Chucking brass brush into a drill for heavy cleaning

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BondoBob

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I can't seem to get this gunk out of my cylinder bores. And yes it's from firing cheap 38s in a 357. 357 rounds go in easily enough but cannot be extracted in the usual manner. I've cleaned with hoppes and brash brush, soaking with Bore Extractor following their instructions and it's improved but i can still see come crud.

The spent 357 casings that got stuck may be over expanded at .381 dia, my spent 38s are .376. But either way I'd like to get it spotless before trying other factory ammo or loading for it in 357. (learned my lesson will never put a 38 in a 357 SW again. I need to clean this and try other ammo before sending it back to SW for re-sizing/honing/polishing or whatever they do.

Would this technique using a brush in a drill be safe? Could it void my warranty? It is after all a standard cleaning brush. But maybe the factory will be able to tell I used a drill. Has anyone here done this? Or any other less severe suggestions?

Here's a link to the process video I found from Fortune Cookie on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSCc2M45KhI

And here's the gunk I can't get off.

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Thanks Jerrys. I'm looking at it now on Amazon. At first I was concerned about it being stainless steel, brass or copper being softer. But they say the loops are better than bristles for not scratching the cylinder.
 
Find someone that reloads and ask them to bell out a couple of cases so you can use them to remove the crud in your cylinders.
 
I've had that happen a few times. The way I cleaned out the chambers was first I soak them with WD-40 and then let them set for a while. WD-40 is a penetrating oil and will soak into and under the fouling.

Then I use a smaller wire brush, like a 32 in a 357 and wrap the smaller wire brush with four O steel wool and use a drill to spin it. No worries about scratching the cylinder that way and it always gets them clean.
 
I have the tip of an old cleaning rod that I chuck into the drill press, so I chan change brushes at will.

But what i did though: I drilled out the primer pocket of an old .357 Magnum case and tapped it for 1/4-20 thread. Then threaded a 1/2" rod about 1" for the end. Run a 1/4" nut onto the threaded end of the rod, then thread the threaded case onto the rod and turn down the nut for a lock nut.

Use a hack saw or Dremel cutter and slot the mouth of the case about 1/2 ~3/4" deep and flare with the flaring part of the loading die.

This makes a good "carbon cutter" after using many .38 Specials in the cyinder.

This can then be swapped out for .44 Magnum or .45 Colt cases.

Bob Wright
 
...or clean it more often so the crud doesn't build up. I shoot 41 Specials in a 41 Magnum and 44 Specials in a 44 Magnum. I clean after a couple hundred rounds and the chambers clean up real nice.
 
Yes. I do chuck a brush into a drill once in awhile. Sometimes it is just faster to get nice clean chambers and throats. Most times not necessary... Just some times :) .
 
A half dozen strands cut from an All Copper Chore Boy then wrapped around a suitable sized bore brush will make short work of cylinders, forcing cone and barrel rifling leading problems. Soak the crud well with Hoppe's, Ed's Red, or what ever you use to clean powder fouling from your bores, then go with the Chore Boy.

Just remember it must be an ALL COPPER Chore Boy. A magnet carried into the cooking wares section of the store will tell you if it's all copper or just copper plated steel. I couldn't find any locally, several years ago and ordered them on Amazon...The Chore Boy treatment actually works better than the venerable Lewis Lead Remover. Best regards, Rod
 
I always tried to use the right tool for the job.

In this case, I use Brownell's chamber brushes.
These are made over-sized, AND from a much stiffer bristle.
Bore brushes are made of a more flexible bristle and they bend over if using larger caliber bore brushes in chambers.
Chamber brushes work much better.
Usually one pass through and back out of a chamber leaves it totally clean.

DO NOT use stainless steel brushes. Those are for gunsmith use in chambers that are so badly neglected you have nothing to loose.

https://www.brownells.com/gun-clean...ze-rifle-pistol-chamber-brushes-prod1287.aspx

The way I found that works the best is to push the brush into the chamber until about 1/3rd of it's sticking out the front, rotate the brush a couple of turns, push the rest of the way though then pull it back out.

Just in case people who are new to shooting and don't know.......
Spinning a brush in a SMOOTH barrel like a shotgun, or in a chamber is a valid technique.
NEVER, EVER spin a brush in a RIFLED barrel, it'll ruin it in very short order.
 
I don't have that problem any more as I stopped shooting 38 Spec. in my 357 Mag guns.

BUT, when I did, I soaked the cylinder in kerosene for a few hours then I used a cleaning solvent with an oversized nylon brush. For 357/38 I used a 40 caliber brush.

I never wanted to spin a brass brush in a drill, and I got some tornado brushes as a gift years ago, never used them and prolly threw them in the trash. I was worried that the tornado brush might be harder than my cylinders. That's a no-no in my book.
 
Be very careful when using a drill and a brush to clean a cylinder. Make sure that the steel core of the brush (the twisted wire that holds the bristles) doesn't come in contact with anything while the drill is spinning. Also, pay attention to the chuck jaws to insure that they don't touch the cylinder during the process as they can mar the cylinder finish or even damage the steel.

I think a simpler option is to just bell the mouth of some .357Mag cases and use them as scrapers to remove the rings.
 
BondoBob.........

The Tornado brushes are intended to be used by HAND, NOT in a drill.
The Tornado brushes were originally developed for use in smooth bore shotguns, but they now make them for rifled firearms too.

I'm uncertain just how well they work in rifled guns, so I use standard bronze bristle brushes in rifled barrels.
 
BondoBob: I'm just making sure you are aware that the charge holes are countersunk; and you're going to see the step inside no matter what. Don't mistake that for crud.

Dumb questions are more easily handled than dumb mistakes. So I thought I'd ask.

I've shot a lot of 38's in my 357's. They have gotten fouled up; but nothing I wasn't able to clean out. Hoppes #9 has always worked. Sometimes a little soaking softens things up.

These days, shooting 38's in my magnums is a rare event. I bought a 38 Special revolver (Smith 67) to shoot 38's.
 
Nick, appreciate that. Yeah, they are definitely gunked up. I can tell because spent casings can only fit in 3 of the 7 bores now. I saved the ones that stuck and putting the same case in all 7 it gets stopped 1mm out in 3 of them. I'll try a long soak, followed by some of the other "elbow grease" recommendations.
 
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