doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com plastic fouling

So, how do you get it out?

I did the unpardonable sin of shooting plastic shotcups over fiber wads and blackpowder. I assumed that the fiber and nitro wads would prevent the plastic from melting to the barrel. It appears that assumption might be wrong.

I did shoot smokeless loads over the top of the fouling and perhaps that is where the problem lies but I doubt it. Meanwhile, I gotta get this stuff out.

I'm currently soaking with Kroil and then brushing and repeat. Progress is being made but it is VERY slow.

Any suggestions?

Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner soaked with KleenBore Formula 3 Gun Conditioner on the end of a cleaning rod chucked into a cordless drill...on high

What Drew says should work fine. There are also other aerosol cleaners specifically for plastic fouling. But you will still need to use the Frontier pads or brass or bronze bore brushes on a cleaning rod in an electric drill.
I was stunned and amazed at the amount of soggy plastic fouling that I dragged out of my 20 ga. bores after a few months of dedicated skeet shooting.

When I had that same problem for the same reason, I just wrapped 0000 steel wool over a brass bore brush, sprayed that with bore cleaner and chucked it my my power drill. The plastic came out in sheets. Took only minutes. Trying to dissolve the plastic out is probably a mistake...Geo

The one time I shot black powder with plastic wads, I was totally unprepared for the mess afterward. I just got it out with a bronze brush. It took a long while, not because the stuff was tough or welded on, but like there were layers and layers of plastic, and each had to come out in sequence. If you use Claybuster wads, you might already have some plastic solvent around. If not, I'd forego the expense and brush it out.

For plastic solvent you can use mineral spirits, WD40, Liquid Wrench, Kroil, diesel fuel, Mobil 1S 0W-20, Brake-cleaner, Carb-cleaner, anyone's CLP, or any of about a dozen "firearm-marketed" solvents. They all work in conjunction with the cordless drill and brush. And I have never been able to tell that there is a whit of difference between them. Hence I use WD-40 mostly now. I would have added gasoline to the list, except I haven't personally done it.

There is one trick: time. Many use the solvent and immediately whale away. No. Spray/squirt/dump solvent and walk away. Come back in about six hours........or next AM. Then brush.

Sam

I do find that wonderful US concoction �Eds Red� works extremely well and of course the cost is much lower than any of the commercial gun cleaners.

Many thanks guys. I broke a brush last night pushing by hand. In the meantime, the barrel has been soaking with a bunch of Kroil. I am confident that a new brush and the drill will finish the job tonight. I have a feeling that ironing it on with the smokeless rounds afterwards did not help whatsoever.


I am very disappointed that the nitro/fiber wads didn't contain the flame well enough to allow the plastic shot cup to emerge unharmed. The loads seemed to work well and for one round of trap, I broke my normal number of birds and they were being hit hard, so I think it was patterning well. The subsequent round with a lighter than normal smokeless load did not work well and I hit fewer than half as many birds missed the last 14 in a row. I knew something was up at that point. I'm not a great shot, but I'm not that bad. I had a couple of beers riding on that last round as well.

I used a tornado brush with a drill. Each year on "sight in day" all these guys show up with their new in line muzzle loaders and plastic sabots thinking they don't have to clean them between shots. When their group goes to hell and the sabots start going down hard they start listening. When I shoot nitro and fiber wads the charge goes up about 10%. Years ago when plastic wads first came out it was recommended to go down 10% because they sealed better. Up your load about 1.5grs. I've shot fiber wads a number of times, and at skeet it didn't seem to make much difference.

I was wishing I had one of those tornado brushes last night.

Strangely, many many bpcr shooters use plastic wads in their loads without any trouble. I won a two-day match last weekend with such load. The wads are small, but they sit directly on top of the powder, yet, they do not coat the bore with plastic at all.