Barrel Cleaning Issue

[Puncha]

I recently took my remington 870 marine magnum out for some practical shotgun training and after running about 75 trap loads and 45 buckshot shells through the gun, I disassembled it for cleaning.

I sprayed some birchwood casey gun scrubber down the barrel, ran a wirebrush through it twice and passed 3 oil soaked patches wrapped around the wirebrush through the barrel. Thinking that it was clean, I then inspected it. What I saw worried me:

In the chamber area, there seemed to be some kind of blackish deposit. It stood alone and appeared as some kind of small lump. Further down in the middle of the barrel, there seemed to be 5 streaks of what looked like dried plastic. It was as if someone has smeared superglue down my barrel and left it to dry. How all this detritus evaded the borescrubber, wire brush and breakfree soaked patches concerned me.

I then resprayed the chamber with borescrubber and ran another two oily patches through. The "plastic" streaks and black deposits still remained. I then got desperate and used a small screwdriver to gently scrape the blackish deposit away. It appeared to be black lumpy flakes of something unidentifiable. (sorry, no pics as I do not own a camera)

As a last ditch measure, I put a liberal dose of bore scrubber down the barrel, passed a wire brush 3 times down the barrel and ran 5 breakfree soaked patches through for good measure. Finally, the barrel looked clean but about 4 of the "plastic" streaks remained in the middle of the barrel.

Guys, please help me out here.......

1) What was the small blackish lump in my chamber? It was so stubborn that I had to mechanically scrap it out.
2) What are the "plastic" streaks?
3) How do I get rid of 1) and 2)?

Fyi, I was shooting made-in-italy Fiocchi top trap #7 1/2 birdshot and SG buckshot.

 

[sm]

How clean was the chamber before you started shooting?

I concern myself with chamber as the gun has to feed and extract. Chambers are most often the reason a gun won't run. Extractors are the next reason.

Chamber: 10 ga brush with wisps of fine Scotchbrite [tm] pad. Many attach a battery drill to the cleaning rod to thoroughly clean and remove any factory preservative. Some of these preservatives "seem to be clean" in actuality they are not and when fired, the mix of plastic hulls plasticizing really leaves a gummy mess.
10ga brush is also great for magazine tube.

Bore: Leave choke in 12 ga brush with again wisps of fine Scothbrite, and again using a battery drill, run this back and forth through the bore. This will cut through factory preservatives, plastic from wads, leading , etc.

Now once all this is "cut through" -Blasting out with Gun Scrubber, Brakecleaner is more effective.
One can use Mineral Spirits, Hoppe's, Outer's/Gunslick , Outer's/GunSlick foaming or whatever on a patch/old T shirt patch to clean.

Sounds to me your barrel still had a preservative of sometime before shooting and just looks awful from a "goo" that hardened once cooled. Shooting / hunting in areas with seeds for instance will often leave "little chunks" as will blowing sand. While gun is hot, it is 'liquid goo" - cooled gun "hard chunks".


Tip: Many shooters , especially high round count shooters , and those with Tube sets, use the battery drill with Scotchbrite as shared. Tube shooters [12 ga gun with tubes to shoot 20, 28. .410].

RIG [tm] (Rust Inhibiting Grease) many treat chambers and bores - only takes a light coat.

Ballistol is another old old product that is probably the first product that will clean, lube and leave a protective film to protect, also make cleaning easy.
Black-powder shooters use this as it will deal with corrosive powders.

Kroil is one some use, though I have not in years,

Sometimes it takes a mechanical action to remove - cut through. I rarely clean a bore unless the gun gets wet , chambers and extractors I watch. Choke tubes if I use a gun with choke tubes, gets RIG+P , STOS, or some other quailty lube on threads.

Fiocchi is a fine fine loading, I wish other shell manufacturers had the quality control and stayed in specifications as Fiocchi does.
You could have "tried" to run this training with Win promo loads and spent all your time doing malf drill with ammo out of spec and case heads made from metal less quality than the cheapest beer can you can think of.


HTH

 

[dfariswheel]

WARNING: DO NOT USE THE SCOTCHBRITE IN A MARINE MAGNUM BARREL.

The Marine Magnum has a nickel plated bore and the Scotchbrite will damage it.

Your problem is, you're not using the standard bronze bore brush enough, and you're not allowing a bore solvent time to work.
Gun Scrubber is a degreaser NOT a bore solvent.

Modern shotguns leave both leading and plastic deposits in the chamber and bore, and removal takes brushing with a brush in good condition, a good bore solvent, and soaking time.

Use a new, tight fitting brush on the rod, liberally apply bore solvent to the brush and run the brush ALL THE WAY THROUGH the bore and out the end before pulling it back.
Make about 20 passes.
Then run two patches soaked with bore solvent down the bore and allow to soak for about an hour.
Bore solvents need TIME to soak and work on the fouling.

After about an hour, run another soaked patch down then wipe dry with several patches.
If you can see any fouling, brush again and soak again until it comes clean.

Note also, that many shotgunners buy a special chamber brush to scrub the chamber clean of heavy plastic and carbon fouling:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9803&title=CHAMBER+CLEANING+KITS

 

[sm]

Mr D,

Good catch.
I was looking at a blued barrel when I typed my reply in regard to using Scothbrite.

Thank you Mr. D and sending best to you and yours.

Steve

 

[HankB]

Be aware that there's a whole spectrum of 3M products called "Scotchbrite" . . . I believe that except possibly for the very finest grade, the stuff marketed as synthetic steel wool is a plastic fiber mat impregnated with abrasive. I'd really rather not use this on/in the barrel, as I don't know what the abrasive is.

When I have a shotgun barrel to clean, I put a bronze (NOT STAINLESS!!!) bristle brush on a shotgun cleaning rod, chuck the whole thing in a 3/8" VSR drill, squirt some solvent down the barrel, and work the spinning brush up and down the length of the barrel several times. Then a couple of passes with paper towels, and the bore is squeaky clean. A final pass with a rag coated with Break-Free CLP and it's ready to be put away.

 

[Robo_Railer]

Use a new, tight fitting brush on the rod

What are your thoughts on using a 10 Ga. brush in a 12 Ga. barrel, for a tight fit?

When I have a shotgun barrel to clean, I put a bronze (NOT STAINLESS!!!) bristle brush on

Is a "Tornado Brush" made from something other than bronze?

 

[dfariswheel]

I see no need for using a 10 gauge bore brush since the bristles just bend over.
Although some people use 10 gauge or 20mm cannon brushes to clean the chamber.

One good brush is the "Tornado" brush which is made of stainless?? alloy.
Since the bore isn't rifled, the Tornado doesn't harm the bore, and does a bang-up job of removing fouling.

The plating in the bore is "slippery" and fouling tends to not stick to it as badly as in plain steel bores, so I wouldn't get too rough trying to clean it out faster.
When you've got a plated shotgun bore, I get nervous about using more vigorous cleaning methods.
There's no safer substitute than bore solvent, good brushes, and soak time.

 

[Puncha]

Can hoppes No.9 be considered a barrel solvent?

 

[dfariswheel]

Hoppe's #9 is THE oldest bore solvent, and still one of the best.

Give it time to work, and it'll clean any bore.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Hoppe's #9 is THE oldest bore solvent, and still one of the best.

Give it time to work, and it'll clean any bore.

Absolutely. At a dull party the other night I opened a bottle of Hoppe's # 9 and cleared the room.

 

[Snarlingiron]

Tornado brush.