Bore Cleaning Technique - Harmful?

J

Jim567

New member
I shot 2 Glocks and 2 Sigs at the range today.
From my army days- I get a huge dose of guilt if I don't clean them before the day is out.
I enjoy cleaning the nooks and crannies.
I dispise bore brushing. Don't ask me why.
It's boring lol.
So - I took a plastic rod with a nylon brush - stuck it in a cordless drill.
Used Hoppes and made 4 pass throughs on each barrel.
Fun, very efficient and fast.
Is it harmful long term?
 
With a nylon brush and plastic rod, you should be fine. Both materials are too soft to cause any harm to the steel of the barrel.
 
I like to use chemistry instead of elbow grease. Let the solvent-Hoppe's No. 9 in my case-soak for a half hour or so. But if your method works....
 
I highly doubt it would do any harm to a Tennifer finished Glock barrel. I would not do it with a bronze brush or aluminum/steel cleaning rods.

I think you have absolutely nothing to fear.
 
Nylon / plastics can be fairly abrasive. Think of ScotchBrite or BearTex pads - those are made from nylon and are the equal of steel wool. Personally, I would not use a drill with the brush.

Just swab the bore with your favorite cleaner and let is sit for 10-20 minutes. Brush the bore 10 or so strokes swab out the bore with more cleaner. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes, brush one more time and then swab out with cleaner, swab the bore dry, and then lightly oil and you should be done.

I use both Shooter's Choice + Kroil, and Gunzilla for cleaning and either will easily take out fouling. The Shooter's Choice with 20% Kroil (by volume) added to it will aid in taking out leading if you let it stay in the bore about 30-40 minutes.
 
You say you are shooting glocks and sigs, so more than likely your ammunition is jacketed. Jacketed bullets leave a trace of copper, which in itself is not harmful. Nor is it hard to remove, most solvents do that with little or no effort. Let the solvent do the work.

Bob Wright
 
Fouling is never a problem with Hoppes.
It's the copper and me not having the time or being impatient to wait.
Guess I will have to find some patience :(
 
The nylon and plastic won't hurt anything.

The abrasive crud that can stick on them will sure raise hell w/the bore and/or crown if you use a power tool.
 
The abrasive crud that can stick on them will sure raise hell w/the bore and/or crown if you use a power tool
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Great point.

I sure as hell would not take a drill to my guns, solvent and 30 minutes is all you need for a clean gun.
 
:confused: Since when is it time consuming the clean a removable pistol barrel anyway? I can't think of when it's taken me more than five minutes
 
Read my original post. Cleaning multiple pistols.
It was extremely fast and efficient. Easy on older sore hands.
The only question I had is if I did it repeatedly would it damage the bore.
 
If copper fouling is your problem and working with the cleaning tools is uncomfortable (I can relate to that) - then spend a little money and make it pain and worry free.

Buy an ultrasonic cleaner that is large enough for multiple barrels and fill it with KG-12 Big Bore Cleaner. It absolutely will not hurt the barrels.

Swab out the barrels with a standard barrel cleaner to get most of the fouling out the barrel. If you have copper fouling, put the barrels into the ultrasonic cleaner, turn it on, walk away and finish cleaning, lubricating, and polishing the guns.

By the time you're done with the rest of the gun cleaning, the KG-12 should have taken out most all of the copper. Bore brush the barrels with more cleaner, swab them out, lubricate lightly and reassemble into the guns.
 
This reminds me of a guy I know and his .357 revolver. He shot a whole bunch of .38 Special in it. Then to switch over to .357 he decided to clean the chambers with an electric drill and a bore brush. Of course the drill chuck touched the frame and ate the finish as well as some metal away from what was once a nice handgun. Not advisable.
 
I woke up this morning with this thought-

50 - 9mm copper coated lead pellets being propelled through a rifled tube faster than the speed of sound accompanied by hot gasses and other debris. Include a brass case being slammed in and out of the chamber to the mix.

Verses 4 passes by a nylon bore brush well lubricated with Hoppes bore cleaner on a low speed cordless drill. Plastic cleaning rod. As for debris on the brush. The bores were first passed through manually with a Hopped soaked patch.

4 passes with a low speed drill and a nylon brush / plastic rod -
Verses multiple passes manually with a bronze brush and steel rod.


OK maybe the rounds don't go sonic till after they leave the barrel. :)
 
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I don't see the point; a rotating brush will get the top of the lands, but the rotating brush will just pass over the corners of the groove and not get in there to clean out any debris. If using power tools is the plan, maybe if you attached the brush to a reciprocating saw....

David
 
As for debris on the brush. The bores were first passed through manually with a Hopped soaked patch.
Click to expand...
The use of plastic cleaning rods & the way they attract and hold abrasive debris has been pretty well documented for a few decades.
I always use aluminum or brass since they don't pick up debris like plastic.
 
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