Creativity with cleaning techniques does far more damage than simply shooting the gun and not cleaning. Some folks just don't have a clue on how to take care of firearms.

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NRA Life member

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If this was such a great idea, the precision barrel makers would quit pulling lead slugs through their barrels in order to lap the lands. Using a drill would save many hours - that is "IF" it were a good idea.

Safety, accuracy and life of the barrel is what cleaning is for.

Though brass is softer than steel, high speed rotation might give the brush enough force to displace metal on the bore surface(i.e. the bore can be "polished shiny" by the brush and the rifling slighty rounded.

[This message has been edited by Pyrotek (edited 02-04-2002).]

You have got me worried that I may have ruined my barrells

Regards PC.

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quote:

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Originally posted by PC:
I ask the question then should we be ever using bronze brushes at all if they scratch the bore ?. Should I stop using them for my rifles.

You have got me worried that I may have ruined my barrells

Regards PC.

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A gunwriter and gunsmith here in Sweden recommends steel wool for cleaning a rifle bore... I would never do that, but bronze is O�K.

Fritz

"Innovative" drill cleaning let the brush run across rifling and buff the bore with hundreds or maybe even thousands of passage per minute.

IMO, I wouldn't clean a rifle with a way I don't dare to use to clean my ears.

[This message has been edited by Pyrotek (edited 02-04-2002).]

Do you use bronze brushs or prefer Nylon, Nylon does not feel like it would clean anything.

Thankyou for your help.

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

GSF1200 said it had been proven that bronze brushes scratch bores. I find this hard to beleive since bronze is simply an alloy of brass and tin. When visually inspecting with a boroscope, it is difficult to judge depth. Unless the suspect barrel was cut in half and the "scratches" measured, I wouldn't believe it. What was assumed to be scratches was probably small amounts of brass embedding themselves in small pores in the bore.

I recently picked up a beater 30-30 that had literally 30 years of build up in the bore. I could not push a jag through the bore at all. After several days of soaking the bore with various solvents, I used a 30 cal then a 45 cal brass brush in a drill on the lowest speed setting. I wrapped the cleaning rod with one layer of electrical tape to protect the bore. Both brushes were saturated with a product called Simichrome. The bore is nice and shiny, and the jag has no problem passing. It shoots as well as I would expect a 30-30 to shoot.

I use copper brushes to brush, but I wrap patches around nylon brushes to clean the bore as the nylon brushes have thicker hair, won't pierce through patches as you work it in the barrel.

quote:

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Originally posted by Atkinson:
Steel is harder than brass so then how could a brass brush scratch a steel bore

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With enough practice like this, I can become a politician........ Dutch.

quote:

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Originally posted by Atkinson:
Steel is harder than brass so then how could a brass brush scratch a steel bore

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This is a thread that does get one to think things over! Well then, here's my question / thought: So how does running water, in a river for example, erode rocks? Granted it does take time but the water does wear down the rock. And water is certainly a lot "softer" than rock.

I think that some of the rock's erosion can be explained by the water dissolving minerals, etc. but I don't think that accounts for all of the erosion of a rock by running water. I claim no expertise in this. I'm not a geologist.

- Bob F.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dutch:
LE270,

With enough practice like this, I can become a politician........ Dutch.

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We are getting sharp with all this practice!

Image provided by Greg Walley. He is writing an article for Precision Shooting "on the effects of cleaning and throat erosion in 416 SS barrels."

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Also notice the very upper-right corner of the photo, looks like either bubbles in the steel or the brass needle are "stabbing" into
it.

What I theorize is that after the brush pass through throat area the brush needle bends backward, since there's more brush needle come into contact with bore wall, force is diverted out, less or no damage.

Just about when the brush is going to get into the riflings, some brush needles at the tip of the brush happened to be pointing to the sloped area of throat, this angle allows the brush needle to deliver enough force to the surface, thus there's more damage in the throat area.

If manufacturers make their brushes with brush hair bent slightly backwards to ease the conflict between throat and brush hair, there would be no problems.

Ordinary brush :

_||||||||_
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more optimized brush :
(when you pull the brush backward from muzzle, muzzle, being much smaller than throat in diameter, will bend all needles forward, thus no damage)
_\\\\\\\\_
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I worked at a polyethylene extrusion plant until recently. We extruded pipe. We never cleaned the "barrels". We buffed with a bronze wheel the die and pin only. The barrels did not need cleaned because we filtered out the garbage with screens. I'm just wondering why and how often this was done. Perhaps you work in a different type of plant.

griff

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Gerard Schultz
GS Custom Bullets