Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Cleaning stainless revolver cylinder

I just got a stainless Ruger Security Six .357, a hard gun to find in CA because of our incredibly stupid gun laws. It has been well taken care of in general (looks new on the outside; bore is excellent) but the first owner apparently fired A LOT of .38 Spl. lead bullet rounds in it and didn't clean up the chambers regularly, so there are rings of crud around the front of each chamber in the area where the .38 bullet seats.

What's the best way to remove this stuff and get the chambers back to clean metal? I have most of the common cleaners, including Montana Extreme Copper Killer, Uncle Mike's Bore Paste, fine bronze and steel wool, Hoppe's #9, etc. I also have a variable speed cordless drill if rotary motion is required. Is the fouling likely to be mostly lead or carbon or some hellish compound of both? I WILL go slow and mike the chambers at each stage.

Any cleanup hints gratefully accepted!

(And, yeah, I'm going to shoot only full-length .357s in this revolver, once it get it cleaned up. I've found that Black Hills .357 "Cowboy Loads" make excellent small game subloads for the .357 and the cases are eminently reloadable).

The fouling is usually a combination of lead and bullet lube. I've used the Lewis Lead Remover in the past to clean out .38 Special crud from .357 chambers. I've also used the wool from Chore Boy pads wrapped around a brush. You have to be careful to get only the brand name, There are cheap Chinese imports that are brass plated steel. I suspect fine bronze wool on a .38 caliber brush would work fine also.

Kroil

Lap the cylinder bores to remove the lead/carbon/fouling.

No need to mic the cylinder bores on any Ruger, as they probably vary .005"-.006" anyway.

Steel wool won't hurt the chambers. It is far too soft to bother the chamber walls. Wrap a bit around a bore brush and chuck in your drill. Kroil or bore cleaner will help the process.

RAN

Thanks, guys. I have both kinds of metal "wool" and plenty of Kroil, so I think I'll try the bronze wool on a brush at slow speed and go to steel wool if that doesn't remove the crap completely, then some bore paste on a tight patch revolved slow as slow as the drill will turn until all is shiny. I'll let you know how that all works out.

Mike Armstrong aka Mesa

GM top engine cleaner and kroil works best

Brownells carries a chamber cleaning reamer made just for removing the crud from revolver chambers without removing any metal. Might be pricey for one revolver but maybe you can find a smith that has one.

These. And no they do not wear out the cylinder. I've used them on my PPC comp gun a bazillion times without any issues.

Cylinder Brush

While my PPC comp gun is a custom S&W model 10 (.38 special) I also use a 4" 586 (.357 mag) in service gun. Both guns have seen plenty of rounds through them. A revolver chamber brush is oversized, it's also longer than a barrel brush so you don't get them mixed up.

Good info--happens I have a bunch of revolvers.

Not as hard as I thought--chambers are shiny as new now.

The taper or leade at the end of each casts a little shadow that I was tempted to try to remove until I saw it was an optical problem, not a maintenance one. I have cataracts, bifocals, and a strong wrong-side lead eye, none of which helps me when I'm trying to look inside a gun! Now to a range!

Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish and a Q tip. I bought a model 10 last year that was total black with residue. Ten minutes later looked like new. Also makes it easier to just wipe new residue off with a rag for next few range trips. Found it on you tube.

Flitz works for Me in this case.......Hb