Pistol cleaning blunder??

[Duhbob]

I have this friend who needs to find out...........What if you didn't know you can't trombone a brass brush in and out of your (5 inch 9mm) barrel 'til after it was waaay too late? what sort of permanent damage happened? if any? and how can you tell if you (he) screwed up?

 

[charliepapa]

I didn't know you could damage steel with brass...

run a patch thru it and look at it in some light. does it look OK?

 

[jmcrawf1]

I've done it before. I don't do it now that I know better, but I don't believe it caused any damage.

 

[Duhbob]

still looks perfect, even with a l.e.d. light on a stick looking from either end to end

 

[kz45]

He didn't do any damage, I wrap my brush with a tore up brass brillo pad and work it back and forth many times, till all the lead comes out, I have around 50,000 rounds down the pipe with no accuracy loss

 

[charliepapa]

still looks perfect, even with a l.e.d. light on a stick looking from either end to end

It's kind of a rock, paper, scissors thing... the brass is harder than the lead and powder residue but not steel of the barrel. Get you another rod or an extension so you can go all the way through and then back.

 

[RustyHammer]

It's kind of a rock, paper, scissors thing... the brass is harder than the lead and powder residue but not steel of the barrel. Get you another rod or an extension so you can go all the way through and then back.

+1

 

[joshuades]

As far as pistols go, don't even worry about it. where people worry about bobbing a brush like that is in match rifles. The brush can scratch the surface of the bore and then these scratches have to fill in with carbon fouling (and not copper fouling from the bullet pass, this is where all the high end copper solvents come into play) to get a good smooth bore (the term is burnished). Pulling the brush (or patch even) back through the muzzle over the crown could scratch that as well and affect accuracy by unbalancing the blow by. For pistols the barrels arent long enough for scratches to affect the bullet flight such that it would be noticable (given the pistol ammo range).

 

[LACamper]

Sometimes the cheap multipiece aluminum rods unscrew some and can scratch the bore.
Buy yourself a good one piece rod.
Again, not such an issue with pistols...

 

[charliepapa]

...aluminum rods unscrew some and can scratch the bore...

Again, I wasn't aware that brass OR aluminum, which are both softer than steel, could scratch the inside of a (steel) barrel. Am I reading that correctly?

 

[highstandard40]

Aluminum corrosion is known as aluminum oxide......it's the abrasive used on some sand papers. It will scratch steel.

 

[Duhbob]

Thanks. I have been trying to diagnose a lead fouling problem and trying to eliminate variables as they come to me. The barrel is spotless after each cleaning, but it takes lots of sweat and swearing to get the lead out
Typical long distances are only 35 feet in competition, so long range accuracy aint a problem.
I won't worry about any damage I might have done. I just won't 180* it mid-barrel any more.

 

[CloudStrife]

Be sure to stay away from the diamond tipped brushes.

 

[kz45]

Thanks. I have been trying to diagnose a lead fouling problem and trying to eliminate variables as they come to me. The barrel is spotless after each cleaning, but it takes lots of sweat and swearing to get the lead out
Typical long distances are only 35 feet in competition, so long range accuracy aint a problem.
I won't worry about any damage I might have done. I just won't 180* it mid-barrel any more.

The brillo pad thing works, also get good bore patches, I use Butches Triple Twill along with a good jag, I get hunks of lead out with this combo

 

[Matchgrade]

I cut silver polishing cloths into patches and run them through my barrels with a jag. It cleans the lead fouling quickly without being abrasive. I learned about this from someone else posting about it and was suprised at how well it worked.

 

[dwr461]

I use the Lewis lead remover system frequently in the past.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=21587/Product/LEWIS_LEAD_REMOVER

It has a brass screen to pull out lead. It never harmed my cowboy guns or my CZ75B SA.

Dave

 

[critterdoc]

I have this friend who needs to find out...........What if you didn't know you can't trombone a brass brush in and out of your (5 inch 9mm) barrel 'til after it was waaay too late? what sort of permanent damage happened? if any? and how can you tell if you (he) screwed up?

To brush or not to brush is an intriguing question, with varying opinions on necessity and potential abrasive insult to the bore on both side of the isle. My JP CTR-02 and Daniel Defense M4 have never tasted a brush and I see no reason for it because I quickly and easily clean the tubes after every session with a Patchworm with excellent results. Patchworm is a simple and economical flexible nylon cable which pulls interchangeable cleaning heads that include .20, .22, .243 - .284 cal, .308 - .348, .355 - .40, .41 - .45, .50 - .54 calibers and 12 gauge - all for the grand total of $10.50 plus a few bucks shipping.

If you decide to explore the Patchworm, be sure to consider adding the plain and super-intensive felt cleaning buttons. Another source of felt buttons (pellets) in various calibers is Brownells.

Doc

 

[VincentBuckles]

ok... heres the deal.... brass and copper can move steel if used with enough force... because barrel steel is soft. bronze, which most brushes are, will most likely never move barrel steel because they are bristels and don't have much force behind them... however the edge of a aluminum cleaning rod can definately scar up a throat or rifling if used for this matter without care. to remove any obstruction from a bore, the answer is usually a brass rod. and tap the darn thing... dont just hammer away like you're a somali pirate trying to install a front trunion into an egyptian AK.

 

[general mills]

for lead removal, I started using a peice of a chore boy wraped around a brush. Cuts time by about 2/3 and works great. If there is scratches, they are to small to see or affect accuracy, and I seriously doubt it scratches anything. Chore boy costs about $1 and I'm still on my first one. Bought 12 at the time as I had a hard time finding them. Most copper cleaing pads are copper plated now and I was nervous to use one with a steel base. Test with a magnet if you are worried like me but don't be scared to use the chore boy, it worked so well my wife mentioned how much time it saved. For her to mention anything about gun cleaning (she hates how I spend any time cleaning a gun), it made a big differance.