Thread: Barrel cleaning

One thing that always makes me giggle is the amount of people that moan about how much good cleaning gear costs then basically write it off the first time they use it. Aluminium threaded multi-sectioned cleaning rods are great for an emergency use item and if you use them gently, but for tight patches or heavy cleaning they are no good. If you have heavy carbon fouling, it does pay to clean your rod before each pass through the barrel so you don't end up dragging crap into places where it shouldn't be - bore guides are good for helping with this. Having the wrong thing getting into your bedding or trigger group can create a few problems that need a trip to a gun doctor to sort...

Some actions like certain mauser-derived designs have a ejector blade that sticks into the middle of the action and makes short work of your shiny new coated one piece cleaning rod, it pays to check for this as it can be an expensive learning. Bore guides are a must here, and I actually prefer uncoated solid steel rods although they can be dearer. I knew a guy who made his own cleaning rods specific to the caliber and out of stainless. Nice and shiny!

Another is the bronze brushes, they don't actually like going forwards and backwards through the bore. Pick one direction and stick with it, as the bronze bristles are longer than the inside diameter of the barrel so flex to fit through the bore. Flexing them back and forwards just wears them out quicker. The other is using a copper solvent with bronze brushes, you'll never get the bore clean of copper traces doing that haha. Nylon bore brushes are a lot more forgiving and don't seem to mind back and forwards and are recommended for applying copper solvents. Chamber cleaning mops are useful too although most people seem to skip this step.