doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stainless Steel Bore Brushes

Interesting. In this case, I have a way to compare if the brush has indeed scored the shotgun tube bore, since the Browning XT combo has two sets of tubes. The unsingle tube has been used for 6 months, and cleaned after each outing, and the doubles tube(s) is unfired. Careful comparison of the two may answer the question. In the case of the unsingle, that would be 24 weeks of shooting at least, two sessions per week, or 48+ times the bore has seen the stainless brush. It appears the unsingle tube seems to have lost it's mirror finish, which is the reason I asked the question in the first place.

First, let me be clear that I'm not a metallurgist, or even a machinist. However, I believe there are many types of "stainless steel", just as there are many different types of steel. It's reasonable for me to assume that the stainless wire used in making bore brushes and the toothbrush types of cleaning brushes is significantly different from the stainless steel used in high quality knife blades, for example. Let me also make it clear that I'm not recommending the use of stainless to others. That's not what my post said. I DO recommend the procedure described at the end of that post.
I would also add that cleaning the bore of a modern shotgun after each outing, is probably more often than necessary. Again, JMO.

Jim
Tensil strength of common stainless is in excess of 50,000 lbs and the steel used in common grades of "soft" barrels are around 20,000. When I say common soft barrels I mean Browning supers, Parkers, Flues,ect. Some of the newest barrels may stand up to a stainless brush. It appears that you are the kind of guy that needs to use tornado brushes on his best so the value increases with the ease of cleaning. Ryerson service centers used to publish the you are requesting.

Yup, there are different types of SS. All are alloys of chromium, nickel, some have manganese. They are classified into three types: 400 series martensitic, 400 series ferritic and 300 series austenitic. Martensitic types are hardenable having enough carbon to harden by quenching and others don't have much carbon and are not hardenable in the normal sense. The austenitic types "work" harden quite readily. SS does not automatically infer hardness but it could certainly be harder than barrel steel depending on how it was heat treated in manufacture. That may be more information than most readers would be interested in.:-)

CptCurl,

You might have checked to see if your SS brush was attracted to a magnet. Mine are.

OB

That must be the SSS or "Says Stainless Steel" variety. What does tensility have to do with relative hardness? I have Tornado brushes and don't use them. As I recall, the theory was that bristle ends scratch; complete loops with a smooth round section and of a hard material which does not trap and embed abrasive grit would not. Anecdotally, when I WAS using them, it wasn't hard to get a choke tube carbon/plastic deposit which would easily defeat their ability as scrapers. I like crud-busting solvents and I like 4/0 steel wool.

jack

1. Like Rabbit, I don't believe tensile strength has any relation to hardness.
2. I said modern shotgun barrels.
3. I don't even own a Tornado brush.
4. Your perception of "what kind of guy I appear to be" is as meaningless as the rest of your unwarranted attack in my simple opinion.
5. I didn't request anything from Ryerson, OR from you.
6.Get a life, Bill. We already have more than enough pot-stirrers here.

I'm probably doing something wrong when I clean shotgun bores. Mea culpa and so what, but the topic does raise a couple of other questions which I have to ask. Has anyone used a wrap of those copper "scrubbies" which are using to remove lead fouling from revolvers? I have and this material appears to have a pronounced and efficient scraping action on bore desposits. Does anyone think there are "mirror" bores on old guns based on what the naked eye sees from one end or the other. Dragging a bore mic thru a few was enuf to make me discount that notion.

jack

It get worse, martinsitic stainless converts to austenic with work hardening. This takes a tough hard alloy and makes it very hard. This is common with 301 types which have less nickel than 304 types but there are many types after that i.e.318L,200 and muffler stock type 400. We used 301 to cut costs and to take advantage of the hardening effect so we could use a smaller blank. As the stuff stretched it hardened as it thinned and continue to pull metal from areas that had not stretched. The product was thin but real tough because of the hardening effect. I strongly recommend sticking with brass-bronze brushes. By the way if it is magnetic it is either 400 series or work hardened 300 series. That's way more than anyone wants to know about SS.
bill

FWIW - I used to shoot a lot of registered trap. I shot the enough to have to remove plastic buildup as well as other grime. I found the most effective method of cleaning the barrel of both an 870TB and 1100T (early 1980's guns) to be a Hoppes tornado brush. I have used the a tornado brush on these two guns for more than 20 years. No signs of any ill effects. I have put at least 75,000 shells through the 870 and 20,000 through the 1100.