cleaning a shotgun

snipe02

can i use a brass brush on chrome lined barrells or will it damage the chrome i used it once but noticed streaks of fowling when looking down the barrells put a lot of rounds through it lately 500 in a week and just thought it was plastic but finding it really hard to remove and thinking now did i damage it with the brass brush and also what is the correct way to clean a shotgun

Boiled-egg

snipe02 wrote: »

can i use a brass brush on chrome lined barrells or will it damage the chrome i used it once but noticed streaks of fowling when looking down the barrells put a lot of rounds through it lately 500 in a week and just thought it was plastic but finding it really hard to remove and thinking now did i damage it with the brass brush and also what is the correct way to clean a shotgun

Personally, all do is give it a pull through with a bore snake, then a light smear of oil (very light) then a final pull through just to make sure the oil coats the entire barrel no more than 5 mins tops. Once every so ofted i use gun grease on other parts.Im sure there is a more comprenhesive way and others will swear by, but at the end of the day its a shot gun if it were a rifle i would advacate a more scientific method.

EWQuinn

http://www.tetraproducts.com/images/pd-cleaning%20instructions-shotgun.pdf

500 a week, I'm jealous, need to get back into skeet someday. I doubt you have damaged the barrel, may be just really dirty and the stuff is hard to get out.

The two page document from Tetra, linked above which you can print or increase size to 100%, illustrates pretty well how to clean and lube a shotgun, but you dont need Tetra products to do it.

To be thorough, get a bore mop for the correct gage. I put a 12 ga shotgun patch (or an old piece of t-shirt) over the mop, saves wear & tear on the mop and adds cleaning power. Apply a good bore or shotgun solvent, run the mop & patches through the barrel to get out carbon, repeat till clean. That should get most or all of the carbon fouling. Then you may have some plastic residue. Thats where you can use a soft bronze or nylon shotgun brush of the correct gage with solvent to get the plastic. Repeat the process with bore mop & solvent to get out the plastic residue you stirred up with the brush. You may find some special solvents for plastic, I have used Hoppes, Shooters Choice or Butch's or some other decent bore cleaner. Clean the bore mop by rubbing good with a clean rag. Then put a dry patch over the bore mop and do the final cleaning to get out all solvent residue.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?sortby=1&itemsperpage=20&newcategorydimensionid=4045&&pageNumber=1

Get your glasses if applicable and look in that bore using a good light or bright lightbulb in the house. If the soft bronze brush will hurt the steel barrel and chrome lining, I would be really surprised. (If in doubt, take it to a gunsmith or the experts at your local shotgun club.) You can also get a nylon brush like the blue Iosso one's shown at the Midway link above. The inside of my Remingon 1100 and Brown O/U barrels were always smooth and shiny, never any damage. Assume you have plenty of choices in cleaning supplies in the ROI. If not good choices near you, there should be stuff available on internet, Ebay or Amazon I would hope.

Half-cocked

snipe02 wrote: »

can i use a brass brush on chrome lined barrells

Yes, no problem.

meathstevie

Brass is a lot softer than steel and chrome, hence the reason why gun cleaning brushes are made of it. Work away and you should be fine.

If you're running 500 cartridges a week through a gun you'll never get all the carbon and other deposots out in one cleaning session. You could clean the gun untill it's spotless, put it away overnight and run a patch through it the next morning and chances are that it will come out smeared with carbon which would be perfectly normal.

Personally I found that cleaning can be a lot more efficient when the barrels are still warm and the deposits haven't had time to cool down yet.

snipe02

cheers lads i dosed the barrels inside with wd40 and left it over night then put patch followed with the brass brush gave it a good goin over and the used gun oil and cleaner and they came up dapper just the little extra effort was needed crisis over thanks for all replies

Robotack

WD40 is not for guns. I'd sooner leave it dirty.

meathstevie

snipe02 wrote: »

cheers lads i dosed the barrels inside with wd40 and left it over night then put patch followed with the brass brush gave it a good goin over and the used gun oil and cleaner and they came up dapper just the little extra effort was needed crisis over thanks for all replies

If you want to leave something in overnight use a strip of cotton ( old sheets are brilliant to rip up for that purpse ) soaked in gun oil sitting in the barrels. Make sure your strip is wide enough so it's sitting snug in the barrels. If you pull it out the next day you'll be surprised how much crap has soaked loose. A good brush and some clean cotton or flanelette patches after and bob's your uncle.

Probably insulting your intelligence now but take the barrels apart or at least store the gun with the barrels pointing down when you leave cleaning agents or oil to soak overnight.

IRLConor

Robotack wrote: »

WD40 is not for guns. I'd sooner leave it dirty.

While there are many specialised products for cleaning guns, and WD40 is normally not listed among them, it's not as evil for guns as most people make it out to be.

It's even listed as an approved cleaning product in the manual for my rifle.

CJhaughey

Make some Eds Red up, cheap and very effective.

cavan shooter

I recently cleaned my shotgun with the same stuff for cleaning the rifle bore, its a foam and for the life of me I cannot remember (blue tin) any way blocked the end of the barrels with tissue and filled it, left it for 20 minutes and by god it was sparkling its amazing how much rubbish came out.

Robotack

IRLConor wrote: »

While there are many specialised products for cleaning guns, and WD40 is normally not listed among them, it's not as evil for guns as most people make it out to be.

It's even listed as an approved cleaning product in the manual for my rifle.

Really? We'll I stand corrected... what rifle as a matter or interest??

IRLConor

Robotack wrote: »

Really? We'll I stand corrected... what rifle as a matter or interest??

A Bleiker Challenger.