doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT lead in revolver bore

This is completely off-topic except that it involves bore fouling so pass by on the other side if not interested. I've got a Ruger Vaquero which was pretty badly leaded up from CAS shooting (not by me). I decided to go with the lead removal method of 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar suggested by one of the Ed's Red "home remedy" sites. First I patched out the barrel with carb cleaner and covered the barrel and ejector mech with a liberal coat of petroleum jelly as the instructions said this stuff is deadly to bluing. Then corked the muzzle, propped it up muzzle down in a cardbd box with cutout for the grip and filled with eye dropper. Said the stuff would foam but it foamed only very slightly and did not overflow. Said do this for 2-3 minutes no longer. So I timed it, dumped the solution, and patched out. Got a lot of gunk but there was a lot of lead remaining particularly in the throat so I repeated this two more times. Still getting black patches but not slimey and still a lot of lead. I decided that mechanical abrasion was the only way so wrapped .45 brush with 4/0 steel wool, dipped in the solution, scrubbed, patched out with a jag and tight patch. Kept doing this until I got a clean patch and what I can see of the throat looked clean. Put an Ed's Red-soaked patch thru it three times and got no fouling so I put a Ballistol patch thru it and put it away wet. Awful lot of brushing! I don't think there'd be any muzzle damage as I used a muzzle guard on the pistol rod but I am wondering just how much of this sort of cleaning the bore can take? How do you attack this task? TIA

jack

Jack, years ago knew of a fellow that used mercury. Said there was nothing like it to remove lead fouling from pistol or rifle barrels. This is of course before all the poopla about the environment. Still you had to wear gloves and be very careful but he said that nothing did a better job.
By the way the mercury came from an obsolete vertical mercury boiler in a generating power station, supposidly the only one of it's kind.

Turpentine is a very old remedy claimed to be good for muzzle loader leading. I doubt it would harm anything. I also would not hesitate to use a stainless bore brush in there. Once you get it clean I think it won't recur unless you use soft lead bullets at high velocity.
I also remember reading in The Rifleman about cleaning a really badly lead-fouled .22 rifle by heating it pretty hot over a stove burner???

Rabbit I have the same mixture you have on SS barrels - it worked for me. I have used it to remove blueing also. Best stuff I ever used was Brass Wool wound around a brass brush, Boating supply places used to carry it. Some same jacketed rounds will scrape out some of the lead, and I believe there is some truth to that.

Jack,

I use medium grade bronze wool wrapped around a bore brush, dry.
You can scrub back and forth and twist it in the bad areas. It's death on leading and since bronze is softer than steel it's
completely safe. Works great in the forcing cone, too, which can be particularly stubborn to remove.

Same technique works great on shotgun bores for both lead and plastic fouling.

Dan

Dan - your correct Bronze Wool - not Brass Wool.

Bronze wool sounds a little safer around the lands. I did grasp handle only to make sure the brush was following the rifling. Thanks to all. I have heard that lead gets torn up following jacketed rounds but that jacketed rounds will push out lead.

jack

The tried and true Lewis Lead Remover is another solution, and it works from the forcing cone end of the revolver barrel. -- Ed

You could get one of the electrolysis type cleaning devices but they are somewhat costly. JB's bore paste will help remove lead too - eventually. However, a muzzleloading barrel maker of note put me onto using regular kitchen type Scotchbrite pad wrapped around a cleaning rod or dowel of appropriate size. He says it won't harm the steel and I know he regularly cleans his chunk guns with it. (Chunkguns are sort of the ancestor of benchrest rifles). Preventing the leading is a function of proper lubrication. When you select cast bullets get those with wide lube grooves so they can hold enough lube to work properly. Many cast bullets have grooves too narrow to hold enough. The blackpowder cartridge rifle shooters learn quickly to select the correct bullets and make sure the lube is fresh and plentiful. Their velocities are greater than anything you are likely to generate in a handgun and the lube works for them to prevent leading of very soft lead bullets. If you have enough lube, one indication is a star shaped smear of the stuff on the outside of the cylinder and around the muzzle.

Postoak,

I knew what you meant! I think we were typing our replies at the same time. I'm lucky, my local Ace Hardware always has bronze wool in stock. I've heard that others sometimes have trouble finding it. I'm sure it can be found on the internet somewhere. I'd have a tough time finding a pistol or shotgun brush in my shop that isn't wrapped in it.

Dan