I would like to know what knowledgable riflemen look for when looking for fouling in a barrel. I clean my rifles often and my bores are shiney with well defined riflings. Is there more to look for ? I see there is another topic on cleaning that answers a lot of cleaning questions. Also I have been advised to not use the wire brushes in my bores . . .this is what has me wondering if maybe I have fouling that I'm not aware of as I have never used them.
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I don't understand why people have problems using brushes in their rifle bores. Stainless steel brushes should be avoided of course, but bronze or brass brushes aren't going to harm anything. I mean, you shoot bullets down the bore at thousands of feet per second under extreme pressure and heat and yet a bronze brush is somehow going to destroy it? Just look at the websites of various custom barrel makers like Shilen, Hart, Krieger or Pac-Nor and you'll see that they all advise using a brass or bronze brush to clean their barrels. I'm a little anal about it for sure, but I've never been able to clean a rifle barrel completely clean without the use of a wire brush.
Using a bronze or brass brush will not harm a rifle barrel. One note of caution. Use a brush will a bronze or brass core also. I have seen some brushes that have bronze bristles and a steel shank in the center. Stay away from these. If you are really worried buy a plastic bristle brush.
One, its abrasive. And abrasive use of things down the barrel has always been frowned upon. In other words, why create more wear when you do not have too with the chemicals available today. Two, unless you use a new one down the barrel everytime, you putting the same gunk down you barrel. Three, it reacts with most ammonia cleaners, and causes that blue residue, and not only gives false indication of copper, but will also puts more gunk down you barrel.
with all the cleaners out there, there really isn't a need for the wire brushes. I use the nylon ones if I feel the need, and do not use the same one twice. If you ever looked down a nice Dan Lilja barrel with a borescope and then down after a hard day of brushing with a bronze brush, you can see the scratch marks.
Maybe it makes a miniscule diffference, but if I don't have to use it, why do it?
I forgot to include Lilja in my list. Dan also recommends using a bronze bore brush.
bigcountry, I agree you should only use nylon brushes with ammonia based cleaners. I don't agree, however, that you're putting the same gunk down the barrel every time you reuse a bronze brush. After using a bronze brush I always give it a blast of Gun Scrubber. This cleans it up nice as new.
Well, I might try the gun scrubber. I still use a bronze brush on my shotguns, and slugguns, and pistols. I can't get out that plastic fouling out of my muzzleloaders and slugguns without a bronze brush. Might save me from buying new ones. You probably right, it makes probably no difference, but after seeing borescoping of before and after with a lilja barrel with a brush, I decided to stay away from unless I have too.
If the brushes are cleaned off they will slowly eat away if you leave any solvent on them and also redeposit garbage like others have said. Gunsmith friend has no problem with bronze match brushes but advises against using JB compound. Based on how his guns shoot I respect his opinion immensely. I really don't even like ammonia cleaners anymore and just use shooters choice, butches , montana extreme whatever is available with a quality brush and patches . Once a year the guns get a Foul Out III run on the barrels and never have problems with any of them.
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If you're gonna use the CR-10 or Sweets to test for or clean copper, here's one other thought.............................. Use a PLASTIC jag as well. A bronze jag will also be affected by the ammonia and will give you false-positive readings of blue on your patches.
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Looking For Fouling
