Cleaning Bore

I would run a wet patch down after shooting, I've seen where the plastic from wars will cost the bore. The real shotgun guys will have a better answer them me.

When I was shooting trap regularly sometimes 2X a week I would run a mop with some bore cleaner through the bore following the shoot. I would always wipe down the outside and bolt face with an oily rag or silicon gun cloth. I'd do a more thorough cleaning and lubrication maybe every 3rd or 4th week.

I do a minor clean up every 600 rounds, but I do spray a good bore cleaner down the barrel and use a bore snake after every use, with a good wipe down out side.

Right after the shoot if shooting blackpowder, one of the downsides of shooting the stuff.

Call me a slob but my TB, from 1975, gets a detail cleaning every October, after shooting in two leagues per week all year from April on. I Soak the bore with Shooters Choice/Kroil mix, remove bolt, trigger group and scrub down. Polish bore with ScotchBrite on a brush driven by an electric drill to remove all fouling. Wipe down with oil and give it time off in the safe. 96+% average this year. 1100, gets a fair going over every couple of weeks of skeet. BT99, oil bore after each outing as with the Superposed. Browning seem more predisposed to chamber rusting to me.

I clean my shotguns once a year. They get wiped down after every use. I used to do a thorough cleaning after every use but quit after reading so many times that it’s not necessary. I also strictly hunt and my use is spread across 12 semi’s. If I shot skeet, trap, or sporting clays I imagine I would clean more frequently.

I shoot 100-400 rounds a week. When I get home, I pull a Rem oil sprayed boresnake through the barrels a time or two. Maybe twice a year I give the barrels a few strokes with a Tornado brush.

I have seen chamber rusting in a few older browning BT-99,s, I,m not sure if they were chrome lined. in my six browning shotguns(they are newer) I have not had any rusting under normal shooting-hunting conditions.

The shotguns I use at turkey shoots gets cleaned after each season then I pattern them to foul the bore before the next one then wiped down with a rag after each shoot, my hunting shotguns I do the same. I foul every gun before hunting or target practice

I have never been a "shotgun guy".....I generally clean them like I clean any other firearm.

That said from time to time....usually all the time, I am a pretty lazy old fool....so it can go an outing or 13 before being cleaned......and it really is an all or nothing deal with me.

Is rust more of an issue on shotguns then anything else?

After every shoot/hunt.
Besides being the right thing to do, plastic wads leave deposits.
Enough plastic deposits can create increased pressure.

I recently started using the 'bore snake'. It is real easy to use and if for some reason you don't get back to your 'shooting' as scheduled it will leaves a light coat of oil in the bore and 'cleans' it at the same time. I put a mixture of Break Free and Syn motor oil on mine and just pull it thorough when I get through shooting, round count is not relevant. I do this with all my guns, not just shot guns.

rdnktrkr said:

The shotguns I use at turkey shoots gets cleaned after each season then I pattern them to foul the bore before the next one then wiped down with a rag after each shoot, my hunting shotguns I do the same. I foul every gun before hunting or target practice

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I’ve seen/read where a few fouling shots will help a rifle by “coating” a clean bore with residue thereby giving future shots a consistent bore, does a smooth bore benefit from the same treatment? (Do you find they pattern more consistently?)

I don’t see much fouling left in the bore my shotguns other than an occasional wiping of plastic wad stuff stuck here and there after a day at the trap field.

Stay safe.

The thing is, a shotgun barrel is a lot easier to clean, and clean safely, than a rifled barrel. There is no advantage to fouling a shotgun barrel that I can see.

John Joseph said:

The thing is, a shotgun barrel is a lot easier to clean, and clean safely, than a rifled barrel. There is no advantage to fouling a shotgun barrel that I can see.

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At first I was thinking....safely.....how.....then oh yea, it is real easy to pull the thing off 99% of the shotguns out there.

John Joseph said:

Besides being the right thing to do, plastic wads leave deposits.
Enough plastic deposits can create increased pressure.

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Chokes and forcing cones really will accumulate wad fouling. Brake cleaner that is sprayed into the barrel, by the way, will release wad fouling without scrubbing.

Sometimes I think the fouling the bore could be mental , I use .635 chokes, one is ported the other standard, after polishing the forcing cones I'm trying for #8 1200fps shot to patern on legal paper at 58'8". I usually shoot maybe 100 to 120rnds over 3 months. The deer shotguns maybe 10rnds, bird guns 1 box each outing. I've never shot clays so none of them see a lot of rounds.

I mostly shoot dove hunting, so it may be 1 shell or 50. I find they get more powder fouling from single shots than shooting enough to keep the barrel warm.

I’m a clean every time person. Some barrels get more plastic than others, but a wet patch of hopes #9 and a few dry patches works unless you see buildup of lead or plastic on the choke or forcing cone. If those are their use a bronze brush. Remington barrels can vary on plastic fouling. My father’s 1100 is a good case. The late 1970s fixed choke barrel never fouls but the late 1990s remchoke barrel gets really dirty in the forcing cone.

MtnCreek said:

Clean with the tubes in, then remove the tubes to clean them and barrel threads?

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That's a good practice; most folk forget to clean the choke tube threads (on guns with removable choke tubes) and they can get pretty fouled and corroded if not occasionally cleaned and lubed.

One of the best cleaning tools I own is a choke thread chaser for my Beretta shotguns. It will chase out all of the crud in the threads easily without much effort or scrubbing. Just make sure if you get a tool that is for the right choke models your gun uses so the threads match.

Milkmaster said:

One of the best cleaning tools I own is a choke thread chaser for my Beretta shotguns. It will chase out all of the crud in the threads easily without much effort or scrubbing. Just make sure if you get a tool that is for the right choke models your gun uses so the threads match.

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Ya, cross-threading those fine threads would be a real pain and probably ruin either the barrel or tube threads...meaning either a replacement tube or it goes in for a repair .

Stay safe.