Just idle thought when pushing through yet another patch and feeling it isn't clean enough. Is there such a thing as a powered bore cleaner? Like a rotating nylon brush? I had a google and can't see anything, They are available for large bore pipes, but I assume the engineering to get the rotating parts small enough for the bore and good enough for long life will make it really expensive.
Powered bore cleaning
- Thread starter Buchan
- Start date
It's called a cordless drill...but can't see it being a great idea since you want the brushes to move along the rifling, not across it.
JB bore paste is the answer for effortless bore cleaning IMO.
JB bore paste is the answer for effortless bore cleaning IMO.
Any machine would need to operate on the principles of reciprocating motion & have a stroke long enough to travel the full length of the barrel as well as turn the rod at the same twist rate as the rifling. As @takbok says, you don’t want the brush skipping over the lands of the rifling as it’d leave crud in the ‘lee’ part of the grove.
I find cleaning a lot easier if I have the rifle (or normally just the barrelled action removed from the stock) set up in a rest so that the rod is at waist height as I find easy just to stroke the rod back & forth with my body parallel to the direction of travel so my arm passes across it from side to side rather than front to back. It also allows me to hold the action with the other hand.
For a normal clean I start with a nylon brush that is liberally covered in solvent - hold the brush upright & use a dispensing bottle to start feeding the solvent onto the top & watch it run down the spiral bristles then stop about 3/4” from the bottom or it’ll start running off down the rod & making a mess.
Feed the brush through a bore guide & simply run back & forth through the barrel - best if this is done outside or at least in the garage as there will be splatter when the brush comes out of the muzzle! (you can buy bottles that go over the end of the muzzle or just tape a 500ml water bottle over it). Don’t panic about the brush damaging the crown of the rifle, it’s nylon, it won’t!
Do this for about 20-30 passes, topping up the solvent as required, then push a clean patch through to remove the crud that’s been loosened before repeating the process again. Do this as many times as you think necessary, ie until the dry patch doesn't come out black! Then you can run a few solvent soaked patches through until they show no sign of powder fowling then follow up with clean patches.
If the barrel needs a deep clean, then do as above but once you’ve finished using the brush get the JB bore paste out. In the past I’ve wrapped a piece of 4x2 cut in half length ways (ie 4x1) around a traditional style jag so it’s a tight fit but just goes through the barrel (not the spear tipped type popular now) & wipe a good amount of JB paste on the patch so there is no material visible.
Make sure you have a rod stop set so only the very first part of the patch comes out of the muzzle & then run the rod back & forth 20-30 times - you can remove it to add more paste as required. Then run a couple of solvent soaked patches through the barrel to remove the crud before running some dry patches through. Repeat as necessary to remove the remaining fouling & to make sure that there’s no JB paste left in the barrel.
As per a recent thread, I’ve just tried using VFG cleaning felts with JB paste & Kroil - JB paste is a mild non embedding abrasive, you’d have to use it a LOT for it to cause any issues in a steel barrel. Principle is the same, set up the rod with a stopper so only about 2-3mm of the felt exits the muzzle, then add some Kroil to the felt before liberally coating in JB paste.
The felt will get mucky but that’s an indication that it’s removing the powder residue in the barrel. When it’s gopping, remove it & pass a clean felt soaked in Kroil through before repeating as necessary. You can get VFG felts in two types a ‘normal’ one for everyday use & what I think they call ‘intensive’ which is a felt impregnated with phosphor bronze which is better at shifting crud without using JB paste etc.
Hope this helps
I find cleaning a lot easier if I have the rifle (or normally just the barrelled action removed from the stock) set up in a rest so that the rod is at waist height as I find easy just to stroke the rod back & forth with my body parallel to the direction of travel so my arm passes across it from side to side rather than front to back. It also allows me to hold the action with the other hand.
For a normal clean I start with a nylon brush that is liberally covered in solvent - hold the brush upright & use a dispensing bottle to start feeding the solvent onto the top & watch it run down the spiral bristles then stop about 3/4” from the bottom or it’ll start running off down the rod & making a mess.
Feed the brush through a bore guide & simply run back & forth through the barrel - best if this is done outside or at least in the garage as there will be splatter when the brush comes out of the muzzle! (you can buy bottles that go over the end of the muzzle or just tape a 500ml water bottle over it). Don’t panic about the brush damaging the crown of the rifle, it’s nylon, it won’t!
Do this for about 20-30 passes, topping up the solvent as required, then push a clean patch through to remove the crud that’s been loosened before repeating the process again. Do this as many times as you think necessary, ie until the dry patch doesn't come out black! Then you can run a few solvent soaked patches through until they show no sign of powder fowling then follow up with clean patches.
If the barrel needs a deep clean, then do as above but once you’ve finished using the brush get the JB bore paste out. In the past I’ve wrapped a piece of 4x2 cut in half length ways (ie 4x1) around a traditional style jag so it’s a tight fit but just goes through the barrel (not the spear tipped type popular now) & wipe a good amount of JB paste on the patch so there is no material visible.
Make sure you have a rod stop set so only the very first part of the patch comes out of the muzzle & then run the rod back & forth 20-30 times - you can remove it to add more paste as required. Then run a couple of solvent soaked patches through the barrel to remove the crud before running some dry patches through. Repeat as necessary to remove the remaining fouling & to make sure that there’s no JB paste left in the barrel.
As per a recent thread, I’ve just tried using VFG cleaning felts with JB paste & Kroil - JB paste is a mild non embedding abrasive, you’d have to use it a LOT for it to cause any issues in a steel barrel. Principle is the same, set up the rod with a stopper so only about 2-3mm of the felt exits the muzzle, then add some Kroil to the felt before liberally coating in JB paste.
The felt will get mucky but that’s an indication that it’s removing the powder residue in the barrel. When it’s gopping, remove it & pass a clean felt soaked in Kroil through before repeating as necessary. You can get VFG felts in two types a ‘normal’ one for everyday use & what I think they call ‘intensive’ which is a felt impregnated with phosphor bronze which is better at shifting crud without using JB paste etc.
Hope this helps
Last edited:
I have wondered the same, anything small enough for rifle bores seems either non-existent or insanely pricey to engineer.
tackb
Well-Known Member
Any machine would need to operate on the principles of reciprocating motion & have a stroke long enough to travel the full length of the barrel as well as turn the rod at the same twist rate as the rifling. As @takbok says, you don’t want the brush skipping over the lands of the rifling as it’d leave crud in the ‘lee’ part of the grove.
I find cleaning a lot easier if I have the rifle (or normally just the barrelled action removed from the stock) set up in a rest so that the rod is at waist height as I find easy just to stroke the rod back & forth with my body parallel to the direction of travel so my arm passes across it from side to side rather than front to back. It also allows me to hold the action with the other hand.
For a normal clean I start with a nylon brush that is liberally covered in solvent - hold the brush upright & use a dispensing bottle to start feeding the solvent onto the top & watch it run down the spiral bristles then stop about 3/4” from the bottom or it’ll start running off down the rod & making a mess.
Feed the brush through a bore guide & simply run back & forth through the barrel - best if this is done outside or at least in the garage as there will be splatter when the brush comes out of the muzzle! (you can buy bottles that go over the end of the muzzle or just tape a 500ml water bottle over it). Don’t panic about the brush damaging the crown of the rifle, it’s nylon, it won’t!
Do this for about 20-30 passes, topping up the solvent as required, then push a clean patch through to remove the crud that’s been loosened before repeating the process again. Do this as many times as you think necessary, ie until the dry patch doesn't come out black! Then you can run a few solvent soaked patches through until they show no sign of powder fowling then follow up with clean patches.
If the barrel needs a deep clean, then do as above but once you’ve finished using the brush get the JB bore paste out. In the past I’ve wrapped a piece of 4x2 cut in half length ways (ie 4x1) around a traditional style jag so it’s a tight fit but just goes through the barrel (not the spear tipped type popular now) & wipe a good amount of JB paste on the patch so there is no material visible.
Make sure you have a rod stop set so only the very first part of the patch comes out of the muzzle & then run the rod back & forth 20-30 times - you can remove it to add more paste as required. Then run a couple of solvent soaked patches through the barrel to remove the crud before running some dry patches through. Repeat as necessary to remove the remaining fouling & to make sure that there’s no JB paste left in the barrel.
As per a recent thread, I’ve just tried using VFG cleaning felts with JB paste & Kroil - JB paste is a mild non embedding abrasive, you’d have to use it a LOT for it to cause any issues in a steel barrel. Principle is the same, set up the rod with a stopper so only about 2-3mm of the felt exits the muzzle, then add some Kroil to the felt before liberally coating in JB paste.
The felt will get mucky but that’s an indication that it’s removing the powder residue in the barrel. When it’s gopping, remove it & pass a clean felt soaked in Kroil through before repeating as necessary. You can get VFG felts in two types a ‘normal’ one for everyday use & what I think they call ‘intensive’ which is a felt impregnated with phosphor bronze which is better at shifting crud without using JB paste etc.
Hope this helps
little tip that you may already know but if you wrap a nylon bristle brush with a patch for your JB endeavours it gets into the bottom of the rifling better in my opinion
and a good solvent way for heavy fouling if you are taking the action out of the stock is to clamp it in a vice vertical , block the muzzle with bluetac and tape then fill the barrel with a good solvent and just leave it to work
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