Recommendation for bore brushes and solvent

Tominno

Guys:
I have a number of military rifles that require some serious bore cleaning. Calibers include 10.35mm, 11mm, 14.5mm, 6.5mm, 7.35mm, 7.7mm, 7.62mm and 8mm, .62cal, and cal.75. Some bore have not been cleaned in well over a century!
I'm seeking your advice on bore brushes and a recommendation for a serious solvent. I'm considering stainless steel and/or bronze brushes. Can anyone recommend brushes, solvent and a source for purchasing them?
Your recommendation is most appreciated. Tominno

mark christian

First off I don't like the idea of using stainless steel bore brushes in any barrel as they are really rough on the bore. The brush you choose depends a lot of the solvent that you select and the solvent...Well, that depends a lot on what it is that you are trying to remove from the bore!. If you are fighting copper fouling (which is common in many of the calibers you listed) then Sweets 7.62 solvent will clean it out about as well as anything that does not demand HAZMAT training. Keep in mind that Sweets will make short work of any brass cleaning brush so you'll have to go with a nylon bore brush with Sweets. For general cleaning a lot of guys go with shooter's Choice but I find that good old Hoppes #9 still stands the test of time.

There are nearly as many bore cleaning solvents as experts on our boards so I'll throw it open to the rest of the ATE crew for their recommendations...

RCrosby

For those heavy duty "once a century" barrel cleans, I've had good luck with the Outers Foul-Out system.
Both versions: the small battery powered and the A/C have worked well for me with both lead and copper fouling.

Mobuck

Considering the age and previous use of the rifles on your list, I doubt the use of stainless steel brushes will make much difference in the future life of the bore. The SS brushes will be much more aggressive in cleaning the crud from the bore and will last longer than bronze. You might want to do initial work with SS and switch to bronze when most of the residue is removed. Hoppe's #9 is a good solvent for universal use. Not as aggressive as some but basically safe for any steel and safe to leave soaking for extended time. You might consider plugging the muzzle and filling the bore with solvent to soak for a few days. Use care in sizing patches so you don't get one stuck in a rough bore as that will be worse than what you already have.

Hawk Carse

quote:Originally posted by Mobuck You might consider plugging the muzzle and filling the bore with solvent to soak for a few days.

Agreed. Let the chemistry work for you. I have chamber plugs for several common calibers and if I let a gun get too foul, I just soak it for a while. I take a 1911 barrel out and drop it in a jar of solvent. Three days is a big help. I use the blend of Shooter's Choice and Kroil developed by benchrest shooters.

Look up the recipe for Ed's Red. It is a good solvent you can make up in bulk to clean a lot of guns at low cost.
http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm

After the worst is soaked and scrubbed out, it can help to shoot the gun and clean on the range while the barrel is warm.

perry shooter

Anything that will remove Copper fouling will also weaken Bronze bore brush. Use Stainless bore brush after pluging the bore and keeping entire bore wet with Kroil for 24-48 hours. Then use bore MOP of correct size with J.B. bore cleaner. if this does not get the bore clean the you need to face the facts that the bore itself is pitted [:(][:(]

codenamepaul

My similar experience with a 1917 Enfield and an 1898 Krag was that several good soaks with Blue Wonder was the key. Use a nylon brush, go heavy on the application (it's a gel) let it soak for twice the recommendation. These particular barrels looked literally like sewer pipes and came out pretty shiny after 4 or 5 cycles. Cut the copper and powder fouling right out.

http://www.bluewonder.us/BlueWonderGunCleaner.html

abcguns2

OK ,
As I tell the students in our 'gun classes' on the subject of cleaning : Use what ever you have and or prefer , every one is different ! and as far as the J B Bore cleaner , I have used it and it is ammazing !!!
Thanks !!!
d.a.stearns..............................a.k.a...........SKEEZIX...
Gunsmith / LEO / Firearms Instructor
Athens , Tn












www.allamericangunshop.com ... www.glocklawenforcement.com

11b6r

I know of no commercial bore cleaner that I would tell you NOT to use. Everyone will have their favorite. You might want to try something a bit diffeent for the "once a century" cleaning- place barrel vertically with muzzle plugged, fill with a product called Kroil, let set overnight. Kroil is a penetrating oil on steroids. It will actually go between barrel steel and fouling, and pop it loose. It will go under rust in the lands. After soaking pour it out (save it), and clean normally. Kroil will not rust or corrode bore.

Wolf.

For the kind of cleaning your topic post seems to be describing, I would say that you should clean in a staged process. I think you are describing a major reconditioning effort and not a routine cleaning procedure

I think you need something to do the initial cleaning, then something to remove the copper fouling and then something to follow that to remove residual stuff in the barrel and finally a good lubricant/protectant.

I believe you should start off by removing the wood, if you can, so all that is left is metal. Then I think you should saturate the bore and metal with a good heavy duty citrus soap, full strength, such as Simple Green or its generic equivalent. Let that soak for about fifteen minutes, then run a bore brush through the bore about twenty times, being careful to keep saturating the bore and brush with the soap. Scrub the other parts of the gun with an old toothbrush or an M-16 military toothbrush-type gun brush. Now rinse the thing with warm water if you can or cold if you can't. Now carefully, wipe it down with a dry rag, then finish drying the gun with a hair dryer.

To remove copper, I suggest you either follow Father Frog's suggestions (find his web page on the Intereet) or use what I use, which is KG Industries, Inc.'s KG-12 non-ammonia product, using the appropriate bore brushes and patches. I would use good quality bronze bruses.

Lastly, I would spray the whole gun down, including the bore, with Break-Free CLP and let that soak in for about 10 or 15 minutes, wipe the gun down gently with a clean rag and run a CLP-saturated patch through the bore. Make sure there is a very light film of CLP left on the gun surgaces. Be sure you do not leave the bore and chamber heavily saturated in any product at all....simply run an oily patch through it.

You could go through the process of polishing the bore according to directions using JB Bore Paste or a similar product. This will often produce a very noticable improvement in accuracy. See above advice regarding keeping the bore virtually dry!

nononsense

Tominno,

Always a good topic to cover at this time of the year when everyone is itching to get to range and do some shooting. I wanted to give the members a chance to post their favorites before I added my experiences.

Cleaning firearms is a necessary evil but an awful job especially when it involves older military rifles which may have been abused or stored with 'protective agents'.

Remove the barreled action from the stock.

Simply stated, remove all of the cosmoline, grease, etc. from the rifle. We have the Smart Washer System which uses OzzyJuicer degreasing solution for the greasy stuff.

Volume of firearms to be cleaned often dictates time saving (dollar savings) practices which can carry over into the consumer side very easily. One of these products is Wipe-out Foaming Bore cleaner:

http://www.paulcousa.com/

It's available through many of the general suppliers we are all familiar with.

Always use a BORE GUIDE!

Now, if you need to use another form of cleaner, say for stubborn copper, I only allow nylon brushes. No bronze, brass or worse, stainless steel. It's far too easy to damage the crown and throat of a barrel through inexperience and mistakes using these brushes. Let the cleaner do the cleaning and the brush just pushes the debris out the muzzle. Properly fitted patches and jags will do fine as well. Do NOT ever pull the brush back through the barrel after having pushed to the muzzle. Push it all the way out of the muzzle and remove the brush before reversing the cleaning rod direction. Wipe the rod off then repeat the process.

Always remember to do a final coat of oil for all metal surfaces after cleaning. This is especially important in your area of the world.

I do all of this where the barrel is held in a padded vise with a small garbage can or receptacle under the muzzle to catch the drips and patches. Use some of those ubiquitous plastic bags from the grocery store and a couple of folded paper towels in the bottom to absorb most of the liquid for easier disposal.

A good, bright flashlight will help more than you will ever know when it comes to seeing residual fouling or copper.

That's the short course.

Best.