Cleaning

R

royboy

Inactive
I'm new to shooting pistols. Shot .38's in my S&W 686 and there is a dark coating on the exit end of the cylinder. What is this material and how to best clean it. Thanks for the help. Also what is a carbon ring.
 
That dark coating on the business end of the cylinder is a bunch of "carbon rings". As you start to clean it you'll see the rings will become more defined. This is just residue from the burned up powder and it's very normal.

Take some gun cleaner like Hoppes and a good stiff brush (I like bronze brushes for this task) and scrub away. You likely won't get it all off unless you take some metal polish to it, but it will be back as soon as you fire the gun again anyway.

A little carbon never hurt anything, just don't let it build up.
 
Shortcut:

If you reload, you can take a .357 case and expand the case mouth slightly, to the point it barely chambers, chamfer it...... and use that to scrape out the carbon rings left by the shorter .38special rounds.
 
As above, attempting to remove the carbon ring stains from the front face of a cylinder is useless because the next time you fire the gun they come right back.
In addition, some removal methods can eventually damage the cylinder.

If you insist, the best/fastest way of removal is to buy a "lead-away" cloth from a gun shop or Brownell's.
This is a stiff cloth specifically made to clean leading, carbon, and copper fouling off by simply rubbing the area.

DO NOT USE THESE ON A BLUED GUN. It also wipes bluing right off.
 
As above, attempting to remove the carbon ring stains from the front face of a cylinder is useless because the next time you fire the gun they come right back.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear- the carbon rings I was thinking about when I posted this:

take a .357 case and expand the case mouth slightly, to the point it barely chambers, chamfer it...... and use that to scrape out the carbon rings left by the shorter .38special rounds.
Click to expand...

...are not on the front of the cylinder. They are inside each chamber in the cylinder, and form where the .38 cases end. If you don't clean them out, and let them continue to grow (light loads of 700X or Red Dot, with plated bullets will make nasty rings), when you go to fire a .357 cartridge, chambering and extraction can get difficult. Make sense?
 
As far as the stuff on the front of the cylinder goes, I just take Hoppe's #9 and clean it the best I can. Quite a bit gets left behind, but I'm over it these days.

I used to clean it real thoroughly with a cloth impregnated with stainless steel polish until it was shiny clean. But I decided that it could be removing material and slowly increasing the cylinder/barrel gap. That thought, coupled with laziness, made me quit doing it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not lazy. I thoroughly clean my revolvers after use. I remove the cylinder/crane assembly, and really get down. I'm a clean freak when it comes to my guns (wish I could say the same for other facets of my life lol). But I'm just "over" the dark stuff on the front of the cylinder of the guns I shoot regularly.

If I take one of my safe queens out for a rare shoot, I still polish up the front of the cylinder when I'm done. Then return it to the safe for the next 5 or 10 years.
 
the best/fastest way of removal is to buy a "lead-away" cloth
Click to expand...

These cloths do work and work fine on the face of s/s cylinders. A little bit of scrubbing will remove the "...dark coating on the exit end of the cylinder".
 
I use an old .38 Cal bronze bristled brush and coat with 0000 fine steel wool. I attach to an adapter (an old cleaning rod cut down that allows one to screw in the brush) and spin in a drill. It will not harm the cylinder nor will it remove any cylinder metal. Same deal with a .44Spl/Magnum..use a .44 Cal brush.

When shooting Specials in magnum cylinders it is always best to clean them when shooting "Special" loads, before you go to "Magnum" loads...
 
Pistols & revolvers....

A "pistol" is a semi automatic firearm that is magazine fed.
A "revolver" has a cylinder that rotates around.

:D
 
So St. Gabriel de Posenti had a semi-auto in 1860?

Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.

At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot, in the left eye. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola".
Click to expand...

"Pistol" has been in common usage meaning "handgun" since before semi-autos were in existence.

As if it really mattered .....
 
Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: "Pistol: a short firearm intended to be aimed and fired with one hand..." We've been down this road many times before, folks, and it seems that there never will be a clear consensus as to what the word really means. I guess it means what it does to whomever says it.
 
if you reload, just load your 35 load in 357 cases, I load my 38 loads in 357 mag cases and don't have to think about completely removing the carbon ringI load 158 gr lswc's and the loaded bullet is too long to fit in a 38 revolver by mistake. Plus all my reload ammo goes in ammo boxes clearly marked with the load.
 
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