Lets say some idiot (Not me of course!) shoved a chamber brush (Including the stainless steel skirt) fully into the chrome lined chamber on his once fired rifle after the range, multiple times, pushing it in and out of the chamber back and forth while solvent was in it............Would this mess up the rifle?   That idiot (Not me of course!) at the time did not realize that the stainless steel skirt was just to remain in the lug area and not go into the chamber as well.  That idiot (Not me of course!) tried to shine a streamlight TLR-1 into the chamber to see if there was any noticeable damage but really could not see in there all that well, also chambered a round then ejected it and there was no weird markings on the casing.

The chamber brush is stainless steel, right?  And it's designed to scrub the chamber, right?  The only difference is that it requires more force to push the skirt in.



Now, if it's a stainless steel match barrel, I might be concerned about the brush negatively affecting the barrel throat.  But it's probably not a huge deal.



 

The chamber brush itself is bronze, only the skirt portion meant for the lug area is stainless steel.

I seriously doubt you, I mean your friend, did any damage.

Shoot it and enjoy the rifle.

I get a kick out of all these worries about bronze vs. nylon brushes. Bore snakes vs. normal cleaning methods. You have a chunk of metal being forced down the barrel from a controlled explosion. How can a brush do any more damage than that?

Just pay attention to the crown if not protected by a brake or flash hider and don't worry.

No.

It'll be fine.  Tell the dummy to stop doing it though.

Thanks for the input guys




The dummy did stop, what a silly guy he is

So he got the entire chamber portion into the rifling?   He's lucky the whole brush didn't break off the rod.

This. What is with people obsessing about "damage" from cleaning? A freaking copper clad bullet drags it's way down the bore, under extreme force and expansion, yet people worry about "nylon vs Stainless vs Bronze"?? WTF?

Yup.  Overthinking.

When I was a young Paratrooper cleaning my M16A2 in the early 1990's we did far worse to our weapons getting them ready for turn in after a field exercise.  Scrubbing the entire rifle in boiling water and simple green, using dental picks in the chamber and locking lug area, disassembling the trigger control group, running the chamber brush in the chuck of a drill on high speed, scrubbing the shit out if the muzzle and flash hider with a broken cleaning rod and flat head screwdriver. Never any issues with qualifying expert during my service.  I doubt you can do any worse.

That literally means nothing.  So you wasted your time overcleaning in order to pass silly inspections and still shot expert on a course that needs, what 4MOA accuracy to pass maybe?  Just because you did it and shot your qual course does not mean it was not a waste of time.  It was a waste of time and materials, flat out. There's no getting around that.

The weapon does not need mechanical scrubbing.  Just because your drill sergeant and my Drill Instructors told us something does not make it holy writ.  

Just saying the platform can take a beating by overzealous Army Soldiers and still shoot well. Not saying it was the correct way to clean the weapon. The M-16 is not some fragile piece equipment that needs to babied in order to function well. Clean it the way you see fit and it will still perform very well.