I'm always in pursuit of faster, easier ways to rid stubborn, copper jacket fouling from the delicate bore surfaces of my varmint rigs. So, when I stumbled onto the Outers Foul Out® III (#674-000-001) system during a casual conversation with our GunTech Dean Batchelder, I was anxious to give it try. Dean started using Foul Out technology years ago when he operated his own gunsmithing shop in Indiana. Usually after the state's gun deer season, hunters would stop in and request a good barrel cleaning, so Dean began offering it as a regular service for his customers. He provided conventional bore scrubbing using solvents and a cleaning rod, as well as electrochemical bore cleaning for a slightly higher price.
I could tell right away Dean really liked the Foul Out system. He was quick to point out it will completely remove all lead and copper deposits and help restore accuracy. But, I could tell he thought the biggest advantage of electrochemical bore cleaning is its convenience. Once setup and turned on, you can walk away and work on those other pressing projects eating away at your workday. A periodic check now and again is all that's really needed during the cleaning cycle. |
There are a few pieces of equipment required to make the "magic" happen, but Outers supplies an excellent, user-friendly, instruction booklet to explain it all.
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The Whole Kit & Caboodle
Today's improved version of the original Foul Out system is designated the Foul Out III system. I ordered one of these complete kits, popped open the clamshell packaging and began reviewing the instruction booklet and all the contents inside. You get quite a pile of equipment with this setup, so I wanted to be sure I had every single item before I was halfway into the project.
Whenever I see electrical wires, I also take extra care to read things over a bit more thoroughly than I might otherwise do with a less automated cleaning process. I wouldn't call it being intimidated, just more cautious to do things "by the book," so to speak. This goes back to the summer months during my college youth. I worked for an electrical contractor whose idea of "on-the-job" training meant letting me blowup a few of my tools on "hot" circuits to learn how to be careful! Therefore, I think things over a bit before going too hog wild with electrical gadgets. As I found out, however, the Outers instruction booklet does a really nice job of laying out exactly how to set up and hook up all the components to make the electrochemical cleaner operate properly. And, there's really no concern for electrocuting yourself or burning down your home or shop if you can follow some simple directions.
Each kit includes nine, basic components: the control unit with lead wire, a 120VAC power adaptor, Cop Out Plus™ and Lead Out Plus™ solutions, a dispensing cup, a 30-inch stainless steel rod, bore plugs, O-rings, and the instruction manual. In addition, you'll need to round up a couple other items for degreasing the bore, stainless steel rod and the ground connection point on the firearm. These include a good degreaser that contains no petroleum distillates, such as Brownells TCE (#083-060-032) and some abrasive paper (either sandpaper or emery cloth). The abrasive is used specifically to clean the rod, particularly during the cleaning cycle to remove any built-up, electroplated metal that's accumulated. I simply tore off a small piece of 400 grit abrasive cloth from our Metalite Cloth Roll (#657-110-400) in the R&D room, but Dean mentioned 3M Scotch-Brite™ Scour Pads work great, as I suspect the Brownells Stainless Steel Sponge (#080-000-321) would too. Whatever you decide to use for an abrasive, stay away from steel wool, as it can leave behind oil and metal filings that could result in uneven cleaning and/or the control unit going into "Overload" mode.
Getting Started...
Generally, when preparing a project for Cleaning Clinic, I wander over to the desk of GunTech Nate Bardole and put my order in for a dirty gun to clean. This time, however, Nate was fresh out of guinea pigs. I had everything required to field test the Foul Out III system, except a dirty firearm. What I needed was a barrel riddled with lead or copper. Because Foul Out III literally lifts these metals from the rifling and electroplates them onto the stainless steel rod, I wanted a bore that would produce some highly visible buildup that would photograph well. Luckily, GunTech Dave Bennetts was nice enough to surrender his AR-15 upper, noting it hadn't had a good bore cleaning in over 1,000 rounds!
The electrochemical cleaning process works best when layers of copper or lead are directly exposed to the cleaning solution. For this reason, Outers recommends stripping out any powder fouling with five passes of a correct caliber bore brush soaked in powder solvent. I used a Brownells Nylon Bore Brush (#084-420-003) sized for .22 centerfire and Hoppe's Nitro Powder Solvent No. 9 (#699-000-005) to accomplish this task; then dried the bore thoroughly with several cotton patches. Once the majority of powder fouling is gone, make sure and degrease the bore with three or four patches soaked in Brownells TCE. This will cut any residual oil left in the bore that could act as an insulator and prevent the electrochemical cleaning rod from functioning properly. Again, make sure to dry patch before moving onto the next step.
With the bore prep complete, I moved onto degreasing the stainless steel, electrochemical rod. Outers is adamant about removing all traces of oil and grit from the rod. This is paramount to ensure an even cleaning action along its entire length and should be done the very first time you use it, as well as before all subsequent uses. Again, apply TCE to a clean bore patch or shop rag and rub the rod in one direction only to prevent re-distribution of any residual oils. Using care not to bend the rod, sand or scrub its surfaces with your abrasive paper or cleaning pad. When this is done, repeat the degreasing process several times, and set the rod aside in a clean location to dry completely.
The small control unit is hardwired with a red lead that clips to any steel component on the barrel. This lead, in effect, makes the barrel the anode side of the electrochemical process. So, you'll want to be sure the clip and the area where it will be attached are also thoroughly degreased using TCE. For best contact, attach the clip to a front sight, steel receiver or the barrel itself. Avoid connecting to triggers or triggerguards, as these parts are often made of non-conductive metal alloys. And, there's more resistance to overcome when working with parts that aren't screwed down directly to the barrel.
Outers recommends plugging the breech end of the barrel and cleaning it with the muzzle facing up. This is a non-issue with bolt guns, but gas-operated, semi-autos present a whole new set of challenges – especially since Dave didn't want to separate the barrel from the receiver, because the rifle was shooting so well. Cleaning muzzle up meant finding some sort of plug small enough to block the gas tube opening in the receiver or coming up with an alternative plan. After a few moments of contemplation, I thought I'd come up with winner. Why not plug the muzzle end and clean with the breech end facing up? Breech end up would put the gas tube at a level higher than the chamber and prevent any cleaning solution from rising high enough to spill out the end of the tube. Since a chamber plug would not be required, this would also allow the stainless steel rod to pass completely through the chamber so it too could be cleaned electrochemically.
Dave likes the function of the AK-47 muzzle brake a lot. To my surprise, it's a pain to seal up all its intricate gas relief ports for use with the Foul Out III system! |
The AK-47 style muzzle brake on Dave's rifle was permanently attached to the barrel, so removing it was not an option – it would have to be plugged to prevent solution from leaking out. Without further delay, I inserted one of the rubber chamber plugs, provided in the Outers kit, into the muzzle, then, taped off the side ports of the brake with Pasco .010" Pipe Wrap Tape (#100-001-354). Carefully, I fished a pipe cleaner down into each of the forward facing gas ports to ensure the rubber stopper went down deep enough to block them off as well. Everything looked A-Okay.
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My only real concern at this point was how much leakage would occur at the point where the gas tube entered the front sight housing. Nonetheless, I figured if this barrel had seen over 1,000 rounds since its last cleaning, the chances were pretty good this joint was carboned-up enough to work in my favor. So, I proceeded to secure the barrel breech end up in our padded bench vise.
| As mentioned earlier, each kit comes with two, specially formulated electrochemical cleaning solvents – Cop Out Plus for copper deposits and Lead Out Plus for lead fouling. Be forewarned that Outers specifies NOT to use the original Cop Out and Lead Out solutions in a Foul Out III system. Evidently, the version III system has been modified enough that the older solutions will yield inferior cleaning results if used with Foul Out III. Filling the barrel with solution at this time was out of turn in accordance with the Outers procedure, but I wanted to know if I'd done a satisfactory job of plugging all the leakage points before spending anymore time with setup. So, I filled the plastic dispensing cup about half full of Cop Out Plus and used the handy, built-in spout to trickle it into the breech. That part was easy --– the hard part was watching all the solution run out the forward ports of the muzzle brake!!! There was simply no good, practical way to better plug these ports, so I resorted to plan B. |
Cop Out Plus is specifically designed to work with the Foul Out III system to lift stubborn copper from the bore surfaces. Included in the kit is a handy dispensing cup with built-in spout that makes it easy to pour the solution directly down the muzzle end of the barrel.
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This makeshift plug was used to seal off the end of the gas tube in the AR-15 receiver. It worked great. |
Plan B was to plug the breech end of the barrel as Outers originally recommended, and figure out a way to prevent leakage from the end of the gas tube. I managed to scrounge up a few different size plugs in our R&D room, but none seemed to fit snugly enough to stay put, so I resorted to wrapping a couple layers of electrical tape around the end of a Cotton-Tipped Applicator (#885-861-500). This produced the best-fitting plug I could come up with, plus the added length of the handle made it easy to seat it deep into the gas tube for a good seal.
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Once I felt confident I had a plug that would actually stay in the gas tube, I installed one of the included, rubber plugs into the bore from the breech end, and backed it up with the large, easy-to-grasp chamber plug also supplied in the kit. I was fairly certain that double plugging the breech end as I'd done would hold up to the added pressure of the Cop Out Plus solution I'd be adding shortly.
Next was to secure Dave's receiver in our large bench vise using the Brownells/Peace River Upper Receiver Action Block. This is one of the handiest tools I've had the pleasure of using. Not only is it a lifesaver when torquing barrel nuts to spec, but it doubles as a protective vise block when you want to hold your upper receiver stationary during cleaning operations. I sandwiched the receiver between the two halves of the action block and set it carefully into position with the muzzle facing up before closing the vise jaws. |
This view from the bottom of the receiver shows the large, backup chamber plug in place and the homemade gas tube plug.
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O-rings must be installed over the stainless steel rod to prevent it from contacting the inside of the bore. |
Included in the kit are several sizes of O-rings, which are used to insulate the electrochemical rod from the walls of the bore. When working with rifle barrels, Outers recommends you install four O-rings on the rod; handgun cleaning requires only three. I visually gauged the length of rod that would be inserted into the barrel, and then proceeded to roll the smallest size O-rings onto the rod, spacing the uppermost one 1/2" below the muzzle brake opening and the bottom O-ring about 1/2" up from the end of the rod, as recommended in the instruction booklet. I then centered the remaining two O-rings in the middle of the rod so all four of them were spaced equally apart. To be on the safe side, I degreased the rod one last time with TCE to remove any skin oils I may have left behind when installing the O-rings.
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I filled the dispensing cup half full of Cop Out Plus for the second time and held my breath as I poured it carefully through the cutout in the muzzle brake and down the bore. Whew! So far, so good – no detectible leaks. Outers recommends you fill the bore about half full of solution before inserting the rod to prevent trapping air or causing the solution to overflow, but since the muzzle was positioned several inches above my head, I found it virtually impossible to judge how much solution I was adding. Therefore, I topped off the bore with solution and figured I'd just use extra care when inserting the rod to prevent major spillage.
After wrapping a shop rag around the bottom of the muzzle brake, I picked up the stainless steel rod with O-rings, handling it from the end that would pass through the control unit (not into the bore) and lowered the rod into the barrel using caution not to scrape it against the sides of the bore or pop out the chamber plugs. As instructed, I gently worked the rod up and down a few times to help force out any air trapped in the bore.
| At this point, Outers recommends removing the rod from the bore to install the control unit. But, in my humble opinion, anyone with an ounce of coordination ought to be able to install the control unit while the rod remains in the bore. Simply lift up on the rod slightly to take pressure off the chamber plug and route the top end through the control unit. Better yet, I would suggest installing the control unit over the end of the rod before inserting it into the bore for the first time. The control unit fits snugly over the rod, so there's no risk of it dropping down onto the muzzle. Just remember to support the weight of the control unit and prevent the rod from bottoming out against the chamber plug, which could cause it to pop loose. Hold the rod firmly in place so the bottom end is slightly suspended over the chamber plug about 1/8-inch or so. Then, slide the control unit down until it rests on the muzzle. This will ensure the chamber plug is not supporting the weight of the rod. |
No, we are not attempting to contact extraterrestrial life. This is the complete system set up and ready to clean Dave's AR-15 barrel.
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Once the rod is situated in the bore, it's time to hook-up the red, anode lead to the degreased, steel contact point on the barrel. I selected the front sight housing as the connection point, but you might find the receiver to be a more appropriate location for bolt guns. To prevent marring the metal finish, you'll want to make sure and fully open the metal jaws of the clip and release them gently when attaching it. Then, connect the AC power adaptor lead to the control unit. And, connect the plug end to a 120VAC electrical outlet. Verify the yellow "CLEANING" LED on the face of the control unit illuminates, and you're in business!
Next month, in Part II, we'll take a look at how to monitor the Foul Out III cleaning cycle and evaluate how well the system performed on Dave's AR-15 barrel.
If you have questions about different cleaning products or techniques you want us to test, be sure to let me know at WebBench@Brownells.com
CLEANING CLINIC: Easy Bore Cleaning For The Gadget-Inclined – Part II
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