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Posted: 11/16/2024 6:25:27 PM EDT
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Had a nasty carbon buildup in my Criterion barrel (Chrome-Lined) throat so I put a chamber brush that has both short bronze & long steel bristles on a drill and sent it down into the throat and then also did some passes through the bore. Worked beautifully alongside C4 carbon killer. I know chrome-lined steel is tough but I want to ensure I'm not causing damage by doing this on rare occasions? |
| I wouldn't have done that. Over cleaning destroys barrels way more than shooting. I just do one single pass with a bore snake and clp every few hundred rounds so I don't get that buildup in the first place. Shoot it, see if your groups opened. Only way to know for sure. But yeah you definitely took some life out of it at minimum. |
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If you're talking about the brush pictured, I use one but just attach it to a pistol cleaning rod that doesn't spin and run that in there a few times, but I try not to let the big steel bristles get into the actual chamber area. I wouldn't hook it up to a drill and do it though. Just soak a patch in the carbon cleaner or Hoppe's 9, let it soak in there for a bit then run some dry patches down. I have weird build up on my 11.5 criterion barrel on the outside of the chamber area, like the brass isn't sealing the chamber properly but it's never affected the reliability or performance so I don't over think it. Attached File |
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Spinning a brush with a drill in a rifled barrel is one of the faster methods of totally ruining it. Even a bronze brush will round off the edges of the rifling and ruin accuracy. Spinning a brush in a barrel is a valid method of cleaning a SMOOTH BORE barrel like a shotgun, but people hear this and figure it'll work in a rifle or pistol and damage the bore. There are way too many safer ways to clean barrels either mechanically as with a bronze brush and chemically such as carbon cleaner solvents. |
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Using an electric drill with a USGI bore brush and M10 cleaning rod was the standard way to clean M1s at Parris Island prior to final inspection back in the early 1960s. A lot of recruits still shot expert with those rifles. Not saying that's the best idea, but . . . . |
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Originally Posted By lysanderxiii: Using an electric drill with a USGI bore brush and M10 cleaning rod was the standard way to clean M1s at Parris Island prior to final inspection back in the early 1960s. A lot of recruits still shot expert with those rifles. Not saying that's the best idea, but . . . . And throats could erode 3" before precision degradation was noticeable, yet it seems 5.56 moves only a few tenths before the firecracking kills it. |
"Technique isn't something that can be taught. It's something you find on your own." - Bunta Fujiwara
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The USGI rods with the T-handle also acts as a rotational rod. You simply use the chamber brush, push it into the chamber, then using the handle turn it such that it slides into the notch on the rod and you use it to torque clockwise. This should keep the chamber and the extension area fairly clean doing this method. You could use the drill method and chances are it probably wouldn't hurt the barrel. My recommendation is to do it while in front of a mirror so you can catch glimpses of yourself and maybe you'll see how silly you'd look. |
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A lot of posters here either didn't realize what was asked, or simply gave poor advice. I'll try to post some links to dispel some of the myths. First of all, spinning a bronze or nylon brush with a drill through the bore does NOT damage it on its own. Using a bronze brush with an abrasive such as Iosso MAY cause damage, but that is one particular circumstance. A bronze brush with a normal bore cleaner spun by a drill will NOT cause damage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shqUtDdX4QM https://www.facebook.com/AMPannealing/videos/638423259992938/?ref=embed_video&t=10 Post #2 has a picture of the brush I believe is talked about in the original post. These are my favorite kinds of brushes for chamber cleaning, and again, no harm will come with using them on a drill. You are not going to be pushing one down a bore unless you are he-man, or the brush was pathetic to begin with. If you are able to push your chamber brush through your bore, find a better chamber brush because it isn't doing any cleaning on your chamber. They push in until the steel bristles are in the barrel extension. I assume the brass part goes up into the throat area a little. As seen above, brass on a drill is not going to harm anything. |
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Originally Posted By fgshoot: A lot of posters here either didn't realize what was asked, or simply gave poor advice. I'll try to post some links to dispel some of the myths. First of all, spinning a bronze or nylon brush with a drill through the bore does NOT damage it on its own. Using a bronze brush with an abrasive such as Iosso MAY cause damage, but that is one particular circumstance. A bronze brush with a normal bore cleaner spun by a drill will NOT cause damage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shqUtDdX4QM https://www.facebook.com/AMPannealing/videos/638423259992938/?ref=embed_video&t=10 Post #2 has a picture of the brush I believe is talked about in the original post. These are my favorite kinds of brushes for chamber cleaning, and again, no harm will come with using them on a drill. You are not going to be pushing one down a bore unless you are he-man, or the brush was pathetic to begin with. If you are able to push your chamber brush through your bore, find a better chamber brush because it isn't doing any cleaning on your chamber. They push in until the steel bristles are in the barrel extension. I assume the brass part goes up into the throat area a little. As seen above, brass on a drill is not going to harm anything. OP states running passes through the bore. > so I put a chamber brush that has both short bronze & long steel bristles on a drill and sent it down into the throat and then also did some passes through the bore. |
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He states "and then also did some passes through the bore". I guess you could be right, so hopefully he comes back and goes into detail what he meant. He either did A. cleaned the chamber with a drill and chamber brush. Then took a bore brush and did a few passes with that. Unclear if he used a drill on the bore too or not. B. cleaned the chamber with a drill and chamber brush and managed to shove it down the bore somehow. If he did B, he no longer has a chamber brush, he ruined it. All the bristles would be smashed down, and it is only fit for the trash now. You would need a pretty strong cleaning rod to get one down the bore. |
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Originally Posted By fgshoot: He states "and then also did some passes through the bore". I guess you could be right, so hopefully he comes back and goes into detail what he meant. He either did A. cleaned the chamber with a drill and chamber brush. Then took a bore brush and did a few passes with that. Unclear if he used a drill on the bore too or not. B. cleaned the chamber with a drill and chamber brush and managed to shove it down the bore somehow. If he did B, he no longer has a chamber brush, he ruined it. All the bristles would be smashed down, and it is only fit for the trash now. You would need a pretty strong cleaning rod to get one down the bore. It's unclear exactly what the op is seeing that's making him want to do that. The fact is if the gun is a heavy use gun, then it will erode the throat area and if you hold it up to light, it will look like specks of dirt near the start but it's really eroded lands. By sending a wire brush down the barrel, it'll probably cause way more damage than intended. |
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Originally Posted By hidaro: Had a nasty carbon buildup in my Criterion barrel (Chrome-Lined) throat so I put a chamber brush that has both short bronze & long steel bristles on a drill and sent it down into the throat and then also did some passes through the bore. Worked beautifully alongside C4 carbon killer. I know chrome-lined steel is tough but I want to ensure I'm not causing damage by doing this on rare occasions? |
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Originally Posted By Gamma762: Good grief remind me to never buy a used barrel. No kidding. I'm about at the same point on any used firearm these days, with all the internet wanabe 'smiths' handing out questionable advice to people without any mechanical skills, to fix what ever. |
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You are talking like an overly seasoned E-4. It will get the job done, but cause EXCESSIVE wear and tear and unknown accuracy issues. I swear most of the wear on Army small arms was from all the cleaning. The M-9s really didn't have that many rounds tru them I think, but they were clapped out, loosie goose as heck. Better off with slow and steady, repeated wet mops with CLP, RBC etc. |
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Originally Posted By SARonin: No kidding. I'm about at the same point on any used firearm these days, with all the internet wanabe 'smiths' handing out questionable advice to people without any mechanical skills, to fix what ever. The problem I found is that most of the time when you post an actual problem, the forums don't know and when you post a non-problem the forum would tell you how to "fix" it and how they shot millions of rounds through theirs and it doesn't even look close to that or something. I kind of wonder sometimes how many people actually own an AR15? And on top of that if they do if they actually shoot it. I kind of wonder how many picture thread posts are actually airsoft products. I managed to spot a couple of fake elcans on the sopmod thread myself but I'm betting the entire thing is fake at that point. |
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Originally Posted By hidaro: Had a nasty carbon buildup in my Criterion barrel (Chrome-Lined) throat so I put a chamber brush that has both short bronze & long steel bristles on a drill and sent it down into the throat and then also did some passes through the bore. Worked beautifully alongside C4 carbon killer. I know chrome-lined steel is tough but I want to ensure I'm not causing damage by doing this on rare occasions? ^^^^ How to fuugg up a barrel 101....... |
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Any adult with even a inkling of mechanical knowledge.... won't have done this. Any other adult, without that common sense , would have asked someone first.... especially when in context to firearms. We are being trolled. especially since the same guy was worried about a borescope scratching his bore... https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/-/7-778604/? |
*Hold on to your AR-15s. Their magic must be very powerful, or they wouldn’t want them.*
JAFOM.... Just another fat old man.
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JAFOM.... Just another fat old man.
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TOGC,IADC
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