cordless drill and brush
- Thread starter rebs
- Start date
LVLAaron
Gold $$ Contributor
Yeah, he was just getting the rod started to match the twist
Larry Koch
Silver $$ Contributor
Chisel and a hammer works on hard carbon. We even used dynamite.
Alex Wheeler
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They have a place, but its not every time. The guys using them every time are shortening the accuracy life of the barrel. You do not want to smooth out the rifling in the lead, you want it nice a sharp. When you do get to the point carbon is getting built up and the brush wont remove it, then an abrasive used carefully is required. But try to keep it out of the throat. Usually the carbon is in front of the throat so dont short stroke the throat. Because we are so anal about keeping track of our touch point all the time, we learned that every time we used iosso the touch point moved .001-.002. And Im only talking like 15-20 short strokes. Barrels looked great but we were pulling them off sooner. And the barrels dont need to be shiny steel to shoot their best anyhow.
DaveTooley
Gold $$ Contributor
I'll throw this out there in addition to what Alex said. I believe a clean barrel is a happy barrel so I clean often and regularly. Regular and frequent cleaning usually keeps carbon at bay. As the barrel roughens up it will get copper deposited into the cracks unless care is taken to mitigate the roughness. I use abrasives when I'm well into the life span of the barrel to manage the heat checking not as a replacement for cleaning solvent.
The use of chemicals in conjunction with prolonged soaking/softening is best. When I'm at a match my barrel is always soaking with solvent. That's followed with 5 or 6 strokes of a brass brush and a few patches. You can't clean a barrel in the same amount of time as two clicks of a mouse.
The use of chemicals in conjunction with prolonged soaking/softening is best. When I'm at a match my barrel is always soaking with solvent. That's followed with 5 or 6 strokes of a brass brush and a few patches. You can't clean a barrel in the same amount of time as two clicks of a mouse.
DaveTooley
Gold $$ Contributor
I use old Butch's that I juice up a bit with an ammonia product because of the age of the butch's.
DaveTooley
Gold $$ Contributor
I don't worry about that number. I have found that a lot of the time it doesn't translate to the target. I've retuned seating depth in many barrels midlife trying to blame the barrel for a loss in accuracy. Many times I end up about in the same place as the original tune. Then I have to look in the mirror for the problem.
I've never used Thorroclean. Flitz and Iosso here.
I've never used Thorroclean. Flitz and Iosso here.
Too many variables to give you a number on throat erosion. I really don't measure it at all.
Type of powder will cause different rates of erosion.
Rate of fire.
Cleaning.
Bullets from lot to lot will vary also.
Thorroclean.... from what I understand has Iosso mixed in with it. I myself won't use it. I will say if you use it...patch only...no brush.
I shoot a S&W 617 for Steel Challenge and it gets pretty dirty after 300 rounds. OK, I miss some!
I use an electric drill and chamber brush about every 500 round and it keeps the cylinders nice and clean. It's mush easier than a push/pull brush and patch.
I also just switched to Bore Tech C4 for cleaning the cylinder. Just let it soak for 5 minutes, run a mop though the cylinders and they are clean.
Steven
I use an electric drill and chamber brush about every 500 round and it keeps the cylinders nice and clean. It's mush easier than a push/pull brush and patch.
I also just switched to Bore Tech C4 for cleaning the cylinder. Just let it soak for 5 minutes, run a mop though the cylinders and they are clean.
Steven
Attachments
Try an ultrasonic cleaner?
I've put AR bolts and carriers and pistol parts etc... in the ultrasonic cleaner.
I think I remember someone back years ago saying that they used a brass case that had a longer neck than the chambering you were removing the carbon from. They filed notches in the end of the neck like saw teeth and used this to remove the carbon. I don't know if it would work, what do you think?
hoz53
Gold $$ Contributor
interesting as mine clean up good with butchs, patches and a bronze brush. i wonder wat the difference is?
A friend had a new rifle and fire formed 50 cases to PPC. During the process he cleaned every so often, including bronze brushing, but not a lot of strokes per cleaning. At the time he did not have a bore scope, so he brought it over to my place so that we could take a look. We saw that there was some powder fouling with some thickness, not much in the throat, but starting about 6-8" down the bore. He had been shooting 133. The first thing that I did was put a new bronze brush on one of my rods and had him use it and Butches for quite a few cycles, perhaps 25, to make up what he had not done in previous cleanings. He patched it out and we bore scoped it again. IMO it was clean enough to shoot a group match, not totally bright, but no more than a little color here and there with no apparent thickness. To show him how to get to totally clean, which I explained was not really necessary, we went back to my garage and used some Thorroclean on a patch wrapped around a nylon brush, one of the black ones, not the harder ones. That took the remainder of the fouling out with relative ease. Personally I do not believe that cleaning to that point is needed for any application, but rather getting to a consistent starting point that is 98%. IMO with 133 the key is to clean every 25 rounds or so, and to do a lot of bronze brushing when I clean. Contrary to a few (very few) I have never seen any harm from using a bronze brush. I should add that I use very high quality cleaning rod guides with the bushing that goes on the rod and inserts into the back of the guide. I only use an abrasive if inspection shows that it is needed, and when I do I clean a little and reinspect to determine the minimum number of cycles needed to get the job done.
I've got a sonic cleaner but it doesn't work as well. It's just a cheap Harbour Freight unit.
Steven
LVLAaron
Gold $$ Contributor
For what it's worth, a good ultrasonic is expensive. They should have 4-6 transducers. I have a couple of the single transducer hornady/HF units... They're fine for cleaning lube, or a couple of small parts... but if you fill them with 75 pieces of brass, they suffer and dont' do much.
No. I suggest that you do what you have to to get to where you need to go. Of course we all want to inflict the least possible damage with our process.
In the short range group game, if you choose to, there is time to clean between each match, which may only involve perhaps eight shots fired, five for record.
On the other hand, the long range games. both bench and F class do not make time for that level of cleaning frequency, also, powders vary greatly in how much fouling they produce and how difficult it is to remove.
Probably the most popular short range group powder is N133, which is in my experience very clean burning. also, the longer you wait to clean, the harder the fouling is to remove. This is similar to the fouling on case necks.
In the short range group game, if you choose to, there is time to clean between each match, which may only involve perhaps eight shots fired, five for record.
On the other hand, the long range games. both bench and F class do not make time for that level of cleaning frequency, also, powders vary greatly in how much fouling they produce and how difficult it is to remove.
Probably the most popular short range group powder is N133, which is in my experience very clean burning. also, the longer you wait to clean, the harder the fouling is to remove. This is similar to the fouling on case necks.
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