Longranger wrote:I love my new Bartlein barrel and as yet haven't found any need to use any form of abrasive paste to remove carbon. Conventional Parker Hale jags, solvents and 4x2 patches are doing the job well enough by inspection. I'm using a 308 so it is less inclined to carbon foul using BM8208 than say some other slower powders.
I find that it cleans up well without scouring it out with abrasive paste. I see one of our club members using Autosol on a regular basis and can't help but think that he is shortening barrel life substantially using the stuff.....
When you say regular non abrasive cleaning is getting the carbon out by inspection, is this an inspection with a borescope? There are a few shooters in my area who have brought a swag over barrels around to my place for a bore scope inspection and nearly all swore the barrels were clean, but must have throat erosion as the accuracy has gone off. The regular comment is that they clean until patches come out clean, so there must be no fouling left in the bore. The majority of these barrels which have had a reasonable amount of use had carbon build up in the first few inches and a quick abrasive session brought them back to metal, and 12 fouling shots brought the accuracy back. I am now like other bore scope owners and give the barrel an abrasive clean every 200-300ish rounds.