Cleaning the ports

[j1b]

Afternoon folks,

We'll I've got 5 skeet rounds in with the new blaster. Thursday night I managed to progress ok but two rounds today were terrible. Like 12 birds per round. And it's tricky because every shooter there wants to give advice and is well intentioned, but some are credible and some aren't. I figure a lesson from a pro is in my near future soon.

Plus I've just got to shoot a little. Get used to things.

Quick question. What's the best, most proper, way to clean this gun? Two questions. One is I got one of those cotton rod things and basically I just sprayed some hoppes #9 lube on it and ran it through. I noticed some lead build up near the chamber so I did get a soft brass brush and ran it over a few times. Not sure if That's a big deal or not.

The other piece though is the ports. Even today I can look down and see gunk that's been worked out and is hanging loose on the ports in the barrel. Is there a best way to handle this?

I guess basically I'm looking for best practices in cleaning a browing Citori.

Thanks in advance!

Jack

[P.E. Kelley]

Since you used to be quite the ammo burner (you had to be to be so damn good) did you clean your pistol as often as are cleaning your shotgun?

I am from the school of "shoot a lot and clean before a major".

My method is to chuck a older cleaning rod in a drill motor with a bronze brush attached and run it back and forth no solvent ( bore dry.)

If particularly stubborn plastic gunk remains then 0000 steel wool wrapped around the brush never fails.

Before anyone cries barrel abuse 0000 steel wool is the final polishing step after forcing cone lengthening.

The better the polish the less the fowling. I only do this 2 or 3 times a season.

Ports? Self-cleaning so far as the wad and shot care.

I bet a couple of VERY active sporing clays guys here may have different or even better methods.

Best to you.

Patrick

[HSMITH]

The barrels will clean themselves, as will the ports. When the plastic and gunk build up to a certain point they will peel and fly downrange. Same for the choke tubes, they will self clean. An oiled swab is all you need if the gun gets wet or damp.

I shot hundreds of thousands of rounds in shotguns to arrive at my conclusions, and literally thousands of patterns to know performance isn't affected enough to matter in any way.

Keep your hinge pins well greased and shoot the dog schmidt out of that gun. Buy another one 150K rounds later and so it again.

[j1b]

Since you used to be quite the ammo burner (you had to be to be so damn good) did you clean your pistol as often as are cleaning your shotgun?

Best to you.

Patrick

That's a great point. You are correct - I did burn up some BB's back when. And I rarely cleaned a blaster. I bought one of those bore snakes today and ran it through once. Got rid of the gunk I was concerned about in one swipe. I'll worry a lot less about it after the two responses to my original post though.

I did burn up some ammo - I wasn't that great though. I appreciate the comment, but shooting these last few rounds of skeet, and then a few IPSC matches here in PA has shown me I've got a lot to learn in these shooting games. Maybe one day I'll understand it all - till then the quest is the fun part.

Thanks! I appreciate it!

Jack

[j1b]

The barrels will clean themselves, as will the ports. When the plastic and gunk build up to a certain point they will peel and fly downrange. Same for the choke tubes, they will self clean. An oiled swab is all you need if the gun gets wet or damp.

I shot hundreds of thousands of rounds in shotguns to arrive at my conclusions, and literally thousands of patterns to know performance isn't affected enough to matter in any way.

Keep your hinge pins well greased and shoot the dog schmidt out of that gun. Buy another one 150K rounds later and so it again.

Thanks Howard. I think I'll follow your and Patrick's counsel.

I appreciate it!

Jack

[Tangram]

A small point you wrote, "I noticed some lead build up near the chamber so I did get a soft brass brush and ran it over a few times. Not sure if That's a big deal or not." I suspect you are seeing plastic from the wad build up not lead.

I basically agree on an over/under that barrel cleaning is not a big deal. However, if I get antsy and decide to clean I spray the bore with WD40 (inside bore no place else for the WD40) wait and use a Hoppe's Tornado brush followed by a bore snake. I do believe in greasing the threads of the chokes from time to time. As already said lighly grease the hinge rub points. Thousands of methods many of which work.

Edited April 27, 2009 by Tangram

[Ross Carter]

Just have to say this as a warning about the tornado brush and this may be the only one it will ever happen to. But, saw a very expensive gun barrel with a deep scratch all the way down because one of the wires on the tornado broke just at a spot to dig into the barrel without the owner knowing it. It did look like he had used it a lot and maybe he just wore it out but if you use one check this often.

I use one of those long fuzzy things called a tico tool, get the one that is fuzzy all the way down, it does a great job for me. After 400 rounds a couple of strokes and a few twists and my barrel is as clean as if I had scrubbed on it for hours. I don't worry about the ports unless stuff is hanging out of them.

If I have choke tubes with a lot of plastic build up I soak them in acetone and hour or two and the plastic falls off. Be carefull with that stuff use with plenty of ventilation and don't get it on your wood or your stock. LOL

[steveyacht]

I have had the pleasure of owning and shooting some pretty nice shotguns. While the bore is one thing I never cleaned all that often, one thing I am anal about is the area around the hinge pins and any other area of metal-to-metal contact. I clean those areas religiousy and apply fresh grease about every 500 rounds, more often if in a dusty enviroment. The old grease with sand, grit, powder residue, etc simply becomes a grinding compound if care is not taken to wipe clean before applying new grease. As far as grease is concerned, I use high pressure wheel bearing grease and load it into a syringe. RemOil or CLP on a rag for exterior wipe down, Kroil or Hoppe's #9 to clean the bore (about every 1000-1500 rounds) and some Butcher's Bowling Alley wax on the wood. It only takes about 20 to 30 minutes to go a complete job, that is not a great deal of time when you have many thousands invested in a gun.

FWIW

[Tangram]

Just have to say this as a warning about the tornado brush and this may be the only one it will ever happen to. But, saw a very expensive gun barrel with a deep scratch all the way down because one of the wires on the tornado broke just at a spot to dig into the barrel without the owner knowing it. It did look like he had used it a lot and maybe he just wore it out but if you use one check this often.

I use one of those long fuzzy things called a tico tool, get the one that is fuzzy all the way down, it does a great job for me. After 400 rounds a couple of strokes and a few twists and my barrel is as clean as if I had scrubbed on it for hours. I don't worry about the ports unless stuff is hanging out of them.

If I have choke tubes with a lot of plastic build up I soak them in acetone and hour or two and the plastic falls off. Be carefull with that stuff use with plenty of ventilation and don't get it on your wood or your stock. LOL

I have only my personal experience to go on but would be surprised to see a chrome lined barrel with a deep scratch from a Tornado brush. I do realize that some high end guns do not have as tough barrels as my Berettas. However, It definitely a user beware situation. I can imagine the sick feeling if I found I had damaged a barrel needlessly.

[Ross Carter]

I guess I didn't explain what happened very well. The Tornado brush is one piece of stainless wire wound around in circles a little larger than bore diameter. A customer brought in a shotgun barrel with scratches in it pretty much one end to the other. He couldn't figure out how this happened. We got his cleaning kit out and found that the wire had broken in one spot leaving a jagged piece sticking out. There is no telling how long he had used this same brush but the wire was thin where it broke. He didn't pay attention to his cleaning equipment, brushes of any kind don't last forever.

It probably wouldn't have even scratched your hard chrome tough Beretta barrels. I polished the scratch out for him so all is good now. A lot of shooters use the Tornado brush and it does a good job for them, all I'm saying is to look things over from time to time.

[Tangram]

Ross, thanks for the reply. Seems spot on to look at the equipment being used. I keyed on the deep scratch and had visions of canyons in mind.

Do you know why Perazzi (or so I understand) does not use chrome in their barrels?

[HSMITH]

Most of the ultra high end barrels are not chrome lined. It isn't needed, they will go hundreds of thousands of rounds with no appreciable wear.

[Tangram]

Most of the ultra high end barrels are not chrome lined. It isn't needed, they will go hundreds of thousands of rounds with no appreciable wear.

Is there any gain from using non chrome lined? I'd suspect if there was choked barrel that someone wanted to bore out not having the chrome would make the job easier. (advantage?) Given the history of these guns I agree that longevity is a not a problem.

[HSMITH]

Consistency, the chrome is never absolutely even. You start with a very expensive barrel blank and then attach it to another very expensive blank using a super expensive monoblock and a carefully controlled process to solder them all into one piece. The only reason TO chrome a shotgun bore is corrosion resistance, and that isn't an issue with expensive guns.

[Tangram]

Consistency, the chrome is never absolutely even. You start with a very expensive barrel blank and then attach it to another very expensive blank using a super expensive monoblock and a carefully controlled process to solder them all into one piece. The only reason TO chrome a shotgun bore is corrosion resistance, and that isn't an issue with expensive guns.

Can steel shot be fired through a steel barrel? (I promise last question. A search did not turn up any reasonable answers.)

[Ross Carter]

I agree with Hsmith on the chrome. Only reason to chrome a shotgun barrel inside is for corrosion resistance. My Perazzi's stock barrels look like mirrors as do most good shotguns, gives a little less resistance to the payload going down the barrel and very little plastic if any will stick making clean up easy.

Most any modern shotgun can handle steel loads if the choke tubes are rated for it, they should be marked. A lot of older shotguns won't handle steel loads. The steel shot doesn't compress inside the wad as it gets squeezed thru the choke as easily as lead shot, potentially causing problems with older guns with tight fixed chokes and thin barrels. It has nothing to do with the steel shot against the steel barrel, the shot shouldn't touch the barrel, it rides inside a plastic wad which incidentally is thicker in the steel shot ammo.

[Tangram]

Thanks for the responses. I learned something.

[laportecharlie]

The ports don't need any cleaning. Once a year or so depending on how much you shoot, you should replace the spring for the top lever. This keeps the gun locked up tight so it won't shoot itself loose.

Charlie

[calishootr]

as Howard put it, the ports really dont need cleaning, but if the OCD is really kicking in,then you can use somthing like gun scrubber or the same in a car parts cleaner, a friend of mine turned me on to a homemade brew called 'Ed's Red' its equal parts of acetone.mineral, spirits, auto tranny fluid, and i keep forgetting the last part, kept in a sealed GLASS jar, because it is hell on plastic hehehe

also, keep those choke tubes lubed/greased...man i dont know how many guns ive seen atthe local 'smiths place getting soaked for weeks and or months to try an get em out, when a simple swipe w/ a lil lube would have solved that problem...

[EkuJustice]

I would clean my chokes about once a month. I had an old brush that would get chucked on a drill. My 12 ga chokes got cleaned much more often As I had to keep them pretty much spotless or the subga tubes would not fit in the gun. I agree make sure the threads are lubed (used antiseize here) and check them on a regular basis to avoid them getting frozen in the gun

[Bigpike]

When I notice my ports getting clogged up I use pipe cleaners dipped in almost any type of cleaning solvent. I know they'll eventually blow themselves out, but I'm a little anal and when I clean a shotgun I clean everything.

[LPatterson]

Can steel shot be fired through a steel barrel? (I promise last question. A search did not turn up any reasonable answers.)

Almost every manufacturer of american made shotgun sheels is using a plastic wad cup to hold the shot just for that reason. Actually most are using plastic wad cups for all shells.

[GunCat]

also, keep those choke tubes lubed/greased...man i dont know how many guns ive seen atthe local 'smiths place getting soaked for weeks and or months to try an get em out, when a simple swipe w/ a lil lube would have solved that problem...

I belong to the “never put the gun away without lubing the choke tube” club. Take'em out, wipe'em off, put a couple crops of Break Free CLP on the threads then put'em back in. May be a bit of overkill but its cheap insurance. I've never had tube stuck in any gun.

Also, my understanding of chrome lining in a shotgun barrel was that is came about as a way to reduce bore polishing time/cost (ie. Chrome lining was slicker, smoother, and cheaper to achieve than a mirror polish). The corrosion resistance was originally just a side benefit.