I guess this area of the forum is the spot for a question about cleaning rifles and the bore brushes you clean them with. Is there a way to clean bore brushes to remove "stuff" that has built up on them over repeated cleanings? I am concerned that as I clean my rifles and getting fouling out with the brush and then putting it back in when I brush again. Any advice?
cleaning bore brushes
- Thread starter ReloadKy
- Start date
50 shooter
New member
I've used brake parts cleaner, spray them off with a quick blast. Agree about buying in bulk, keeps cost down on an expendable item.
If you try to use anything that attacks copper fouling, it will go after the copper in the bronze brush bristles as well, so you don't want to use a copper-removing cleaner on them. You can soak the brush in anything that penetrates well. Afterward, I expect an ultrasonic cleaner would blast off much of the loose fouling. However, as the others suggest, you'd have to go through a lot of bore brushes to pay for that.
My personal approach has been to get away from using bore brushes altogether. Most folks don't let solvents work long enough before patching them out. Common solvents can keep working up to 20 minutes or so. Gunzilla can deep soften carbon for weeks if the carbon is deep enough and hard enough to require it. Letting Gunzilla sit overnight has let me patch out carbon rings at the ends of chambers that even a brush won't touch.
Note that carbon hardens over time, so anything you can do to wet it with solvent before you leave the range will make it easier to get out when you get the gun home. I got some Wally World travel-size (within the 3 oz TSA limit) pump sprayers and put Bore Tech Eliminator in them. At the end of a range session, I pull the bolt and pump a few squirts into a rifle bore–enough to see it run down to the muzzle. I use their Rimfire Blend after shooting lubricated lead bullets. Then I plug the bore of a rifle at both ends or put the handguns in big Ziplock bags and into their cases and drive home (just under an hour). Pretty much everything patches when I get there. Reapplication is needed with stubborn rough bores, but the 20-minute rule seems to work pretty well to get them clear.
Tough job carbon gets Slip 2000 Carbon Killer or an overnight soak with Gunzilla.
Tough job lead fouling gets Sharpshoot'r NO-LEAD
Tough job copper fouling gets a dose of KG-12 followed by Cu++ to check for signs of remaining copper.
But with the exceptions of an old gun crusted hard with carbon fouling or using an undersized bore brush as a wrapped patch holder in a blind breech semi-auto for cleaning from the muzzle, I rarely use a brush anymore.
My personal approach has been to get away from using bore brushes altogether. Most folks don't let solvents work long enough before patching them out. Common solvents can keep working up to 20 minutes or so. Gunzilla can deep soften carbon for weeks if the carbon is deep enough and hard enough to require it. Letting Gunzilla sit overnight has let me patch out carbon rings at the ends of chambers that even a brush won't touch.
Note that carbon hardens over time, so anything you can do to wet it with solvent before you leave the range will make it easier to get out when you get the gun home. I got some Wally World travel-size (within the 3 oz TSA limit) pump sprayers and put Bore Tech Eliminator in them. At the end of a range session, I pull the bolt and pump a few squirts into a rifle bore–enough to see it run down to the muzzle. I use their Rimfire Blend after shooting lubricated lead bullets. Then I plug the bore of a rifle at both ends or put the handguns in big Ziplock bags and into their cases and drive home (just under an hour). Pretty much everything patches when I get there. Reapplication is needed with stubborn rough bores, but the 20-minute rule seems to work pretty well to get them clear.
Tough job carbon gets Slip 2000 Carbon Killer or an overnight soak with Gunzilla.
Tough job lead fouling gets Sharpshoot'r NO-LEAD
Tough job copper fouling gets a dose of KG-12 followed by Cu++ to check for signs of remaining copper.
But with the exceptions of an old gun crusted hard with carbon fouling or using an undersized bore brush as a wrapped patch holder in a blind breech semi-auto for cleaning from the muzzle, I rarely use a brush anymore.
I slosh my brushes in solvent and then they get a blast of compressed air. Wear safety glasses to protect the eyes. We've only got two, and one is a bummer.
Brushes have a place in the cleaning kit whether used often or infrequently.
Wipe out patch out is good if you leave it in long enough to do the job. I also use their Accelerator with it.
For carbon, I use Bore Tech's C4.
For lead I use copper Chore Boy wrapped around a mop.
Brushes have a place in the cleaning kit whether used often or infrequently.
Wipe out patch out is good if you leave it in long enough to do the job. I also use their Accelerator with it.
For carbon, I use Bore Tech's C4.
For lead I use copper Chore Boy wrapped around a mop.
Reload,
I surely appreciate your desire to take good care of your firearms, but I think you are worrying a bit too much - no insult intended.
I don't recall ever cleaning a brush, and I've never had a problem from that.
The brush is just that, a brush - or "scrubber/ loosener". Follow with some patches of solvent/ oil/ preservative and your good to go.
Even a bit of whatever left in the bore will do no harm if you give it a good final swab with a good product.
Unclenick is right on about letting the first product work for a while.
I surely appreciate your desire to take good care of your firearms, but I think you are worrying a bit too much - no insult intended.
I don't recall ever cleaning a brush, and I've never had a problem from that.
The brush is just that, a brush - or "scrubber/ loosener". Follow with some patches of solvent/ oil/ preservative and your good to go.
Even a bit of whatever left in the bore will do no harm if you give it a good final swab with a good product.
Unclenick is right on about letting the first product work for a while.
Also wear a mask, you just have made a poisoned airborne aerosol.
Me, I use Carbon Killer 2000 (CK2k) pretty much exclusivity. Also a nylon brush and an eye dropper. I don't run copper though I do have BTE on hand as well.
I shoot the gun, 30 -50 rounds, then drizzle CK2k on the nylon brush - push through the rifle, re-drizzle on the end, 5 strokes out the end again and drizzle brush, pull back through and run a patch through.
Take about 4 cycles and its clean. Warm barrel helps. Carbon is dissolved and I see none on the nylon brush.
There is a liquid that spill out the end of the barrel with the patch. All dissolved.
I don't see any need to clean the brush, its not like tiny gritty cutting pieces are embedded on it.
I think its getting over-thunked.
After cleaning the barrel , I'll spray them down with those action cleaners . I use Ballistol in the barrel after shooting , run a few patches with Ballistol then a wet one and by the time I get home a few dry patches , Hoppes # 9 solvent then dry patch . Hardly ever use a brush anymore .
I have a 3' sheer for cloth and paper, I also have a 1' sheer for paper and cloth and then the wife has this green board and cutting wheel with a handle. I use the sheers for the heavy work and finish with the green board and cutting wheel.
A number of years ago a company went to the dumpsters and then went overseas for cheap labor. Friends informed me about the dumpsters full of stuff so I went diving. Most of the stuff I found looked useful, it was up to me to determine how it could be used. If I found it useful I would have to know how it was made; back to the wife, She said I could make the stuff function the way it was designed to function and I did not need to know what it was called.
At the time I started cutting patches, the color did not matter, it is like taking care of business; you start with the dark colors and finish with white to know when you are finished. the wife was not happy, she thinks I shredded her green board, how is it possible to shred a green board that is designed to have a round razor run over it when cutting cloth?
It could be a dumpster diving thing but I do not clean the bore of barrels like a reloader, when cleaning a bore and things get tight I do not panic because sticking my bore cleaner cleaning stuff is impossible.
F. Guffey
A number of years ago a company went to the dumpsters and then went overseas for cheap labor. Friends informed me about the dumpsters full of stuff so I went diving. Most of the stuff I found looked useful, it was up to me to determine how it could be used. If I found it useful I would have to know how it was made; back to the wife, She said I could make the stuff function the way it was designed to function and I did not need to know what it was called.
At the time I started cutting patches, the color did not matter, it is like taking care of business; you start with the dark colors and finish with white to know when you are finished. the wife was not happy, she thinks I shredded her green board, how is it possible to shred a green board that is designed to have a round razor run over it when cutting cloth?
It could be a dumpster diving thing but I do not clean the bore of barrels like a reloader, when cleaning a bore and things get tight I do not panic because sticking my bore cleaner cleaning stuff is impossible.
F. Guffey
Don Fischer
New member
I've still got a few copper brush's left but once they are gone, they are gone. Use mostly nylon brush's any more. Ever wonder what there's always a bit of color from fouling left in the barrel? Copper brush. Run it through with copper solvent and you get color out of the bore!
It had to be one of those 'surely things', she knew how sharp the round cutter was and she knows how much weight I was applying and I was of the opinion there was no way I could render that green pattern board scrap. It did not take long for me to get ahead with cutting squares for patches.
F. Guffey
SGW Gunsmith
Moderator
Let 'em soak in a coffee can of "kerosene". Look like new afterward.