I just read the post about the fella having a hard time cleaning his barrel. THe rifling still having residue in it. Has anyone ever plugged up the bottom of barrel and used a small funnel and poured solvent into the barrel all the way up to fill it, then let it sit over night?  Would solvent ever hurt the metal or finish sitting on it overnight or would it help break up any residue that is being stubborn?

Regardless if it is needed , would it hurt anything?

Have not heard of it. But I would prefer leaving the residue of a series of very wet patches instead. This would not threaten the gun's outer finish. Some harsher solvents such as copper/lead fouling remover may cause the chrome to flake if the bbl is so lined.
I think the right size bronze brush and snug patches are a better solution overall.

I once ate the parkerizing off an area on a Goverment Issue match M-14 with sweets 7.62 bore solvent.  This is an amonia based solvent.

Amonia based solvents shold not be left on finishes at all. Wipe it off immeadiately.

Before I became familiar with AK's I used to clean and clean and clean and clean and still would not be satisfied with the way the patches were coming out. I used about 2 patches soaked with Hoppes #9 and then ran dry patches until I tried to get a clean dry patch. Well, it never happened, I never got a clean patch even if I ran 100 patches through. Now that I own 4 AK's I realize that with these rifles cleanliness of the white glove kind will never be attained nor is it needed. My 2 cents.

You clean yours?

Cleaning rifles especially AK's are time consuming, the next woman I marry better like cleaning guns....

I bought a 1911a1 years ago. The barrel looked to be ruined(not much of a groove to be found).
When I took it to a local gunsmith(old timer, since passed away), he told me that most of the problem was lead foul.
He told me to remove the barrel, plug the muzzel, fill the barrel with Hoppe's#9, let it stand overnite. The next day, clean with a bore-brush, and rinse the barrel with boiling hot water. After this, he advised a regular cleaning, a trip to the sand pit with some FMJ 230 ball, followed by a repeat of the first nites cleaning(water and all).
Long story short... it worked great.
I couldn't believe it. I thought the barrel was so bad, that I had nothing to lose, but it really woked.
It turned out the barrel wasn't as bad as I thought. I never replaced it. It wasn't perfect, but there were lots of lands+grooves hiding under all that lead.
Would I advise trying this?
Well, I haven't done it since,but it did work.

hillclimber
 

You could do it but don't forget to somehow plug the gas hole in the barrel also otherwise you might wind up with a wet floor.

Had a similiar lead fouling issue with a 1911. Thought the barrel was wore out. Cleaned numerous times withAeroKroil,brush, and plastic scraper. Works and looks good. Not match accuracy, but good enough.

I clean all the rifle barels the same way now, AK included. One AeroKroil soaked patch. Let soak awhile. Scrub with a wet bronze borebrush. 6 AeroKroil soaked patches after brushing. 1 dry patch. Then a final patch wetted with FP1.
I used to be a clean barrel freak. No more. Didn't notice any realistic gains when using more than a dozen patches and alternating brushes and cleaners. Better things to spend time doing besides having a sanitary bore.