Cleaning with brush - forward only?

[BoydAllen]

Who the heck pulls a bronze brush back before it clears the muzzle.....no one that I know. Here's the deal, there is a lot of stuff that gets written on the internet and in news stand magazines by fellows that have good intentions but IMO don't know as much as they think that they do. Now I understand that they probably feel that same about me, and the rest of us insensitive cave men who actually let all but the last few bristles clear the crown and then drag that awful, ugly bronze thing back down the barrel and into the chamber....REPEATEDLY! Its a wonder that we can even hit the target at all, and who knows how many needlessly worn out barrels have been the result of such and uncouth assault on a rifle's bore. Of course the ultimate solution to all of this is to go out and shoot a couple of wallet groups, carefully clean the barrel, oil 'er up, and make her a safe queen of proven virtue, forever safe from the ravages of badly handled cleaning rods ;-)

The nice things about hobbies is that we get to do some things exactly as we want to, for whatever reason we choose. Clean 'em any way that makes you happy ;D

 

[CT10ring]

Good reading. To me- totally self taught shooter, it's an requisite (voodoo?)-just
unscrew the brush 1" beyond the bbl then pull rod back thru bore, wipe the rod, quickly wrap the brush in a rag, douse in (x solvent) and repeat.

It's a ritual, really...but the bronze bristles are headed out like the bullet, so no harm there... I have cleaned couple K.....r bbls using maybe 4 patches tho.
I am with Forum Boss here...

 

[boogershooter]

Ut Oh Tenring, did you say JB? Man your gonna get it! ;D hehe.

 

[Down South]

I brush both ways in my Dasher and .308 barrels. Never a problem. A bronze brush will never hurt a stainless barrel. Just use a bore guide like the Lucas so that you aren't dragging rod and brush hardware across the crown.

I do the same thing (both ways), scrub the crap out of my barrels with a bronze brush, probably more than most and haven't seen any loss of accuracy.

 

[Rbreb13]

I don't pull a brush back through my barrels. I don't know if it makes a difference or not, don't really care. Just the way I do it.

 

[GeorgeS3]

" Just use a bore guide like the Lucas so that you aren't dragging rod and brush hardware across the crown."

How does a Lucas bore guide keep it from dragging???
Am I misreading this??????

 

[Coolhand]

I shoot moly coated 155 grainers , I clean after every shoot . 3 to 5 passes in one direction SLOWLY with a bronze brush in good condition DRY , to loosen up any residue , then I scrub with OUTERS wool mops which are over sized , in my .308 Schneider Barrels is use .338 thru .375 mops and SLIP 2000 725 , then dry the bore with patches then scrub again with whatever solvent I have to hand , patch out again , then oil the barrel.
I generally give the leade a good going over with a nylon brush with a shortened rod that just lets me reach the throat.

regards
Mike.

 

[TimP]

I am in the camp that believes with proper technique pulling a brush back into the bore won't hurt a thing. I do believe that with sloppy technique you can damage/lap your crown with your cleaning rod. I use a Lucas rod guide with a Bore Rider jag to keep the brush centered after it exits the bore.

 

[markr]

Plus, you pull that brush back through, what's the first thing that happens when the bristles clear the bore? They fling all that crud you are trying to remove right into the chamber, lug, and bolt raceway.

Not if you're using a proper bore guide like you should be!

 

[stretch308]

so lots of opinions ,heres a nother. the boys who shoot real powder (black) at long range are just one step fussier bout their crowns. they find an o-ring just smaller than the bore when stretched onto the cleaning rod rite behind the jag (rarely ever a brush),so when the patch (or rarely the brush ) exists the bore it doesn't drop and bang the bottom edge of the bore. i personally remove the brush before withdrawl but im never under time constraints.

 

[6BRinNZ]

There is so much voodo out there I made up some rules for myself

1./ If in doubt don't do it
2./ If I'm too lazy - I take what I get

As far as I can tell the solvents do the work the brush is to simply help scratch the crud to let the solvent get at it.

There is and always will be debate about pulling the brush back through - the risk being - it affects the crown and pulls the crud back through.

Brand new barrels I use rule 1

Barrels that are nearly done on round count I use rule 2 ...lol

 

[BoydAllen]

Rule number three: If you haven't done your evaluation with a bore scope, you are just guessing.

 

[dickn52]

I always thought it had more to do with dropping oils and garbage into the mechanisms when you pulled it back into the breah areas? My AR in the Army was a work dawg, so we didn't care much, but when I started buying my own guns, I decided to treat them gently. I am of the school of push don't pull.

 

[Leaddog]

Rule number three: If you haven't done your evaluation with a bore scope, you are just guessing.

What Boyd says. Don't guess.

I use a bronze brush both ways with Montana Extreme. I stroke the barrel 20 times (out and back counts as one). Before brushing I push through about 6 patches soaked in solvent to get the powder residue out. After brushing, I use 6 more dry patches followed by a 99% Isopropyl Alcohol soaked patch. 4 more dry patches and then one lightly oiled patch of Montana Bore Conditioner.

Before shooting again, I use an alcohol patch followed by 4 dry patches. Good to go.

Borescope shows my barrels are clean. Crown is inspected regularly under bright light and magnification. Again, perfect.

 

[LCazador]

Many years ago (no the snakes didn't have legs back then , lol ) , we had a guy show up at a match with a Rem 40X 222 with custom barrel . After some pretty horrific shooting , and a lot of complaining , he asked if we could take a look at his rifle . Right away several of us noticed the awful looking gouges on the crown . About half of us at the time right away said that was the problem , then one old guy asked how he was cleaning his rifle . To make a long story short , we cleaned that badly fouled barrel , and then proceeded to shoot a .220" group with it to our amazement . And that wasn't the last firearm I saw shoot very good with a very bad crown ???!! I don't think you could damage a crown with a good brush and bore guide ! And yeah , I have a bore scope !!

 

[ScottMcc]

Just when you thought the subject of cleaning had been beaten to death, the forward/reverse brush stroke question racks up another 35 comments! Anything with more powder-to-bore ratio than a .308 will probably burn out the bore long before it would be worn out from 'reasonable' cleaning anyway. What is the life of a 6.5-284? 1000 rounds?

 

[dickn52]

Are you bragging,Dickn? I agree except I was able to keep an unauthorized M14,so I babied that sweetheart. Tom

NOW that is bragging. I loved the M14 and shot it well. But when we got to your "namesake" in the very same year BTW, we got the Matty Mattel wonder gun. It just seemed like a toy and was treated like one sometimes.

 

[LCazador]

Just when you thought the subject of cleaning had been beaten to death, the forward/reverse brush stroke question racks up another 35 comments! Anything with more powder-to-bore ratio than a .308 will probably burn out the bore long before it would be worn out from 'reasonable' cleaning anyway. What is the life of a 6.5-284? 1000 rounds?

Well you started another 32 post question with " what is the life of a 6.5/284 " !! I'll go first , as I have shot this caliber now for almost 30 years . I have two rifles , both have over 1000 rounds thru them , so I'd say 2000 plus , if you keep 'em cool and it's a big contour , that's max 10 per relay . My BAT now has over 1500 and it's still lights up at a grand ! ;D

 

[ddkearney]

I agree with Boyd 100% and use the same setup as TimP mentions above. I've never seen anyone unscrew their brush at a NBRSA 100-200 yd match. Don

 

[Raptor]

I push and pull. However I tried the "NO" brush cleaning method using foam and thought it was great for awhile. (My wife loved it when I stopped using the "Stinky" cleaners) THe one thing I did notice was my accuracy started to drop off on my BRX. I could not figure out why until I read a post on here about "Hard" carbon fouling that didn't show up while cleaning.

I decided to get after it with a good soaking with a carbon cleaner and a good brushing then JBs and then Remington 40X. After the weekend it was back shooting like it had before. So to make a long story short I am back to pushing a couple of wet patches through the bore then getting after it with a bronze bore brush for about 15 to 20 strokes then use my copper cleaner. Like one of the guys in an article that I read on carbon fouling said, "If you aren't brushing your not getting it clean"!!