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Posted: 1/10/2008 6:59:54 AM EDT
| I see people on here all the time talking about damaging muzzle crowns... Is it really that easy to screw up your rifle? |
Potentially. The rifle will still fire, but the accuracy will be affected. A friend nicked the edge of the transition area from bore to crown on a very nice Remington .22 using a floppy sectional rod. It blew the group out by a full third. Recutting the crown brought it back. It's going to be a lot harder to do similar to your average AR-15, but I won't say the potential for damage does not exist. |
What should I make sure I DON'T do?? |
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Use a 1 piece coated cleaning rod. But to be 100% honest, it's VERY hard to damage an AR15 steel barrel. I am sure some of the army guys will chime in, but several told stories of how their D.I's used to slam their rusty old cleaning rods down the barrels of their m16's. They still qualified with these rifles. |
This a good rule for any firearm. As for damaging the crown, most ARs have some type of muzzle device, a Flash Suppressor or a Comp for the post ban guns, these will protect the crwon from the drop on the ground hits. |
I always disassemble and clean from the breach.... and I do need to get a one piece rod... do they make carbon fiber rods? |
BC a dewey rod is plastic coated and crap will embed in the coating. The CF rods are awesome and will not embed with junk. In a CL AR barrel....no difference In a precision barrel...CF or Stainless 1-pc rods are better(potentially). If more ppl would use a proper bore guide and a 1-pc rod, many less barrels would die a premature death. Just an observation 
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Hmm. Well, I'm not in the habit of storing a filthy cleaning rod, so if there is debris in the plastic, a few wipes before stowing will take care of that. If the plastic is damaged, then rods are replaceable. If I'm picking up debris large enough to see during a normal cleaning, I'd be more worried about what in the weapon is making those chunks, than what they are doing to the bore. I might try a nonmetallic rod if the opportunity arises. For now? I'm well served with the current equipment. |
That's just the trouble with coated rods. Wiping them down will not remove embedded debris, thus the word embedded. I have seen dewey(an example)rods that literally sparkled from all the embedded bits of metal in them. This rod was one used by a guy that shoots tons of wolf ammo. No amount of scrubbing that rod would remove it without removing the plastic coating. Now of course, that's an extreme example, but the principle is the same no matter what you shoot. Each time that rod flexes in the bore and touches the sides, it's grinding the bore like sandpaper. This is by no means a diss on your cleaning equipment, just an observation that nobody ever seems to notice. Dewey rods are not cheap and they used to be the best rod there was. You see many more stainless rods, polished to a mirror-finish at precision matches nowadays. I learned about coated rods from some guys at a RBR match back in the early 90's. Now it's catching on. But like I said, it would make zero difference in a plain old AR barrel, they're generally not accurate enough to bother with anyway. |
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hickerx2~ Oh, I don't mind a critique of my cleaning methods or techniques. I just want to hear a logical reason behind that opinion,before I change. Anyhow- What debris is a coated rod going to pick up in use, that will prove hard enough to damage a chromed bore, let alone steel, when used properly? I'm not convinced that bits of brass, firing residue, or even Arizona dust is going to prove more detrimental to the bore of an AR-15 when compared to the volume of shooting most users expose them to. It took quite a while before I gave a boresnake a try for occasional field use, so I'm likely on the conservative end of the "cleaning equipment" spectrum. If you can show me an image or some other evidence of the embedded debris or the damage inflicted I'll change my opinion. |
yes, so you DI slamming a cleaning rod into the end will not affect anything. Even if he smash the rod into the flash hider. It's flared, so it won't effect accuracy. Hardwarz |
That's fine if all that is ever attached to the muzzle is a GI birdcage. Some hiders leave enough of the crown exposed that an especially hamfisted cleaning session with a floppily assembled jointed steel rod could nick the crown. I used to think that you had to work hard to jack up a decent AR-15. Then I saw someone attaching a DeWalt drill to their cleaning rod, and capping the rod with a stainless steel brush. |
Actually, I wasn't even critiquing you. I just thought it was food for thought in an appropriate thread on the subject. Like I said twice, a chromed AR barrel is pretty much a non-issue. I was only really referring to a barrel that one would care alot about. A custom shilen or Krieger barrel that will shoot in the .10's as an example. Losing a couple of tenths over the course of 1000rds from running a coated rod through a typical remington or savage rack rifle is not much of a concern, I agree. However, even wood will wear steel over time and all the bits of steel from extracting steel-cased ammo are not something I want anywhere near my bore  And LOL, I still don't own a boresnake....can't see myself ever owning one either, so I know what you mean. But anyway, it's just something else to ponder. People can clean their rifles with a coat hanger and blasting sand for all I care. |
The muzzle crown is where the bullet transitions from the barrel to open space. If this is nicked, uneven gas pressures will push the bullet, making it "yaw" just a little. So, instead of spinning around its axis, it will spin more like a thrown football... and that can't do ANY good for accuracy. |
That was why I related the incident with the .22. In that case, it was readily apparent. Minor damage may not "noticeably" affect accuracy if the shooter is not capable of noticing the change. |
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