Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Checking for rifle barrel leading

How does one check for leading in a rifle barrel? I mean, it's no problem in a short handgun barrel. What do I look for?

Then, if it's present, how does one get it out? Especially at the range, so testing can continue?

Alan

Bore brush with a few strands of copper(not copper coated)Chore Boy wrapped around it and bore cleaner! Clint

Dark patches in the grooves that weren't there before you fired your cast bullets through it, predominantly toward the breech end but can extend the length of the barrel if its bad enough. Flecks of lead on your cleaning patches are another indicator you have some leading.

I only had one experience with leading that an ordinary bore brush + solvent didn't eradicate. It was in a Krag that I fired a boxful of soft unlubed plain based bullets through, at relatively high velocity. (C'mon, I was 16 years old and had no clue and no mentor!) The grooves were almost completely filled with lead. God knows where the last few bullets flew to. Accuracy wasn't very good, to put it mildly. I spent three evenings, an entire bottle of Hoppes, and I don't remember just how many bore brushes, 'til I got it all out. Learned a couple of valuable lessons that day!

I can't find "any" type of Chore Boy in Utah. Suggestions?

Alan

Brownells has brass wool, it is good for removing lead.

This?

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7391/Product/BRONZE-WOOL

If so, what size, #00, #1 or #3?

Alan

Many hardware stores carry brass wool.

heck you can take some 0000 steel wool and wrap some on a patch and push it through, it'll take leading out quickly too.

mostly just look through the barrel, if it looks "dirty" it's leaded. If it's shiney and smooth, probably good to go.

When at the range, testing new loads and see leading in the barrel, do you stop testing that load, clean the lead out and move on to a new load?

Alan

I don't, I just shoot a couple of Proven, non leading loads through it and it clears it out.

That works but I usually stop right there and clean, especially if I'm doing load development and want to eliminate as many variables as possible.

Well, this is one way to check for barrel leading.



Alan

Stay clear of steel wool; its like putting salt in your barrel!

That's not a ton of lead, but it looks like accumulation on the rifling edges.

The best way to check for leading is usually at the target. It doesn't lie.

Getting rid of it is firing some reduced loads or loads that do not lead, as blammer stated. If your lube is decent, it always works.

Steel wool? Noooo, not me! Got some copper wool and a gent here on the CF sent me some Chore bore to wrap around a bristle brush.

The targets looked horrible; 5-10" @ 100 yds.

Alan

well I guess I'm a real salty type of guy. Never had any detrimental effects with it.

to each his own.

Try it on the outside of your gun; its harmless and never rusts

I do, actually. the 0000 with a bit of oil is like a really nice polisher.

I think the copper scrub pads are worse, but I don't use them a lot, only when I get leading.

Ordinary 000 or 0000 steel wool wrapped around a bronze brush and loaded with J-B Bore Paste will clean a barrel quicker than you can believe. Be sure to wrap the steel wool from the handle end to the tip. It will NOT harm the bore at all. I cleaned my benchrest barrels for years using this method.

This not true at all. Stop and think about it for a minute. Steel wool is very flexible and much softer than barrel steel. In fact, the owner/maker of Douglas barrels recommended this method to me years ago and I've used it on the finest barrels made with no ill effects.

With great respect Mickey:

I understand salt, water and fingerprint sweat is softer than barrel steel as well.

Its not the abrasion or wear that steel wool can cause (I agree with you, it isn't appreciable inside a barrel, but it can and does easily scratch blueing on the outside), but if I felt the need to use steel wool, I'd also feel the need to oil the snot out of everything immediately!

Steel wool dust and fibers attract a pile of moisture and can rust quickly, because its pretty cheap steel matter.

I don't see the need when better options are out there. Perhaps living in a humid area, I've seen steel wool still in the package with some rust. Using it (not on a gun) looked like going down an Alabama road

I must live in a dry part of Alabama (like one of those exists!) but I've never run into a problem. Now, admittedly, I don't leave steel wool in the barrel inside a cabinet set up for rust bluing so that may be the reason. If you scrub a barrel with steel wool and J-B and then patch the barrel out as you normally would why would you expect, much less find rust in the barrel?

The Alabama road reference was the color of the road dust(grins)! We don't have that shade here.

You could make the same argument in using corrosive primers or anything else that attracts moisture, but WHY would you, especially when there is no need?

I realize folks have been doing this for years and its no business of mine what they do with their stuff, but leading a barrel up and "fixing" it with steel wool is horse after the cart.

(I take it you've seen some "rust bluing art"?