ruined barrel???

[walking arsenal]

well ive posted on this before but i figure id give it another shot.

i have three barrels in different calibers exibiting these signs.

strange deposit at the muzzle end of the barrels, ocuring within 1/2 inch of muzzle, maybe rust, looks gold colored.

happened just after i started using amonia based solvents, i have a suspision that my wife putting a humidifier in our room may have somthing to do with it.

its not copper or lead, first gun is a very new beretta neo only has 200 rounds through it, all lead rounds. second gun is a magnum research lone eagle in .223, bought used and never cleaned until i got it. third is a family airloom, a S&W 9mm 39-2, lead and fmj's both ran through this.

ive been cleaning it with JB bore cleaner and butches bore shine, tryed JB and kroil yesterday and a makida drill with a bore brush and kroil ten minutes ago, hasnt gotten rid of it. i am soaking the S&W barrel in kroil now, ill try and clean it again in a couple days.

im out of ideas and dont want to ruin the barrels although i fear that may already be the case.

any suggestions???

 

[P5 Guy]

I have used Sweet's 7.62 for a while. Sweet's is a strong ammonia based copper solvent. I do not know how it would react to lead.
Do the patches you use have a green / blue color to them?
Did you mix two different bore cleaners?
I would stay away from the power tools and do not use bronze bristle brushes with a copper solvent like Butch's or Sweet's

 

[walking arsenal]

no green/blue color

havent mixed cleaners.

had been soaking barrels in hoppes copper solvent overnight, then cleaning the next day

 

[pcschwenke]

I'm sure you are causing more damage with the power tools than the discoloration! Clean with solvents if needed but, try to stay away from brushes.
Paul.

 

[ID_shooting]

You can allways take them to a gunsmith that has a bore scope so he can get an up-close look at them.

 

[Jim K]

Try toothpaste on a bronze brush. See what happens. (Quit laughing and try it. Make sure you wipe/wash it all out.)

Jim

 

[sm]

Yep - Gleam works.

There is a reason one Does NOT use toothpaste to clean Jewelry, it will scratch opals, pearls, coral...even precious metals like gold and silver will show if have high polish.

Gun bbls, are harder thus the mild abrasive of toothpaste will not hurt.

ONLY time a power tool should be used around a bbl is a smoothbore / shotgun . Wisps of 0000 steel wool and the bbl is clean, competitiors using tube sets would do this and change tubes/ gauges.

I dunno, just me, probably wrong...but I really don't worry about the copper wash on a pistol bbl...with the lower velocities and all, not really sure it is aproblem. OK...I admit I concern myself with the chambers, extraction more than bores. I concern myself with reliablity , feed and extraction, ammo, mags, action...etc. Bores get attn if wet, mud , snow, rain...or on the rare occassions I shoot a lot of lead.

The CCW on my hip, I last cleaned the bore in the fall of '03...that is how concerned I am about it. Probably wrong tho'

 

[444]

I think you are over-thinking this.
Is the barrel ruined ?
How does it shoot ?
Who cares what it looks like ?
I don't care if the inside of my barrel is pink as long as it shoots.

I have noticed this discoloration in the end of my barrels. I always assumed it was copper fouling. And, I never made any effort to get rid of it. Why ? Because the guns shot fine.
I am not a big believer in scouring barrels down to the bare metal. This is a view shared by more than one well known competition barrel maker.

For God's sake, don't do any more with a drill
And, I would take it easy with the JB bore paste.

 

[sm]

walking arsenal

http://www.schuemann.com/



"My Personal Practice has become to never clean the bore of my barrels. I do use a brass rod to scrape the deposits out of the chamber. But, I've learned to leave the bore alone and it very slowly becomes shinier and cleaner all by itself. Years ago I occasionally scrubbed the bore with a brass bore brush. But, doing so always seemed to cause the bore to revert to a dirtier look with more shooting, so I eventually stopped ever putting anything down the bore except bullets... "

Good luck,


Wil
------

Read the warnings and admonitions before this quote...solvents , steel and methods.

Other folks in the barrel and gun business agree, to many firearms are messed up by to many folks getting w-a-y to carried away with cleaning, cleaning products, solvents, oils and and wonder lubes.

When I "do" remove lead, I pull a pc of Chore Boy through on a bronze brush with machine oil or whatever handy. If with jacketed ammo I get mud - rain - whatever I clean to remove.

Now Phil Sharpe would get a kick out of this...I've been treating bores for too many years to count with RIG. I knew this stuff "seeps in" because I used it to protect externals. I let one sit after dobbing RIG with long wooden Q-tip...ran some errands. Returned , pulled a patch through and the copper, carbon gun came out. Patched dry .

Only other thing I've treated bores with is TW25B . Great lube too. New barrels or those exposed to elements - lead gets "cleaned"...if you can call how little I actually "scrub" the bore clean. I want to remove moisture and the mud...if barrell has a hole in it...shoot it.

I use the "pipe cleaner test" ... If a new clean pipe cleaner falls from muzzle to breech...it's clean"