powder residue.