Dumb Questions, Chapter Two

[spacemanspiff]

When cleaning my guns after a day at the range, i've noticed that there is some residue in the barrel that i cannot clean off, no matter how many hours i spend with a bore brush, snake, cleaning patches, soaking in hoppes, it just wont come off. this is on my kimber tle, the residue is only on the bottom of the barrel, and about an inch from the breechface.
is this normal? so far i have had no malfunctions, but my complusive side wants to get the entire barrel to be nice and shiny.


(btw, i tried some long distance shooting with the tle and a couple others, at 40 yards i started with a P22, the range let me use their spotting scope and i was pleased i could at least hit paper at that distance, so i eventually moved to the steyr m40. out of 30 rounds, 13 hit the 18x18 inch target. at that point i switched to the kimber, and got 7 out of 8 on the paper. i was happy with that, considering the kimber shoots low (has wrong front sight and i've been too lazy to send it back) and i had to adjust for that by aiming a couple inches higher than what i wanted to hit. with the p22, i was having fun trying to hit clods of peatmoss that were mixed into the backstop. one patch was about a square foot of peat moss, and i was hitting that more often than i was missing it. i cant believe how my accuracy has improved!)

 

[themic]

type of ammo would help

 

[natedog]

The only dumb question is that which is never asked.

A man who asks for advice is a fool for 5 minutes, while a man who does not ask remains a fool forever.

 

[blue86buick]

which barrel P22 was this? what ammo were you using? mo details, mo details!

 

[spacemanspiff]

i've used 230 gr fmj from PMC (350 rounds), winchester (100 rounds), blazer (300 rounds).
i noticed the residue after the first time i shot the kimber, that was PMC, 150 rounds.

for the p22, i had the 5 inch barrel, however i have removed the fake compensator as it loosens the front tip of the barrel that screws in (where a suppresor would be attached), enough that the barrel moves around. with the compensator unattached i can manually make sure the tip is screwed in tightly between magazines. all i had to do is remove the front sight from the comp and put it in the slide.

saturday my first shot was with the p22, and the brass flew over my head and down the back of my tucked in t-shirt. that was VERY hot, and i spent a couple uncomfortable seconds trying to untuck my shirt while keeping the muzzle downrange.
edit - 22 ammo i was using was mixed, some remington hi velocity, some cci standard velocity, match grade, federal, a little bit of everything.

 

[Standing Wolf]

The condition you've described doesn't sound very normal to me. I'd let the barrel soak overnight in a bottle of Hoppe's No. 9, give it a good scrubbing, and see what happens. If that didn't do the trick, I'd try soaking it in a bottle of mineral spirits, giving it a good scrubbing, and seeing what happens. If that didn't do the trick, I'd send an E-mail message to Kimber.

 

[bountyhunter]

"A man who asks for advice is a fool for 5 minutes, while a man who does not ask remains a fool forever."

But what about the man who asks a fool for advice?

Well, here's this fool's advice:

Yes, it's normal. It's also harmless. When your gun is new, having a bit of fouling in the barrel will bother you. As you age, you won't care because it doesn't hurt anything or affect accuracy (just looks bad).

Anyway, there are ways to get it out. J+B Bore Cleaning compound is pretty good. Personally, I use a NYLON bore brush with a bit of auto chrome polish rubbed on it. I find that to be less abrasive than bronze brushes (and the nylon ones last a lot longer). Any cleaning process has some level of abrasion, and getting the barrel "mirror clean" after every use actually wears it out a lot faster than shooting it.

FYI: pro shooters don't clean their barrels at all for the shooting season for consistent accuracy (they do clean the guns, but leave the barrels alone). A FMJ bullet will push anything that shouldn't be there out of the way.