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Cleaning question....


Jfarewell

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Regarding barrel cleaniing, the last paragraph of a four page barrel cleaning document on the Schumann Barrel website states the following:

"My Personal Practice has become to never clean the bore of my barrels. I do use a brass rod to scrape the deposits out of the chamber. But,
I've learned to leave the bore alone and it very slowly becomes shinier and cleaner all by itself. Years ago I occasionally scrubbed the bore with a brass bore brush. But, doing so always seemed to cause the bore to revert to a dirtier look withmore shooting, so I eventually stopped everputting anything down the bore except bullets..."

Here is the link to the document. An interesting read. http://schuemann.com/Portals/0/Documentation/Webfile_Barrel_Cleaning.pdf

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More info from the same document mentioned above........

"Certainly DO NOT ever use a stainless steel brush to clean out a barrel. The stainless bristles
are much harder than the steel bore and the result will be to create deep scratches in the bore
surface. When we use our IPSC pistols like sub-guns, as we often do, we apparently can raise the
bore surface temperature up to the annealing range, based on the color I have seen on some
barrel bore surfaces. Therefore, the bore surface of our barrels likely has been preferentially
annealed, and could be quite a bit softer than the barrel outer surface would test. Even the
brass/bronze brushes, which have bristles which are as hard as mild steel, or the lead removers,
which use a hard brass mesh to scape the lead from the bore, may well be able to scatch the bore
surface of a stainless steel barrel. Any scratching of the bore surface will naturally lead to
increased bore surface wear, leading, and coppering. My recommendation would be to never use
any kind of a bore brush to clean a 416 stainless steel pistol barrel, especially if it has been
exposed to strings of rapid fire."

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I agree with the bore cleaning, but, you do need to clean the chamber once in awhile. I usually oil the rails and the front of the barrel when they look real dry and do a complete tear down once a year.

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So let me get this right.... no one is cleaning the bore at all? I've always wiped it down with solvent then used a brass (I think) brush on it and wiped it down again. No bueno??

Edited by Jfarewell
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I have Schuemann's in my Limited and Open guns. I read the Schuemann articles but I can't help myself. can't afford to shoot jhps 100% of the time so I give in and use a bore brush.

I use moly and lead bullets in the Limited gun so sometimes there are fine specks of lead or moly residue in the barrel. cant stand it so I scrub the barrel with about 5 passes with a copper bore brush soaked in cleaner, then run a couple of wet then dry patches. Usually that does the trick. Noticed that when I'm running exclusively jhps during a major match that the barrel is easily cleaned out with just wet/dry patches. also noticed that shooting a few FMJ or JHPs during a practice session with lead or moly bullets help minimize the amount of shit that gets left in the barrel.

I do the same thing with the Open gun; about 5 passes with a bore brush to satisfy my OCD then wet/dry patches though I dont use anything other than jhps with that gun. The chamber on both guns gets cleaned with the appropriate sized copper brush right before I leave for a major match, other than that I dont bother.

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So let me get this right.... no one is cleaning the bore at all? I've always wiped it down with solvent then used a brass (I think) brush on it and wiped it down again. No bueno??

Pretty much. If I have fouling of copper, lead, or plastic (shotgun wads) I use the routine you describe except with a nylon brush now that I know better. Let the chemicals do the work and nylon brush carries it away.

I clean the chamber after every range session. Especially on rim fires.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also use Frog Lube. It works great and smells great. I may be expensive but it lasts a long, long, long time. I've been using 1 small jar of paste for over almost 2 years now on 11 guns and it's still got 3/4 left. I find the paste actually works best and lasts longer. If you need liquid you just melt the paste which can be done with the warmth from your fingers. The trick to get it to work is in the prep the first time you use it. You need to totally strip the old oil from the gun. Then warm up the surface of the weapon either in sunlight or I use a heat gun. Spread the paste on and let it melt over the metal and then let it soak. For me it's worked great in the sand, mud and rain. It's prevented rust, everything runs like glass and dirt just wipes off, even when I shot crappy Tula ammo. Plus I don't feel like I get cancer every time I clean my guns.

If you want to PM me your address I can send you a few of the small individual use tubes I have. I have like 20 of them that I never use because that 1 jar just keeps going and going.

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Home brew works well for me. Equal parts of mineral spirits, dextrin ATF, and kerosene.

Yes a little odor but a very effective and inexpensive cleaner. Mineral spirits and ATF make an effective penetrating oil too.

Related, sort of, is my recent experiment with corrosion x. It is the only thing I have found that actually dissolves rust and prevents its return. Works great on blues steel parts.

Ah, pretty much Ed's Red. I use it,too. Great stuff and you can't beat the price.

Kroil smells like ATF to me. I use it on all my adjustable sights to keep them working.

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I've used all the aforementioned. Nothing beats Fireclean to date; has absolutely no smell.

However, it is not a BORE cleaner, but I don't think any of the others do that great of job either for the bore in general. For general bore cleaning, nothing beats hot water and dawn dish soap and a bronze brush. Takes me 5 min. TOPS. Then oil it down with Fireclean.

For copper removal, KG12 is hands-down the best. No smell on that either.

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I use Montana Extreame and it works great, but don't use it in the house. The ol lady will divorce you. Your dog will die and the neighbors will think your cooking meth. But I love the stuff.

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