Reamed Brass as Bore Guide

[58weasel]

Have never used the recommended bore guides, rather have just taken a piece of fired brass for the rifle and drilled out the primer pocket to a diameter that allows my cleaning rod to go through it, and use that as a homemade bore guide. With Ruger No. 1 & 3 works very well, but am I missing a bet using that technique with a bolt gun?
Would appreciate your opinions.

 

[vtmarmot]

I make bore guides by drilling out the back of a fired case and gluing a brass tube into it with epoxy. The tubes are available in hobby stores. I use 3/8" diameter for magnums and 11/16" for .308 bolt face cartridges. These are especially good for lapping bores where you don't want to mess up the neck of the chamber. Also for putting in bore coatings like Dyna-Tek with a bore mop.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

... am I missing a bet using that technique with a bolt gun?

On a bolt-action rifle, the bore guide serves to keep solvent out of the trigger (and any other cutouts in the bottom of the action), in addition to providing alignment of the cleaning rod with the bore.

Mike Lucas bore guides all the way! 8)

 

[Syncrowave]

Won't the copper in brass possibly react with the chemicals used to remove copper fouling, and thus turn your patches green/blue when they wouldn't otherwise turn green/blue, leading you to believe the barrel is still fouled when it isn't?

Other than that, I can think of nothing wrong with using brass.

I use plastic bore guides, but brass would probably last longer.

 

[dkhunt14]

The downside to using that brass is that your probably not getting the area at the end of the neck area. It also probably don't seal off the chamber as well as a bore guide. The bore guide has an o-ring that seals off in the chamber to keep the fluid from coming back and getting in the trigger. They usually stop before the neck area so the fluid and patches work on the carbon that builds up in front of the chamber. I let my guns soak for days and don't get that carbon buildup. Matt

 

[LHSmith]

I hope you're not using a foaming bore cleaner .Your probably abrading your rod as it passes through the case head.....you are missing the o-ring that seals the chamber from the solvents, you are exposing the sear, trigger group, lug abutments to all kinds of carbon, metal particles in suspension from the cleaning regimen. Also it well known that cleaning compounds can attack some bedding compounds, much less some plastic and wood stock materials.
Whatever you do, make sure you dry and clean out the chamber when using your method, and always clean with the muzzle in a downward slope.
I believe an MTM bore guide is < $ 10.....which will at least offer some protection. A caliber/ action specific Possum Hollow/ Sinclair is great for hunting guns, a Mike Lucas Guide is essential to protect my $500 chambered Comp bbls.

 

[Steve Ladino]

Something attached to the case (a tube) would be ideal. I have used a 6 BR. case with the head cut off and attached it to an aluminium rod of .695 diameter bored through end to end about ten inches long all together. It has worked well as far as protecting my bores beginning area. Only drawback is the false color indication of copper from the brass case itself. Same case since 2007, about 1600 rounds, many cleanings!

 

[vtmarmot]

Let me say that I don't use the brass case/tube guides I make with anything that could attack the brass or seep around the case into the action. These I use strictly for lapping or use with J-B bore paste. I clean almost exclusively with Wipeout Accelerator and Foam. The secret to that is to use their cone-shaped tip on the tube. It fits securely into the neck and prevents all but the slightest blow back. This works except on the .222, .223 class of cases. For those I use an O-ring guide that fits tight in the chamber.

 

[VaniB]

I've been making home made bore guides for years. Here is a 20 Tac brass case that has been drilled out through the back. It has a K&S brass hobby tube slid up through the 20Tac case where the brass tube butts flush up against the neck joint. Instead of using epoxy, I solder the brass tube to the case.I use whatever scrap paper tubes I have on hand (that as a hobbiest I have gathered up through the years) to serve as an outer body tube to fit tight into my Remington 700 receiver. Heck, you can even roll your own paper exterior tubes, or use 1/2" cpvc plumbing pipe slid over electrical tape rolled into bushings, or masking tape rolled into bushings. Then build up the outside diameter of the cpvc body tube using strips of paper or electrical tape again until it is snug in the receiver. I prefer using paper tubes exclusively for the body tube, and I start with slightly oversized paper tubes that I make a shallow slit with a razor and peel off as many layers of paper as I need until the outer paper body tube fits snug into the receiver. Or, I can sand the paper tube down on a stationary belt sander, or grind it down on an power grinding wheel at my work bench. Then I smear the body tube with a thin layer of epoxy glue to cover all exposed paper. The outer tube doesn't need to look pretty, it just needs to slide into the chamber and stay snug in place while you are stroking the cleaning rod.


The little wire loop you see on the body tube rotates and notches into the receiver to hold the bore guide in place so it doesn't pull out during the back stroke of the cleaning rod. The little plastic flange on the back of my bore guide is simply something to grip and be able to pull the bore guide out easily.

 

[58weasel]

Very ingenious! Thanks for all the interesting posts.