To save wear on the guide, insert the rod with patch, then apply the J-B. Insert the rod guide with J-B'd patch into the action before working on the bore. Stop the rod before the patch exits the bore. If you don't you may fold or shift the patch on the jag.
Next I take a solid jag with a patch wrapped around it and spread Remington bore cleaner on it. I run the jag back and forth through the bore a dozen times. I then swab the bore out with the nitro solvent, followed by a patch wet with either Break Free or FP-10. Last is a dry patch, and then the rifle goes back in the rack.
All the cleaning I do is with a solid rod like a Dewey or Bore Tech, and a rod guide. The Dewey has a solvent port, while the Bore Tech has a patch plate. Both work, but the Bore Tech is a bit less messy. When I use the abrasive cleaners, like the Remington or J-B compound, I don't shove the patch through the rod guide. I goop up the patch, then place the rod through the guide and screw the patch in its jag onto the rod. Then I insert the rod and guide into the action. I don't know if the abrasive cleaners will scratch or cut the material of the bore guide, and I don't want to find out. Installing the patch this way is a bit fussy but keeps my mind at ease.
Is a dozen passes enough? Probably. If I've only put a couple of boxes of ammo through it at the range, then a dozen is enough. Those barrels that saw more ammo might need more cleaning, but the fouling is knocked down to the point where accuracy will still be plenty good. And the whole process takes about 15 minutes, max. The second method is the annual cleaning for rifles that have been fired, and also the thorough method for high-volume rifles like a competition AR or a varmint bolt-gun that has just come back from a trip spent thinning the rodent population. First, it gets the nitro solvent, brush and patch treatment. Then I use Shooter's Choice Copper solvent. A few drops on a patch will be enough to detect the presence of copper fouling.
In the annual cleaning, if the Shooters Choice doesn't turn green or blue in the patch, then I don't have to do any more scrubbing. Such rifles get the copper solvent swabbed out with patches wet with nitro solvent, then dry, oiled and dry patches. Those that show green or blue get the J-B bore compound treatment. Jim Brobst developed this product in the early 1960s as a cleaning method that was fast, thorough and not nasty smelling. He sold the fully-developed formula to Brownells, and they now package and sell it. What's in it? Beside petroleum distillates and abrasives (and something the state of California has deemed cancer-causing) I don't know and I don't care. It works, and makes cleaning a whole lot easier. As for the state of California, they slap that warning on anything more potent than distilled water.
I use a patch on a solid jag, smeared with a light coating of J-B. I wrap the patch around the jag, then secure the leading and trailing ends with small strips of masking tape. The tape keeps the patch in place before it gets to the bore. The tape may seem a little fussy, but it beats cleaning the chamber and locking lugs when a patch unwinds and goes where it shouldn't. It doesn't take much J-B to properly coat the patch. You don't need a lot--just an even coating. As with the previous abrasive patch, the jag gets screwed onto the rod after the rod is through the guide, then the assembly installed in the action. When I first run the patch through the bore, I do it slowly and stop as soon as the tip pokes out of the muzzle. I then place my off hand on the stock to mark the handle location, so I can cycle back and forth without the patch popping free at the muzzle. I run the patch back and forth a dozen times, then swab the bore out with nitro solvent. The nitro patch will be extremely dirty for the first couple of cycles. I then run a patch with Shooter Choice through again, wait five minutes and swab for color.
It is imperative that you have a good rod, a bore guide and proper patches. Apply an even coat of J-B around the patch. I tape the J-B patch to keep it on the jag. If it slips you won't evenly work the bore, and may miss some sections.
I repeat the process as long as the Shooters Choice shows that there is copper present. If the first patch is extremely blue, then the next application of J-B will get two dozen bore strokes. Once the test patch comes out lacking green or blue, I swab the bore with Break Free or FP-10, then give it a dry patch and put it in the rack. Depending on how fouled the bore is, cleaning takes from half an hour to forty-five minutes.
Could I simply use the Shooters Choice to remove the copper? Yes, and I have. But the J-B is faster, and also cleans out powder, lead and (for the shotgun shooters among us) plastic. The Shooters Choice copper remover won't touch lead or plastic. A heavily-fouled bore could have alternating layers of copper and powder fouling, and a chemical clean will only take off the top layer. Without the J-B you would have to switch back and forth between powder and copper solvents, or powder and lead solvents. Also with this method I only need to use three or four light applications of the copper solvent, thus reducing exposure. When I was using just the Shooters Choice, I'd sometimes need a dozen soaking applications. What about just using the Remington bore cleaner, instead of switching to the J-B? The Remington cleaner is good, but the J-B works faster, and the paste composition of it makes it easier to apply right where I need it.
If the J-B is abrasive, don't you have to worry about harming your bore? And what about chrome-plated bores? The abrasive used is non-embedding, and won't grind your bore out. It is softer than the steel but hard enough to work on the copper, and lots softer than the chrome. It hasn't harmed any of my barrels after years of use. Those who wonder about its effect on the gas system of self-loading rifles needn't worry. The small amount that gets left in the gas port isn't enough to cause a problem in the gas system, and is soon blown out anyway.
My method works faster than brushes and solvents, eats up all the fouling types, not just one, and has much less smell than a straight application of solvents. Just what I need to work over a couple of dozen rifles in short order.
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