WD40 for removing lead

[LiveLife]

Chore Boy scrap wrapped around a bristle brush. No solvent, used dry. 10 back and forth passes, about 1 minute total time. Shiny barrel.

It's been my experience that if lead bullets are shot through a barrel, it will coat the inside of the barrel with a thin layer of lead.

So, even though you don't see the obvious streaks of lead or lead smears on the lands/grooves and your barrel looks clean and shiny, you may have a nicely "lead plated" barrel. Physical/mechanical methods (i.e. Chore boy) will remove the larger lead smears and streaks, but may not remove the thin lead plating (lead coated barrel will look shiny so you can't always tell). I have demonstrated this on clean looking barrels by scraping lead off the rifling.

That's why I always use lead bore cleaner when I clean my barrels. On this occasion, all I had was WD40 and it worked surprisingly well. Physical/mechanical methods work and will work better if used in conjunction with chemical lead bore cleaner.

Now, can you keep shooting lead bullets even though you have a thinly lead plated barrel? Probably. I am sure I have done so plenty of times without realizing. But I wonder if that thin layer of lead plating will decrease the inside diameter of barrel enough to be of a concern. It will surely provide better bullet to barrel fit.

 

[thewilbur]

Doesn't WD-40 contain a small amount of Sulfuric Acid? Isn't that why it breaks loose rusted bolts so well?

I know this is going to sound very primitive but I reduce the lead by shooting a few jacketed bullets through my revolvers before ending my shooting session. They seem to clean a lot of the lead out. As for the copper, I like 7.62 solvent. It smells like pee, but it works great.

 

[Taroman]

Kroil works for me, as does the "red mix" of ATF, Stoddard solvent, acetone and white kerosene.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Doesn't WD-40 contain a small amount of Sulfuric Acid?

No it doesn't.

 

[mongoose33]

W/R/T Chore Boy: If you go this route, make sure you get the genuine copper Chore Boy, not the steel copper-coated stuff.

How do you tell? Take a magnet along.

I had to have my local hardware store order Chore Boy; there were lookalikes in the local grocery stores, but they were all steel coated in copper, and I won't be scrubbing my barrels with that.

 

[LiveLife]

OK, got this straight from WD40 website - http://www.wd40.com/faqs/

What about using WD-40 on my sports equipment?

Use WD-40 to clean and protect your gun. It will prevent corrosion and it won't damage bluing.

 

[LiveLife]

I always wondered what WD40 meant.

What does WD-40 stand for?

WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed WD-40 back in 1953. The chemist, Norm Larsen, was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion - a task which is done by displacing water. Norm's persistence paid off when he perfected the formula on his 40th try.

What does WD-40 contain?

While the ingredients in WD-40 are secret, we can tell you what WD-40 does NOT contain. WD-40 does not contain silicone, kerosene, water, wax, graphite, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), or any known cancer-causing agents.

 

[Cearbhall]

I bought a gallon can of WD-40 at Home Depot for $10. When I get home from the range I take the grips off, dunk the whole gun for a few hours, then clean and lube as normal. Makes cleaning them a lot easier.

 

[ranger335v]

" He tried cleaning the barrel with Hoppe's #9 and leading did not come out."

No common solvent will, of itself, attack leading. It really doesn't matter if we remove leading with WD-40, Hoppe's, kerosene, Kroils, etc., or do it dry; lead will have to be scraped of the bore, hopefully without harming the steel. That can be done with a brass bore brush or brass Chore Boy.

Bds, I don't think anyone attacted YOU about WD-40, people are simply trying to correct some of the common BS about the stuff you have read.

WD-40 is, as mentioned above, a Water Displacement solution. It does a good job for that, on guns and most anything else, but it is NOT a good long term lube or rust protector, nor is it meant to be. It's totally harmless to blueing. Like many other petroleum based products, it attacks some plastics and some paint finishes but it's not unique about that!

THE problem with WD-40, and a lot of other light oil products, is it does evaporate fairly quickly and leaves a varnish-like residue when it does. Like varnish, it begins as a gummy goo and eventually hardens into a real varnish. Meaning WD-40 should be used on wet guns (and fishing reels) only until they can be properly cleaned and lubed with a non-gumming oil.

The BEST gun/reel oil I've ever seen is common and inexpensive Automatic Transmission Fluid. It is a very high quality light synthetic oil with good lube qualities, it has very good film strength so it protects from rust pretty well and it NEVER gums. It's the only oil I will use on fishing reels, triggers and other internal parts of a firearm.

 

[mbruce]

Chore Boy scrap wrapped around a bristle brush. No solvent, used dry. 10 back and forth passes, about 1 minute total time. Shiny barrel. Easy peasy.

Will someone please post a picture of a Chore-boy wrapped brush...I'm curious as to how much chore-boy is needed...

Thanks!

 

[ranger335v]

"...I'm curious as to how much chore-boy is needed..."

Well, it's really not a calibrated thing but the finished wad must be a moderately tight fit or it won't do a thing to the lead. And keep the cleaning rod centered so it won't wear the rifling as you work.

 

[LiveLife]

Here's a picture of a well used 9mm copper bore brush with some copper scrubber strands I wrapped for use in 9mm and 40S&W barrels. Like ranger said, it's not an exact science. I adjust the amount of copper scrubber strands for different calibers. For 45ACP barrels, I use old 40S&W bore brushes.

Not sure what others are experiencing leading wise but if I do get leading, it's minimal leading that looks like fouling near chamber end. This small amount of leading is easily removed. As others posted, solvent is not needed, but I clean the chamber first with the copper scrubber wrapped bore brush dipped in Hoppes #9 by twisting it clockwise a few times, then I push the brush in the rifling and move it back and forth a few times. When I run a clean wad of Kleenex Viva paper towel (yes, it's what I use to clean my firearms), the chamber and bore is clean.

 

[mbruce]

Cool -- I'm a visual person ... leave me to reading and then deciding my own fate and i sit and ponder until the end of time... i know... just one of those things.

 

[Walkalong]

I like pics too. You know the old saying, one pic is worth a thousand words.

 

[1SOW]

In one of my 'old' new cars--64 Gremlin, the distributer was positioned perfectly to get drenched in water when you drove through a deep puddle too fast.

I kept WD-40 in the car and when it got drenched and died; I got out, pulled the distributer cap, shot the points with WD-40, restarted the car and drove away. That's what WD-40 was designed to do.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

That's what WD-40 was designed to do.

It works great for a LOT of things. BTW,it wasn't puposely designed for drying out automobile distributors specifically and can blow one apart if the spark ignites it(yes it can and has). I haven't used it to remove leading so I don't know how well it does or doesn't work at that task. It will remove a lot of other contaminates quite easily.