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Before I began shooting cast bullets I decided to clean the barrel and remove all traces of copper fouling. To get it absolutely clean I tried using the Outers electro-chemical cleaner called the "Foul-Out II". While the cleaner worked extremely well for me, let me warn you that you cannot plug this thing in and let it clean your gun while you sit and watch TV.
The "Foul-Out II" works as a reverse electro-plating process. The copper that is on the bore is removed and is plated onto a stainless steel rod that is part of the unit. Instructions with the unit must be carefully followed or you can ruin your barrel.
First the barrel was thoroughly cleaned and degreased. Since leverguns must be cleaned from the muzzle (unless you take them completely apart), I used a muzzle protector to keep the cleaning rod from wearing any of the rifling or muzzle away. Made from a 7 mm case, it is inserted into the rifle muzzle and the cleaning rod then inserted in through it.
Once the barrel was cleaned and degreased I made a stand to hold the rifle upright. plugged the bore with the inserts provided, poured in the chemicals, inserted the rod, hooked up the wires and turned it on. I let it run 10 minutes and then shut it down and pulled the rod out of the barrel. I found that the rod had some copper fouling on it already! Everything looked fine so I re-inserted the rod and let it run for an hour. When I pulled the rod out at the end of the hour I found that the bottom 3 inches of it had turned black. I poured the solution out of the barrel into a clean glass jar and found that it had turned yellow. The instruction book that came with the "Foul-Out II" said this was a sign of rust in the bore. The solution had to be disposed of. If I continued using it the unit would begin to pull steel off of the bore and to plate it onto the rod! The barrel had to be cleaned and degreased again also. And all the copper on the stainless steel rod had to be sanded off. After all that was accomplished I started the process over. After I got it started again I let the unit run for another hour, then pulled the rod out and checked it. There was more copper fouling on it but there were no signs of rust or any other problem. I let it run for 2 hours and then pulled the rod again. This time it was black on the end nearest the chamber. And there was copper fouling on it in various places. I cleaned the barrel and the rod, replaced the solution and started over. At the end of another hour I pulled the rod and found heavy copper fouling. I cleaned the rod and began again. Two hours later I shut it down and pulled the rod from the barrel to find more rust along with some copper fouling. The bore was cleaned and degreased as was the rod. I replaced the solution and started the machine up again. A little over a half hour later the "CLEAN" light came on. I pulled it all apart and found it was indeed clean. After nearly 8 hours of running the electro-chemical cleaner plus the time spent scrubbing and degreasing the bore the barrel was as clean as the day it was made, or nearly so. The rust the unit pulled out seemed to be small pits underneath copper fouling. It has not hurt the accuracy of the rifle as far as I can tell. While it may be a lot of work, it is about the easiest way I know of to get a barrel back close to its pre-fired condition.
