Polishing the bore

[hammo]

I have done the unthinkable, and polished the bore on my 204 and 22 hornet.
I used a dab of brasso on a felt wad, and about 30 full stroke passes up the bore, then a series of dry and oiled felts to clean and lube it out thoroughly.
I am satisfied that its clean now!
I expect a barrage of criticism, but has anyone else done similar?
The oiled felts seem to run up the barrel more smoothly now in the 204, the 22 hornet no difference, but is was good anyway.
I haven't scoured away the rifling or anything terrible like that; and probably just removed stubborn carbon etc.
I don't expect any change in accuracy, but if easier cleaning is the result, I will be happy with that.
I would not do it again, as I suspect once is enough.
Thoughts anyone??

 

[andyk]

I’ve used JB bore paste (extremely sparingly) and autosol (a bit more liberally).

I only used the JB on a couple of rifles with bad rust, to try to make sure it was all gone (along with some CLR). I tend to shy away otherwise and stick with the autosol.

I think Eric Cortina has recommended careful use of polish in the bore, so I’m pretty sure there is some reasonable backing for doing it carefully.

However, the tutorial I saw did suggest a ‘measure twice, cut once’ approach as the more aggressive polishes can do damage if you’re careless with them.

 

[cjm1066]

I use JB from time to time when the "wonder" solvents won't shift some carbon/copper.

I check my cleaning with a bore scope which gives me the evidence.

 

[HandB]

I use JB bore paste to remove hard, enamel-like carbon. Works well. I swab the bore afterwards with meths to remove any left over abrasive. The end result is tighter groups by about 10% compared to a normal clean.

 

[nun_hunter]

I've used KG bore polish before on a 17HMR after groups opened up and cleaning normally didn't seem to do anything. The bore polish seemed to resolve the issue.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Wiki :- Brasso, on account of its ammonia content, has been used as a de-coppering agent in rifle barrels to remove copper fouling.

 

[Sika98k]

A friend of mine from Canada shoots PRS in a big way. Talking about clean bores I remarked I used JB. To which he cackled “ Ha, that stuffs for the old f###ts”. Of which I am one I admit.
We met up last summer and he gifted me two tubes of Thorroclean. My T3 22/250 had a bit of a carbon ring in front of the chamber and a good look with a borescope showed a varying degree of sh##e in the barrel.
A task that used to take a couple of hours was reduced to 30 minutes. The speedy results were fantastic. One on top was a fouling shot, 100 yards.

 

[Smellydog]

Criticism, why?

Folks have been lapping bores for decades.
There was some fire lapping kits available one time if not still.
I've used wire wool on muzzleloaders that were cutting patches.

 

[hammo]

Good to hear the positive replies, I guess I thought good old Brasso might be frowned on.
JB bore paste will have the same result Im sure, but Brasso is about a quarter of the cost.
And I love the old school tin logo! Reminds me of my mother polishing her brass ornaments, with my help.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Good to hear the positive replies, I guess I thought good old Brasso might be frowned on.
JB bore paste will have the same result Im sure, but Brasso is about a quarter of the cost.
And I love the old school tin logo! Reminds me of my mother polishing her brass ornaments, with my help.

Or me polishing my uniform buttons and trumpet as a 12-13 y/o in a marching band.

 

[Smellydog]

Good to hear the positive replies, I guess I thought good old Brasso might be frowned on.
JB bore paste will have the same result Im sure, but Brasso is about a quarter of the cost.
And I love the old school tin logo! Reminds me of my mother polishing her brass ornaments, with my help.

In the past I use to thin JB paste to make more easy to work with.
I've also used T cut.

 

[Andy RV]

Stop messing around, get a good dollop of course valve grinding paste in there with a length of black bar in a drill!

 

[Smellydog]

Makes me laugh how some fuss, especially shotguns.. will a brass brush damage my barrels. Then they buy all sorts of concoctions to remove lead
Just use boiling water. Lifts lead straight off.
Or if you are to worried about burning fingers
Get the wire wool out.