Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bore Brushes

Won’t use any brush on a rimfire barrel.

Haven’t used a brush on my cf barrels in years.

I do own them. Just haven’t seen a need to deploy them.

Ymmv

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agree 100%, I don't use a bronze brush very often but depending on chambering it absolutely needs done from time to time

I have a bore guide for every rifle that I own, money well spent

Yeah, but what if you used a bronze brush as well as a FRAM filter?

Been doing it for 50+ years with Hoppe's, always clean them after shooting,never had an issue.

I waited until this thread went down several apparently inevitable rat-holes to comment:

Haven't used bore brushes of any kind very often for years now. The biggest use I get out of them is wrapping one with a cotton patch to measure rifling twist.

Between excellent oil-based bore solvents such as Wipe-Out and Montana X-Treme, have never seen much need to brush bores. This includes not just to remove copper fouling but powder fouling--what little there is from today's cleaner-burning powders.

Also, my experience is that Dan Lilja's opinion that attempting to remove ALL powder-fouling is detrimental to accuracy. Dan came to this conclusion after lots of testing. And in my nearly 20 years with a Gradient Hawkeye bore-scope, he's exactly right.

John,
A bit off subject, but when using JB Compound I still wrap the patch around a bronze brush, because it appeared a synthetic brush didn't scrub the copper out as well, or at least didn't as quickly. What kind of brush do you use with JB Compound?

Either bronze or synthetic, depending on what I have on hand. (Still have some bronze brushes). The biggie I've found is using enough of whatever patches I have on hand to require some effort to push 'em through the bore.

As I mentioned earlier on this thread, the Teslong bore-scope has shown me how well modern solvents work. I’ve got lots of clean bores without brushes. The last time I used a brush was with a patch of JB Compound to clean up a Swedish Mauser.

Yep, a bore-scope is invaluable for determining how well various bore-cleaning techniques work--along with some test-shooting.

Which is how I discovered how much BS there was in older advice on cleaning--though a lot of it was due to older powders and/or barrels. With some newer, cleaner-burning powders that include decoppering agents I have yet to clean the bore in many newer rifles with great factory barrels, yet they're still shooting very small groups after hundreds of rounds.

Hoppes #9 to remove powder fouling and expose any copper fouling if present. Butches bore shine with a bronze brush for a quick clean, but if things are bad i grab sweets 7.62 and let it soak. With sweets i only use patches. A bronze brush does speed things along for a quicker clean.

Good to know there are still Campfire members who haven't tried different cleaning techniques in years....

If it worked for my dad and his dad I don't see any reason to change. Agree many barrels have been worn out from too frequent cleaning. I use G.I. twill patches and Hoppe's #9 and butch's Bore Shine to clean my handguns and rifles.

A bronze brush won't hurt DBC, but it's not necessary in DBC'd barrels, either.

These days, about the only use I have for brushes of any sort is to prep a fouled barrel for DBC.

Out of habit, a nylon brush with Hoppes for powder fouling only, or patches and Eliminator for copper fouling. Don't have a borescope - so if the bore is not completely clean, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

My milsurps typically only ever need Hoppes, and the patches never come out completely clean - doesn't seem to bother them.

I use nylon for the necks of brass when reloading but bronze for the bore.

Even when doing the copper removing thing.

Has not done any harm that i can tell so far and it has been since 1970's.

Thanks John. I still keep some bronze brushes around just for JB Compound.

gunswizard,

Good for you.

My point is that if some newer products and techniques work at least as well (and often better) with less work, why keep doing it the same old way? I can understand, somewhat, that doing it the same way your father and grandfather did it provides you some historical comfort. But please don't claim your traditional techniques work as well as newer products.

Well, one exception would be Hoppe's #9. The formula was changed around a decade ago, to an oil-based, faster copper remover that's far more effective than the original formula so many of us grew up with. But it still smells pretty much the same, one reason I still sometimes use it. But newer powders have far more effect on bore-fouling.

You and Gaschekt probably wouldn't know about that either.

Nope. Still burning military surplus IMR 4895 and a keg of IMR 4320. I have newer powders mind you but I usually burn my old stock first. Sometimes I clean with solvant and patches and sometimes the bronze brush comes out. I have a 280 that's horrible for copper fouling. The 35's only need a little maintenance and light oil to protect the bore. 30's are easy to clean as well.

Old habits sure die hard.