The rifling of my K98 looks brown. Is this normal? (pics)

[Lonely Gunny]

I did the general procedure to clean the K98 after firing corrosive ammo. Today, I looked into the bore and I discovered the rifling is in brownish colour. Can anyone tell me if this is normal?
I use hot water, Hoppe's #9 and rem oil.

Information

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[jmoore]

Could be copper. Could be rust. Looks more like copper to me. But the bad part is that the copper may conceal potential rust sites. Time to get a bit more aggressive. Good copper solvent first. (Hoppes' will take ages.) Then, (may not be required) if you've a good bore guide you may try JB bore paste or the Remington bore cleaner. Patches fed from back to front. No return.

[northwalesfred]

from using corrosive ammo northwalesfred

[VinnAY]

For my milsurps Ive been a major convert to Gunslick foaming bore cleaner...works wonders where I could never get a clean patch.

[browningautorifle]

This rifle could have been fed corrosive ammo before you. Was the bore shiney and new when you first got it? It does show copper fouling in there.

[NRA]

no worry, it is not going to get any worst at least in your life time as long as you do what you did.

[Lonely Gunny]

Yes the bore was shiny when I got it. I shot it last Sunday(29th).
Does the copper do any harm to the bore?

[Lonely Gunny]

I used .30 brush when I cleaned it. Maybe it is not big enough.

[NRA]

get a 8mm anyway

[JBS]

That is gilding metal transfer from the bullets. As Jmoore said you can remove it with JB Bore Paste, follow the instructions. You can also use a chemical bore stripper like 7.62 or the foaming type. Make sure you follow the instructions. I like to use a product called Butch's Bore Shine. He was a great Benchrester and I got some of his product before he took it commercial. It now is part of the Lyman product line. I use it the way Butch did. Patch bore to get the big stuff out. Use a bore mop to soak bore and go to bed. Next day wipe bore clean with patch. ( Butch's is for non corrosive ammo )

In regards to corrosive ammo I would suggest you find a solvent made for corrosive ammo. Sometimes at gun shows you can still find gallon cans of the old orange nasty GI solvent made to clean corrosive ammo. In any case you want to remove the corrosive stuff first and then you can remove the metal transfer from the bore without such a rush. Remember that there can be corrosive salts trapped under the metal streaks.