thoughts while cleaning

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thunderbyrd

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went out shooting two guns yesterday, cleaned one last night, the other this morning. in the SW, i found a ring of carbon in each chamber of the cylinder, of course. what i'm curious about is how you guys clean your guns. i sent a bore brush through each chamber many times, and poured on some remington bore cleaner and a lot of the carbon disappeared, but there's still a small ring in each one. should i just keep on until it's all gone, which will probably take a hundred passes, or is it acceptable to leave a little in there? if i leave it there, what will happen, what damage will it do?

or is it even possible to get it all out?


i was reflecting while cleaning, it you love guns, you have to love cleaning. the meditative aspect of it is good for you.
 
I'm not sure if its the right thing to do, but I've chucked up a cleaning rod in my cordless drill and run a bronze brush thru the chambers on my ruger security six after shooting a lot of 38s thru it. Its not perfect, there's still a visible ring, but when I'm done 357s drop right in
 
bersaguy said:
I'm not sure if its the right thing to do, but I've chucked up a cleaning rod in my cordless drill and run a bronze brush thru the chambers on my ruger security six after shooting a lot of 38s thru it. Its not perfect, there's still a visible ring, but when I'm done 357s drop right in
Click to expand...

I've done the same thing on numerous guns and have not yet run into any troubles.
 
thunderbyrd said:
i watched a video of the lewis lead remover, i'll order one.

but if this ring of lead or burnt powder is never removed, what will happen?
Click to expand...

If you are shooting Specials in a Magnum chamber then it is possible for the crud ring to build up enough to interfere with extraction when you switch to Magnums. In extreme cases it can even prevent a full length cartridge from seating.

In guns used with just a single case length, the crud ring doesn't generally have much effect. If left for years, pitting may develop underneath.
 
What you're seeing, is it really crud or just
what looks like a crude ring three-quarters
of the way into the chamber?

That crude ring often as not is just a milling
ledge in producing the cylinder's head spacing
for .357 or .38.

In any case, as usual, today's shooters are
overthinking a simple process of cleaning
chambers.

If you're using quality .38 factory ammo or
quality components in reloads, the crud
buildup is minimal.

Test your chambers after cleaning: Load
.357s and see if they easily enter the
chambers and easily fall out of the chambers.
If so, you're good to go with .357s after
shooting .38s.
 
The ledge is the start of the chamber mouth. The chamber is milled open a bit more to fit the case length of either the .38 or .357 depending on what the cylinder is chambered in.

A lot of time the “crud ring” you see is a bit of discoloration like the ring at the cylinder mouths on the face of the cylinder. If you’ve cleaned it well and magnums drop in and extract easily, the ring is basically a stain. You could use tight fitting patches and Flitz if it bugs you to remove pretty much all of the discoloration… but it’s not necessary.

Stay safe.
 
Last edited:
UncleEd said:
What you're seeing, is it really crud or just
what looks like a crude ring three-quarters
of the way into the chamber?

That crude ring often as not is just a milling
ledge in producing the cylinder's head spacing
for .357 or .38.

In any case, as usual, today's shooters are
overthinking a simple process of cleaning
chambers.

If you're using quality .38 factory ammo or
quality components in reloads, the crud
buildup is minimal.

Test your chambers after cleaning: Load
.357s and see if they easily enter the
chambers and easily fall out of the chambers.
If so, you're good to go with .357s after
shooting .38s.
Click to expand...

The .38 and .357 headspace on the rim.

I have had significant crud rings build up with top quality ammunition.

I also have had guns which would easily chamber .357 and would then offer very difficult extraction after firing, due to crud rings.
 
thunderbyrd said:
was reflecting while cleaning, it you love guns, you have to love cleaning. the meditative aspect of it is good for you.
Click to expand...
Exactly why I love cleaning my handguns while watching either seasons 1 and 2 of Miami Vice or my complete collection of Dirty Harry movies, on Blu-Ray, on the 70" flat-screen 4K HD TV.

thunderbyrd said:
should i just keep on until it's all gone, which will probably take a hundred passes, or is it acceptable to leave a little in there? if i leave it there, what will happen, what damage will it do?
Click to expand...
Personally, I don't sweat that little bit of stainage...
 
To avoid this, I load 38 special loads in 357 cases. If you don't reload, I realize that will not solve your issues. When I was still using 38 special cases, I would let some Ballistol or some Hoppes soak on it for a little while before I ran a brass brush through it. That seemed to resolve the "38 Special ring" for me.
 
docbrown said:
To avoid this, I load 38 special loads in 357 cases. If you don't reload, I realize that will not solve your issues. When I was still using 38 special cases, I would let some Ballistol or some Hoppes soak on it for a little while before I ran a brass brush through it. That seemed to resolve the "38 Special ring" for me.
Click to expand...

I do this as well, one of the advantages of reloading.

I have 357 Magnum guns and 38 Special guns so I have place to use the different cases in guns chambered specifically for them.

Also, 44 Special and 44 Magnum as well as 32 S&WL, 32 H&R Mag, and 327 Fed. Magnum.

But, when I shot 38 Special ammunition in 357 Magnum guns, I'd spend an amount of time cleaning out the 38 Special carbon ring. I'd use a combination of bore cleaning patches and bore cleaning soaked brushes to remove the carbon ring.
 
Like @docbrown I will run some Hoppe’s into each chamber and leave it a while then brush out the chambers with a stiff plastic brush. If that doesn’t work I with run some Break Free CLP through the chambers and leave it sit overnight or at lest a few hours then try the brush then swab with Ramrodz cotton swabs. That usually dies the trick.
 
Old Dog said:
Exactly why I love cleaning my handguns while watching either seasons 1 and 2 of Miami Vice or my complete collection of Dirty Harry movies, on Blu-Ray, on the 70" flat-screen 4K HD TV.

Personally, I don't sweat that little bit of stainage...
Click to expand...
Its NOT a good idea to clean your M14 while watching Full Metal Jacket.

Just trust me on this one........:D
 
Riomouse911 said:
The ledge is the start of the chamber mouth. The chamber is milled open a bit more to fit the case length of either the .38 or .357 depending on what the cylinder is chambered in.

A lot of time the “crud ring” you see is a bit of discoloration like the ring at the cylinder mouths on the face of the cylinder. If you’ve cleaned it well and magnums drop in and extract easily, the ring is basically a stain. You could use tight fitting patches and Flitz if it bugs you to remove pretty much all of the discoloration… but it’s not necessary.

Stay safe.
Click to expand...

i understand about discoloration, but when i look at it closely in the right light, i can see that it's more than that. it's either carbon or lead. i don't have any .357 so now i have a reason to get some.
 
UncleEd said:
Poor choice of words on my part but the ledge
also represents or presents a limit as to how far
a cartridge is likely to be inserted into a chamber.
Click to expand...
That's the throat.

The bullet, being seated inside the case, and the case fitting inside the chamber, the bullet must be much smaller than the chamber. If we don't do anything about that, the bullet will go wobbling down the fore part of the chamber and accuracy will go to pot.

What you do is make the fore part of the chamber smaller than the after part. The transition from wider to narrower is called the throat. As the bullet is leaving the case, it enters the throat and is swaged down (in a properly-dimensioned throat) a thousandth of an inch or so, and controlled until it reaches the rifling.
 
thunderbyrd said:
i understand about discoloration, but when i look at it closely in the right light, i can see that it's more than that. it's either carbon or lead. i don't have any .357 so now i have a reason to get some.
Click to expand...
Try a bit of true copper Chore Boy wrapped in a bronze brush, dip in a good solvent and scrub it out. You can use the drill trick if it’s really stubborn :thumbup:.

I shoot gobs of .38’s through my .357 revolvers, probably at a 15 to 1 ratio (.44 Spl in the .44 Mags and .45 Colt in the .454 is about the same). Staying on top of the carbon ring in the magnum chambers is easy if you scrub the chambers after each shooting session and give it a bit of extra attention when (if) needed :).

Stay safe.
 
Motor oil in everything, grease on auto rails/barrel bushings.
No rust, no fouling, no malfunctions.
No problems with black powder fouling.
I don't get those rings. I wipe the cylinder bores with a pass of 5-20, or 5-30, and nothing sticks to them.
Motor oil is designed to run at 210 degrees F, at 6000 rpm, for millions of cycles, in an environment far dirtier than any normal firearm. Not sure why its not more popular.

Copper scrubber for leading, ammonia for copper fouling (rare, about 1 cleaning every 5,000 rounds in a rifle, only needed it once in a pistol) , and motor oil for everything else. Cleaning takes about 2 minutes.
 
Col. Harrumph said:
Maybe try a lewis lead remover? Or a nonmagnetic chore boy?
Click to expand...

I've shot over 100K revolver rounds as competition shooter. To clean revolver cylinders and forcing cones I use "copper/bronze wool" found in hardware stores or on line. Similar to "Chore boy" non-magnetic/metallic! Lewis Lead remover works too!

I wrap the copper/bronze wool around a used bore brush and if cleaning by hand doesn't get it clean enough, chuck the brush in a slow moving rotary tool to speed up the polishing!

"Shoot more clean less"! :)'s
 
Mind, smokeless powder burns about 3300ºF for that instant while it's contained.
As everything returns to around ambient, various chemistries can precipitate.

So, you get "smooge." This is only an issue if it's actual crud built up enough to not chamber rounds.
Wood coffee stirrer might be best for reaching in and making sure there's no actual build-up (a color change is just a color change).
 
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