Background: Beretta 694, 500 + rds in bottom barrel 7/8 oz with Win AA Red hulls; 500 + rds in top barrel 1 oz with Win AA Gray hulls. Routine cleaning with CLP of 694, as with Beretta 687 ACS, w/o looking inside barrels since past suggested all was clean. NOT! Bottom barrel of 694 looked like a 100 year + sewer pipe. Many hours later, I settled on following. Ed’s Red 2 soaked patches, 30 minutes apart, followed by 1 Ed’s Red soaked patch pushed by a 10 ga bronze brush on a drill turned rod fixed the barrel fouling. Clean with patches, then lube with Ballistol. The chokes were a more difficult problem, Likely because the FPS had peaked and the constriction is reduced. I tried every commercial choke tube solvent (5 products, $100+ costs) and the shortest clean time for 50 rds included 10x pushing patches and brushes with drill powered brush. 5+/- cycles to remove plastic fouling. Aside, cleaned smoker grill grate with Easy Off Heavy Duty, and did not use protective gloves while spraying. Resulted in very dry/scaly skin that took weeks to heal. SO, use a rubber glove and Cover one end of choke tube with paper towel patch and spray Easy Off Heavy Duty in other end. Lay horizontal for 15 minutes, then roll 180 degrees for another 15 minutes. Then, again using rubber gloves, Run a 10 ga bronze brush on a drill powered rod in the choke for 10 seconds, the goop is flushed with running water. Rinse all in cool water. Dry outside of choke, and 2 patches on jag thru choke. ALL plastic fouling has been removed. Oil inside and outside . Total time for 6 chokes, less 30 minutes for soak time, was 10 minutes. And, cleanest chokes in my experience. No more Win AA Reds, Win AA Grays do not leave significant plastic fouling in my Berettas.
The plastic from the hulls does not exit thru the barrels. look at the wads. Fire on of the shells and retrieve the wad , that is what is fowling the barrels. Roger C.
The red hulls show a lot of burnt plastic inside at the crimp zone, the grays do not. The bottom barrel (red hulls) has the rapid accumulation of plastic fouling, the top barrel (gray hulls) do not. I reversed the hulls/barrels and the plastic fouling followed the red hulls.
A slow burning powder will cause that affect on the hull. try 17.4 of red dot on some loads and see if that helps. Roger C. PS let me know how that works out for you.
Big 50 today with Remington STS and Nitro 27 hulls, total 100 in SBT and 25 each in O/U. All with recent manufacture Claybuster wads. Very little carbon residue and no apparent plastic fouling. After a thorough cleaning tomorrow, I’ll report on any plastic fouling. If no plastic fouling, I stay with my diagnosis that Win AA Red is the bad guy.
Barrels and chokes showed carbon, but no plastic, fouling. Cleaned barrels with Ed’s Red, as above. Cleaned chokes with Easy Off HD, as above. Failed to mention earlier that I use Ballistol on inside of barrels and chokes, and Mobil 1 on threads.
How is that red plastic getting to your choke tubes? Blame what ever you want to does not make it true. Try switching to Down Range wads they are made with virgin plastic. Roger C.
