Degree of abrasiveness--most to least

[Bronsin]

Which IOSSO paste?

The only one I'm familiar with, it comes in a small white tube.

 

[pitbull]

I have had really good luck with witches brew made by Dave Holland

 

[BoydAllen]

Any time you use something that is effective in getting out hard carbon quickly, you need to be careful with how you use it. That being said, abrasives of some sort are the only way this can be done. Faced with this reality, and armed with a bore scope, I have found that I like the Thorroclean and Thorroflush system better than all of the other abrasive cleaners that I have tried.

There is one more thing worth mentioning here, I find it common that shooters may get carried away with their cleaning based on wanting visual perfection. This is not a good idea because it can cause you to over use abrasive cleaners.

IMO what we want is a barrel that is clean enough to shoot its very best. To get a good feel for how much is enough, I suggest that shooters first invest in a bore scope and then use it to clean in stages, with inspections between to see what the minimum amount of cleaning is to achieve their goal, without over doing it.

If you see what appears to be more of a stain, with all of the texture of the underlying metal and the full form of the barrels internal features, your barrel is probably functionally as clean as it needs to be for top performance.

 

[Brians356]

If you see what appears to be more of a stain, with all of the texture of the underlying metal and the full form of the barrels internal features, your barrel is probably functionally as clean as it needs to be for top performance.

Also I think it's not unlikely certain powders with copper-supressing properties will hold buildup at the "stain" level, essentially obviating the need to specifically attack copper at all.
-

 

[6MMsteve]

Fritz the naughty Cat he was rough, anybody remember Fritz the naughty cat

 

[Fuj]

I think I'll buy a soda blaster from Horror Fright and give it a
go on my mule barrels......Got nothing to lose ?? LOL

 

[dcali]

A bit of context: JB will not hurt your barrel. It’s just not aggressive enough to remove metal.

 

[TaperPin]

Before I hold up a doll and ask you to point where this question hurt you, I’m actually curious about other abrasives many of us have around the shop. Mainly if anyone knows if they are useful for the purpose of barrel cleaning.

Many of us have polishing compounds in different colored wax sticks of all kinds, like what we use on buffing wheels to polish metal parts. 15k Grit?

Then there are the automotive polishing compounds, but I’m guessing these are quite soft? These probably go from a course compound of 10k grit up to 20k for polish?

I also have a qt of high $$ glass polish - it will last two lifetimes since it’s rarely used - cerium oxide I think. This must be 20k grit?

I’ll probably polish up the exterior of an old barrel and rub some of each on to see the scratch pattern, unless someone has already done this…

edit: and the conclusion is what - hard abrasive of small size or larger abrasive of soft size is better?

 

[dcali]

Before I hold up a doll and ask you to point where this question hurt you, I’m actually curious about other abrasives many of us have around the shop. Mainly if anyone knows if they are useful for the purpose of barrel cleaning.

Many of us have polishing compounds in different colored wax sticks of all kinds, like what we use on buffing wheels to polish metal parts. 15k Grit?

Then there are the automotive polishing compounds, but I’m guessing these are quite soft? These probably go from a course compound of 10k grit up to 20k for polish?

I also have a qt of high $$ glass polish - it will last two lifetimes since it’s rarely used - cerium oxide I think. This must be 20k grit?

I’ll probably polish up the exterior of an old barrel and rub some of each on to see the scratch pattern, unless someone has already done this…

edit: and the conclusion is what - hard abrasive of small size or larger abrasive of soft size is better?

If something like JB isn't doing the job, it's probably because you're doing something wrong. Bore scopes are cheap these days so it's not that hard to keep on top of it and prevent any headaches. No need to complicate things.

 

[TaperPin]

If something like JB isn't doing the job, it's probably because you're doing something wrong. Bore scopes are cheap these days so it's not that hard to keep on top of it and prevent any headaches. No need to complicate things.

I have a bore scope and JB on the bench. I don’t think it’s complicating things to wonder what the makers of the abrasive cleaners have already tested - there’s no way jb was created on the first try of the first abrasive. At one time or another every abrasive known to man has probably been put down a barrel.

An automated reciprocating arm to actually run a patch down a barrel and back to test metal removal is no more complicated than something a jr high school student can put together, so I’m pretty confident many guys in his forum have tried it on a shot out barrel to compare abrasiveness. Someone here knows how many strokes of jb and other industrial abrasives it takes to open a bore .0001”

I probably have $1,000 in abrasives in my garage 1000 grit or finer - it seems somewhat silly to think the only usable abrasives have to come out of an over priced can marketed to average gun owners. With many products, those marketed to consumers are quite dumbed down so the lowest common denominator knuckle head doesn’t ruin every gun it’s misused on.

 

[dcali]

Someone here knows how many strokes of jb and other industrial abrasives it takes to open a bore .0001”

I can answer this one for JB. You'll never take .0001" off in any sane amount of time. I've chucked a piece of mild steel in a drill and run it full bore for 10 minutes or more trying to take metal off with JB and nothing happened. Not even a little bit. That's what makes JB perfect. Works great on carbon, does nothing to steel.

One note for the unfamiliar - JB will turn black on patch when you rub it against perfectly clean steel. You cannot tell if a barrel is clean by looking at the patch - that goes for a few cleaners (KG-12, for example). You have to look at the bore to really know.