Shrinkmd
Member
I finished cleaning up a revolver after shooting about 250 rounds, all lead. 100 were my new hard cast 38's, but the other were some leftover wadcutters which were old fashioned soft lead. There was garbage smeared all over the barrel, and I even needed to brush it out in the middle of the session just to get some accuracy back.
So now that it is almost NIB clean again, am I driving myself crazy to try and get every last streak, smear, and speck of lead out of the barrel? I Lewis lead removed, wrapped bronze wool around an old brush, new brushed, used foaming bore cleaner, mpro7, and an overnight or two soak with boretech eliminator. The last straw was some J&B Bore paste. There is still the tiniest stubborn hint of a smear of lead about half an inch from the forcing cone, but overall the bore is gleaming clean.
Am I taking this too far? Obviously once I shoot it again it will start getting dirty (although my other guns which were shot exclusively with hard cast lead <thank you Dardascastbullets.com> showed virtually no leading after 50 or 100 rounds.) I also brass picked every surface of the gun to clean lead off of the top strap, back edge, forcing cone area, crane, etc. It was filthy everywhere, and now it is clean. Even the front of the cylinder has no more burn rings.
Am I overcleaning, or just removing filth and lead buildup which can cause accuracy and functioning difficulties down the line?
So now that it is almost NIB clean again, am I driving myself crazy to try and get every last streak, smear, and speck of lead out of the barrel? I Lewis lead removed, wrapped bronze wool around an old brush, new brushed, used foaming bore cleaner, mpro7, and an overnight or two soak with boretech eliminator. The last straw was some J&B Bore paste. There is still the tiniest stubborn hint of a smear of lead about half an inch from the forcing cone, but overall the bore is gleaming clean.
Am I taking this too far? Obviously once I shoot it again it will start getting dirty (although my other guns which were shot exclusively with hard cast lead <thank you Dardascastbullets.com> showed virtually no leading after 50 or 100 rounds.) I also brass picked every surface of the gun to clean lead off of the top strap, back edge, forcing cone area, crane, etc. It was filthy everywhere, and now it is clean. Even the front of the cylinder has no more burn rings.
Am I overcleaning, or just removing filth and lead buildup which can cause accuracy and functioning difficulties down the line?