Unable to remove Deposits

I shoot a lot of .38 Specials in my .357 Magnum revolvers and I consider the ring merely cosmetic.

For the obsessed, there are several ways to clean them:

- go to a qualified gunsmith with a match chamber reamer ( I have those myself)
- find someone that will dunk your cylinder into an ultrasonic tank

- find a reloader who will bell a .357 Mag case for you and use that to push it into the chamber to clean it. This is the easiest and mildest way that can lead to no wear, nor harm.

- or waste your time with little brushes, good gun oils with detergents and elbow grease
 
We're chasing a ghost here with no picture. I inferred that it was the blackening around the end of the throats, i.e., on the face of the cylinder toward the forcing cone. That as opposed to inside the chambers. One could be lead while the other more likely carbon, considering its reaction to liquid carbon remover (Otis).
 
The OP made it clear in post #11 that he's talking about the blackening on the face of the cylinder, not the ring that builds up inside the chambers from shooting .38s in a .357.
 
Howdy

It is a combination of lead and carbon. The exact same stuff that builds up at the mouth of a 38 Special case when fired in a 357 Mag chamber. The same stuff builds up at the chamber throat of any case that extends the full length of the chamber, you just don't notice it there as much as with a short case in a long chamber.

When a cartridge fires, as the bullet first leaves the case, the hot, high pressure gasses vaporize a small amount of lead at the rear of the bullet. The high pressure escaping through the narrow gap between the bullet and the case just as it leaves the case blasts carbon and vaporized lead onto the cylinder wall. That is what causes the rings down inside a 357 Mag chamber that has been fired with 38 special rounds.

The same thing happens as the bullet crosses the barrel/cylinder gap. The high pressure gasses that escape the gap directly behind the bullet are blasted through the narrow opening at very high velocity because of the narrow gap. The constriction between the rear most face of the barrel and the front face of the cylinder causes deposits of vaporized lead and carbon to be blasted onto the cylinder face. If you look carefully, you will see the rings on the face of the cylinder have the same shape and diameter as the rear of the barrel.

I decided long ago that it was not worth the bother of trying to remove the rings from the front face of the cylinder. They don't hurt anything, and they will simply reappear the next time the gun is fired. Once you have enough revolvers you will come to the same conclusion.
 
I think anyone who tries Otis Carbon Remover will change their mind about whether it is worth cleaning. The worst of the deposit color is gone simply by chemical reaction...no abrasion whatsoever.
 
I think anyone who tries Otis Carbon Remover will change their mind about whether it is worth cleaning. The worst of the deposit color is gone simply by chemical reaction...no abrasion whatsoever.
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Clearly, you don't own enough revolvers yet.:)
 
I have a bunch, trust me, but I don't shoot and clean them all at once. Since I don't put them away before being cleaned, it all works out, so I'm not stuck with a safe full of dirty guns and big cleaning job to either do or procrastinate.
 
I don't understand why anyone would be remotely concerned with the darkening of the chamber mouths on an SP101.

This will happen naturally with virtually any stainless revolver. They cause no issues at all.

Get over it. ;)
 
I decided long ago that it was not worth the bother of trying to remove the rings from the front face of the cylinder. They don't hurt anything, and they will simply reappear the next time the gun is fired. Once you have enough revolvers you will come to the same conclusion.
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+1 . What doesn't come off with hoppes #9 stays. And my guns are put away 'clean'. Some of my guns have been around since the late 70s and the blast rings have never been a problem ;) . Imagine that! :)
 
Nobody ever said the carbon rings cause a problem, they just don't like the look of them on a clean gun and since I can rub them off in 10 seconds with a lead away cloth that's what I do. And that is what I have been doing for probably 20 years and my revolvers still look almost new and function perfectly. I guess maybe rubbing the cylinder face every day might cause a problem MAYBE but I have several revolvers and they get shot no more than 4 times a year each and when I clen them they get wiped with the lead away cloth

Bird crap on a car doesn't hurt anything either, but I bet most of us clean it off. And don't start with the "no. It can damage my paint too". That's not why we clean it off
 
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I have several revolvers and they get shot no more than 4 times a year each and when I clen them they get wiped with the lead away cloth
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Several? Like I said before, once you have enough revolvers, you will stop trying to clean the oxide rings off the front of the cylinders. I probably stopped rubbing the front of my cylinders when I reached 20 revolvers twenty years ago. I have 3 times that many now. Some are over 100 years old. I just don't bother about the rings.

By the way, one sure way to prevent the rings from happening is to shoot Black Powder. The fronts of my revolvers that only get shot with Black Powder don't have any rings at all. Just something about the way BP burns, it does not leave any rings behind.
 
they just don't like the look of them
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And that really is the point. A personal preference thing. My guns are working guns, and the blast rings in no way take away from it's looks or performance IMO. The gun is 'clean' and in good working condition regardless of the blast rings... Other folks like bling ( bright SS for example) and I don't ....That is ok too :) .
 
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Whether you have 1 or 100, cleaning the cylinder face with a lead away cloth takes less then 10 seconds. So unless you're shooting them so often, and I doubt you are with the amount you have, I don't see why people leave the rings. Reminds me when I was a rookie cop. We would bend and stretch our leather so we wouldn't look like rookies. I think guys want their guns to look used. I want mine to look new, even though I do shoot them. The rings bug me, so they go away.
 
I think guys want their guns to look used.
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Well, the ones that are older than me were bought used. I can probably count on one hand the revolvers that I have bought new. Maybe both hands. All the rest were bought used. So no way they are ever going to look new. Couldn't care less about the rings, nor whatever blemishes they came with.
 
It's cool. Your gun and your choice. If taking care if the rings was a big job I'd agree with you. But 10 seconds with a cloth? No brainer for me. Mine are all bought used too. But I only buy guns in excellent shape and I keep them that way. Mine are all 25 years or older
 
It's just another step & another 10 seconds to accomplish nothing more than making the cylinder look pretty or "newish", which a lot of us simply don't care about. :)

I clean my guns to keep them functional & un-rusty.
The rings affect neither function nor rust, will always return, why bother? :)

I have no obsession with keeping guns in excellent COSMETIC shape.
Mechanical, yes; cosmetic, no.
Denis
 
I don't consider it an obsession to want something to look nice. Just take pride in owning a good looking gun. I once owned a pristine model 19 in 4". Got it for 250 bucks from a young gun store clerk who clearly had no idea what he had. Pinned and recessed. Diamond target stocks numbered to the gun. Mirror blueing. Gun must have sat in a drawer since 1967 when it was bought. Absolutely perfect. Shot it one time and cleaned it. No lead away cloth of course since it was a blued gun. But I sold it to buy a 66. Why? I was afraid of marking up that beautiful piece. I always holster at the range and I wasn't gonna holster that gun. Didn't want any holster wear. I once bumped it as I put it in the safe and thankfully did no damage. The 66 gets shot, holstered, and cleaned with a lead away cloth. Still looks new. The way I like them!

Enjoy your revolvers.
 
I have no obsession with keeping guns in excellent COSMETIC shape.
Mechanical, yes; cosmetic, no.
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I don't care who thinks differently and I don't care about those who choose to mock the concern, but when cleaning at least the worst of the ring color can be accomplished easily without harm to the gun, removing material, etc., I will do it. Call me obsessed, but it doesn't seem right to ignore the look of it or rationalize why it is a good thing to have.

I would agree that insisting that the gun look like new might be going too far, but if it is somehow easy to accomplish with no drawbacks, why have an opinion about what another chooses to do.

I do have one concern about a deep cleaning, removing all traces of the rings, and that is that I suspect a certain amount of patina, sealing the grain or pores of stainless steel, is probably a good idea. ICBW.
 
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