Cleaning barrel

Pete Wass said:
What to do about it? I have 4 barrels chambered currently and all of them lead up. All of them lead up just behind the crown as Keith spoke of and 2 of them lead up the entire length of them in spots. One of them has inclusion holes in three spots in it. All of em shoot pretty well when they are lead free. 50 rounds wlll lay the lead back into them. One is a Shilen Ratchet that, because of a big tool mark at two inches behind the crown, is an iffy performer. Interestingly though, it does not lead up there. It does lead up badly where the choke gets tight, as do the others.

If one does not have a bore scope, they can not know they have lead. Patch color will tell one if they have lead but it takes experiencing the removal of lead, only after the other fouling is removed, to know what it looks like.

From my experience, rifles never shoot better than they do after fouling shots from a spotlessly clean barrel ( meaning NO wax or anything else). Two of my barrels are on their 6th or 7th season and been shot a lot. Both of em will still win matches when I can get my head into the conditions. Now, I think the age and wear on them has made them less forgiving to conditions but they still shoot very well most of the time. I have done all and more of the don't doos to keep them clean. Both the old ones have no lands or groves in the bottom of them and one has to look closely to see any chamber beginning at their breech. They still shoot though.

I have been chasing the lead removal thing for quite some time and have found a safe method that works. Rather than to be ridiculed by those who have never experienced a leading problem, I won't get into here it but if anyone is interested, PM me and I will share it.

Pete
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To the "new guys" that really wanted to learn something this might be a learning moment.

First off you have had input from top flight shooters and buliders and their tecniques, by and large, incorporate most of the same elements.

If you're curious, you can get history of cleaning, lapping, leading through Mr. Pete's posts, i.e. His words.....nobody elses.
He has/does his barrel lapping with patches embedded with some compound......not a poured lap that is usually 3"-4" long.
He gets lead in barrels......maybe because they're polished to the point they no longer carry wax, nor do they resemble the interior finish they require.
He has claimed to fastidiously scoure barrels "for hours" to remove lead. We now have a couple barrels with no lands at 6 o'clock????? Only one way that happens folks ..... It ain't from low velocity waxed lead slugs..... It's from improper cleaning and likely rod damage.
In the end, you guys decide.
 
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In the past three months I went from having never been to a big time benchrest match to attending the ARA Indoor National's at the Barn in March and Kettlefoot the end of May.
Besides going to shoot... I really went to learn.
I watched a plethora of top notch shooters clean their barrels. With some nuances they all pretty much did the same thing.
Run some wet patches / run some dry patches / done
The nuances were running a nylon brush in some cases vigorously. If they had a bad card maybe a brass brush.
Still... This has been enlightening.
 
Eldolon, I have never been to a big time shoot. Mostly club shooting although we do have some excellent shooters. Recently had a 250 score on a usbr target. Never had the opportunity to watch big time shooters to see how they do it. That's why a lot of questions from my end.
 
No sir Mr. Eck. We did have a shooter Jason Lane shoot a 250 but not me. I will say the gun is capable as you were the gunsmith who built this turbo. There is no doubt that I am the weak link but I am getting better. Thanks for the excellent work on the rifle. It is a dream to own and shoot.
 
Wilbur said:
OK, I'll ask the question if nobody else is going to.... What difference does going one way make?
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I believe the prevailing theory is for crown protection Wilbur. Or course going slow while exiting the muzzle and slower still while coming back so as not to bump the crown always struck me as logical.
 
I have experienced and seen

cleaning rod damage to crowns that do not have a 45* chamfer on the inside of the crown. Since having that done to my barrels, has removed that situation for me. I don't believe a brush will harm the crown or bore, providing it is straight and one uses caution when retracting same, when the crown is chamfered properly. Plenty of people pull brushes back through their bores and shoot successfully. One must remember to proceed carefully but cleaning does not have to be painfully complicated.

Pete
 
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