stainless steel bore brush ?????

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  • Last Post 19 October 2011
mike morrison posted this 11 October 2011

yesterday i was cleaning my 223 handi rifle. as i rarely use a brush after shooting cast this time i had shot some hot loads and felt like i may have some lead so while geting ready i noticed a stainless brush and decided to give it a couple strokes. Poof a cloud of gray dust out the muzzle. after several strokes this kept happening. looking at the brush it was loaded full of lint. where did the lint come from? cleaned the brush with a toothbrush and gave the bbl several more strokes and there was the lint again. pondering what this was on a whim i decided to see if it would stick to a magnet. well it did. then i examined the bbl again and the shiny bore is no more. a nice satin look now. then closer look and the bore has nice little lines going down the bore. drove a bullet in the muzzle and the lines show up real neat. the bullet measured .225 also. i am surprised the bbl of new guns are so soft. also that the stainless brush could do this. i am sure i am not the first one to experience this. just thought i would share this and ask for any comments or info that might be helpful. maybe someone will not have this learning process. any comments? will be interested to know what your thoughts are. m

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CB posted this 12 October 2011

Mike, I too have noticed the harshness of a stainless steel brush, but not as much as you have. I won't use one in the bore anymore.

This is my procedure for testing brushes and so called gritty cleaners such as JB Paste or RemClean. I take a piece of scrap barrel (or even a piece of polished steel) and rub any brand of bronze brush or a stainless brush back and forth on the metal and then examine the rub areas with a magnifying glass. You can also test the abrasive cleaners on the scrap metal to examine the affects. The same pieces of scrap can be used over again if polished back down to a uniform test surface.

I had a really bad experience with a 22 caliber stainless steel cleaning rod. A patch jag started to unscrew while pushing down the bore. The jag twisted sideways exposeing the end of the rod to the bore and I got real nice bore shavings out the end of the muzzle :shock: I like my ss cleaning rods, so now I grind down the edge almost to the threads and polish it up............Dan

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pat i. posted this 12 October 2011

mike morrison wrote: will be interested to know what your thoughts are. m My thoughts are to throw every stainless steel brush you have in the river and get some Sharp Shootr brand Patch Out. Stainless steel brushes have no business being around barrels as you've found out.

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RicinYakima posted this 12 October 2011

My experience is mixed: I have one .357 brush about 25 years old that is soft enough not to scratch, but will remove leading. I bought one 30 caliber that was so hard and sharp it too would scratch the bore. The only 30 caliber I kept is called a “torpedo” that doesn't have brisles, but loops. Everything else went into the trash! FWIW, Ric

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EdS posted this 12 October 2011

I agree with all of the negative comments made about stainless steel bore brushes.  I own and shoot both rimfire (.22) and centerfire target rifles.  In the rimfire barrels, I will use only patches with solvent followed by dry patches - never any brush as the barrel steel is softer.  In the centerfire target barrels, that may have had over 80 rounds fired during a match, I start with patches wet with a good solvent.  If the patches continue to show color or carbon fouling, I'll go to RemClean, a very mild abrasive in oil that breaks down during 10-15 round trips down the bore.  This is followed by more solvent-wet patches and these usually show a clean barrel.  I've read that Kroil will “get under” and loosen lead fouling.  I plan to give this a try for my cast bullet shooting.  -Ed

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mike morrison posted this 13 October 2011

thanks for all the info. stainless brush is out. i have the tornado brush in 45cal and it is ok. hope anyone reading this that has a stainless brush takes notice. m

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cityboy posted this 13 October 2011

I threw away my SS brushes because are barrels are soft and was concerned about damaging the bore. I finaly changed over to nylon brushes to avoid bore damage.

Jim

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madsenshooter posted this 18 October 2011

The SS brushes were a big hit for awhile, then somewhat disappeared from the market. I had a hard time finding a few recently. I imagine more than one person enlarged their bore with them, most especially those with the relatively soft stainless barrels who though a stainless brush was the proper tool to use every cleaning. I keep a couple for scratching the pits out of milsurp throats and bores, and just in case I get some serious leading. I imagine somebody sued the makers somewhere along the line.

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CB posted this 18 October 2011

I was always under the impression that stainless brushes were for chambers only. I'd swear that every one I've ever had was marked as a chamber brush only. They were always oversized for bores anyway.

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raytear posted this 18 October 2011

I once used a SS bore brush for a special project.  I bought a Spanish-made double barrel shotgun that someone had shot corrosive primed shells in. The rust was pretty bad. A 12 ga. stainless brush was just the ticket for scrubbing the bore so that I could then swab it with GI bore cleaner. The stiff SS brush removed the rust and I switched to a mop with GI bore cleaner once all the loose stuff was cleared. I had tried a bronze brush, but it was not stiff enough to do the job.

It was a very lightweight arm, choked IC and MOD--great for quail and doves. I only shot 2-3/4 dram equiv. 1-1/8 oz. loads with modern plastic shot cups in it--essentially a medium target load. Anything heavier bruised my cheek and pounded the front of my second trigger finger.  The patterns were as near perfect as they get.  The recovered shot cups were badly scuffed, though.

That is one of those guns I traded, but now wish I had kept. :(

Good shooting! RT

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32ideal posted this 19 October 2011

Used undersize SS brushs to cast lead slugs around to clean/lap rusty old MZ LDR barrels after using rust remover to get the bad stuff out, most ended up being sent off to be re-cut or became wall hangers if the bores were to thin, once in awhile they turned into shooters.

 :fire

32ideal

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