I cleaned my bore with Shelite

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I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by junjun » 28 Sep 2018, 9:09 pm

Bought a Mauser 98 in 30-06 recently. I reckon the bore hadn't been cleaned since the 50s. After a long time of brush, patch, chemical so and so on, the brush seemed very dirty, so I soaked it in shelite, and it came clean straight away. So I thought why not clean my bore with shelite. After filled up the barrel with it, I brushed it a little, and pushed through a few patches, they came out much cleaner than before. Not perfectly clean yet, but I am happy with the result.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by SCJ429 » 29 Sep 2018, 7:51 am

Were you removing grease from the bore? Solvents like Shelite are good at removing grease. For cleaning copper or carbon out of the bore there are better products. If the bore was packed with grease the previous owner did you a big favour in preserving it. Have fun shooting it.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by junjun » 29 Sep 2018, 10:19 am

I was cleaning carbon out. I had use G96, Pro-shot, Hoppes #8, every time still very black patch came out.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by marksman » 29 Sep 2018, 10:51 am

two of my favourites, the mauser 98 and 30-06
I have heard of using shelite for cleaning brushes
you may do alright to polish the bore after giving it a really good clean :drinks:
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by Urastus » 29 Sep 2018, 11:12 am

Shelite is petrol with out the additives for use in engines. It's for using in camp stoves so that you don't get the harmful fumes when burning. Using petrol for cleaning will be cheaper. In poorer countries they use these stoves with petrol but usually outside.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by No1_49er » 29 Sep 2018, 6:41 pm

Shelite is definitely good for removing other, "heavier" oils. But more than that it won't do much.
Strange as it might seem, a very good cleaner for removing the carbon fouling is Windex. Keep pushing well dampened patches through until they show clean. Follow that with dry patches, then continue with 'Sweets' or whatever copper solvent you prefer.
Also a good idea to use either Aluminium or stainless steel jags so that you don't get false positives of non-existent jacket fouling.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by No1Mk3 » 29 Sep 2018, 8:19 pm

Australian Shellite, which is specifically our name for Naptha, is a common ingredient in many cleaning products, including some military bore cleaners. White Spirit (aka Mineral Turpentine, or Varsol, Stoddards Solvent etc) works better because it is less nasty (just) and is 1 of 3 main ingredients in Frankford Arsenals WW1 cleaning fluid now made by thousands of shooters as "Ed's Red". It is only a carbon cleaner and must be backed up with a copper solvent every 10th or so clean.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by junjun » 29 Sep 2018, 9:17 pm

Cleaned my bore again today, still very dirty. So I guess shelite didnt work as well as I first thought. I will definitely try windex tomorrow. It's cheap, easily available. Thank you for the tip.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by Oldbloke » 29 Sep 2018, 9:42 pm

Can vouch for Windex. But seems to work a bit better if the fouling is fairly fresh.

"works better because it is less nasty (just) and is 1 of 3 main ingredients in Frankford Arsenals WW1 cleaning fluid now made by thousands of shooters as "Ed's Red". It is only a carbon cleaner"

Sooo, did Ed just copy an old recipe?
I didn't think ATF was around back then.
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by junjun » 29 Sep 2018, 9:53 pm

Oldbloke wrote:Can vouch for Windex. But seems to work a bit better if the fouling is fairly fresh.


I say the base layer of the fouling in my rifle is 50 years old. :lol: :lol: I don't know what layer I am at. :cry:
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by No1Mk3 » 30 Sep 2018, 12:37 am

G'day Oldbloke,
The original recipe used Whale Oil, ATF was invented during WW2 as a replacement for Whale Oil which was in short supply due to the war inhibiting whaling. You can still use ATF for all purposes that Whale Oil was used for, such as tapping cast iron and aluminium etc. But other than that, yes, Ed "copied" the Frankford Arsenal formula by replacing their ingredients with easier to find commercial alternatives that the home handyman could use, Cheers
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Re: I cleaned my bore with Shelite

Post by Diamond Jim » 09 Oct 2018, 9:54 pm

OK, not Shellite - I've used that for degreasing etc in the past with good results - but Ballistol. Not a rifle but a 1950s shotgun that I thought was clean. I started scrubbing with patches soaked with Ballistol and kept coming up with metallic lead for a good 10-15 patches. My thoughts are that this has been there for a long time because we've had plastic shot wads for many years now so it isn't something that I've put down the barrel.
I was impressed that something like Ballistol removed lead fouling that many modern products have failed to shift or even let me know it was there.
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