after ruining several stainless 1 piece cleaning rods over the years [ trying to start tight patchs and bending them.] I bought a tipton carbon rod. This is one well made rod. You cant bend it if you tried. smooth bearing handle and if you need to you can give it arap on the end without hurting it. However when patching out at the end of my cleaning i will have a small amount of black onthe patch regardless of how many i run threw it. has anyone had this happen? i suspect im leaving traces of carbon in the bore but not sure. any input would be interesting. thanks/

I have one of those rods as well, but haven't noticed any black mess on the patches.

Are you sure that its carbon...Do you think it could be just a bit of fouling left over from bore solvent? I am always suprised how many patches I use up after giving a rifle a good scrub down.

. . . when patching out at the end of my cleaning i will have a small amount of black onthe patch regardless of how many i run threw it. has anyone had this happen? thanks/
This happens to me too. Don't believe it is really worth the effort to patch until my final patch comes out absolutely clean anymore. Very clean is clean enough for me and from MY groups, it makes no difference on my targets.

I suspect the little bit of black residue is from the chamber.

Assuming you're cleaning from the breech. The chamber's not getting the tight fit cleaning the bore is getting so the patch picks up some light crud as it moves through chamber.

I have a couple of the Tipton rods and they are very good. I clean my bores very well and its very difficult to get ALL the carbon fouling out. Even when you think you got it all, swab it with your cleaner, let it sit a few minutes and patch it and I'll bet you'll get some on there. Probably drawn out from the corners of the rifling. Marshal Kane is right, very clean is good enough for me too, as long as it is maintained, a little bit won't hurt.

I have cut patches a bit too large before. Tight enough to bend a rod is too tight and should be avoided. I have seen "dark streaks" on the patch when this error occured. My thinking is "it is a friction burn" that you are seeing. The patch is getting hot from being too tight in the bore at the speed you are pushing it? Furthermore, a patch that is that tight will "wring out" the solvent as it enters the bore. Need to get the chemical to the fouling so it can do it's work?

I will clean a cradled rifle by pushing the end of the rod with my shoulder. That leaves my hands free to support the cleaning rod in two places as it enters the bore. That and "finding" the right sized patch, keeps my cleaning rods straight.

Cheezywan

thanks for the info.guys i think its small traces of fouling not going to worry about it.and no more too tight patches

At the risk of telling you guys how "tight" I really am, have to admit I take the "very clean" used patches and reuse them. These are the patches that are saturated with solvent and oil during the next cleaning. These patches will come out very dirty anyway so why use new patches? Final patching is always done with new patches.

And, here I thought it was just me being cheap!

Used patches that don't contain fouling or other contaminants get stockpiled and used as the first-through patches on fouled bores coming back from a day at the range. :D

marshal kane : so do i justs makes good cents$

kdub and coopdog,
I see I'm not the only one squeezing more cents from the buck!!! ;) Thanks for making my day!