I've been having an ongoing battle with getting lead out of my barrels. Since I routinely shoot coated, cast lead bullets, I am always left with just a bit of residue in the grooves. I tried the trick with a brush laced with chore-boy, abut that took hours to get every last bit of residue in those difficult spots out. I also tried a Lewis lead remover, and it just doesn't get into those grooves all that well.
So, I tried a few of the different chemicals:
Hoppes Elite in both spray and foam: These claim to remove lead. They did nothing for my barrels. It was no different than just straight brass brushing
No-Lead brushless lead remover: This is nasty stuff, I highly recommend not ever going anywhere near it. First off, it didn't work any better than the Hoppes. But, it was awful to work with. I think it works by attempting to oxidize, because if you get it on your skin it will leave a dry powder type spot that you have to scrub off, so I started handling it with gloves. It also left a sticky residue that is hard to get rid of. I finally just threw away the gun cleaning pad that I was using with it. It also gave me a headache if I was around it too long.
RB-17 Gun Cleaner: This is the stuff! It claims to be biodegadable. No nasty smell, no residue left over. It also WORKS. You apply this directly to a brash brush and I run it through the barrel 10 times, then patch out a black sludge. Repeat that 3x and I'm done. Nice and shiny clean barrel.
Hope this helps someone.
So, I tried a few of the different chemicals:
Hoppes Elite in both spray and foam: These claim to remove lead. They did nothing for my barrels. It was no different than just straight brass brushing
No-Lead brushless lead remover: This is nasty stuff, I highly recommend not ever going anywhere near it. First off, it didn't work any better than the Hoppes. But, it was awful to work with. I think it works by attempting to oxidize, because if you get it on your skin it will leave a dry powder type spot that you have to scrub off, so I started handling it with gloves. It also left a sticky residue that is hard to get rid of. I finally just threw away the gun cleaning pad that I was using with it. It also gave me a headache if I was around it too long.
RB-17 Gun Cleaner: This is the stuff! It claims to be biodegadable. No nasty smell, no residue left over. It also WORKS. You apply this directly to a brash brush and I run it through the barrel 10 times, then patch out a black sludge. Repeat that 3x and I'm done. Nice and shiny clean barrel.
Hope this helps someone.