Melted plastic in the barrel?

[The Wingnut]

Hey folks,

Did a lengthy range session the other week(mostly Winchester target loads, and about 8 Remington sluggers on the bottle & can range - FUN!), when I tore down the shotgun afterward, there was a considerable amount of very tough fouling just past the chamber and about 1/4 of the way down the bore.

I can barely get a finger down in there and scratch some of it off with a fingernail. Putting a nylon brush down the bore on a drill and giving a good scrubbing just polishes the stuff down a little with some powdered residue knocked loose.

Is this plastic fouling? How do I get it out? I don't want to mess up the bore.

[zhyla]

Did you try some bore solvent?

Also if I understand you correctly you're using a plastic bore brush which will not remove tough fouling very well. All the bore brushes I have are brass wire as near as I can tell.

[aippi]

3/8" hard wood dowl like you get at Home Depot. A pad of medium steel wool. Strech the steel wool over the end of the dowl so it looks like a large Q-tip. Tape the bottom of the pad off. Put that in your drill and run it through your barrel a few times. Do this every time you clean it. You can not hurt the barrel.

[MossbergMan]

Wingnut,
Yea it's probably just plastic, could be some lead from the slugs, but use of a solvent and a bronze bore brush. I taught at a big name school out west for 5 years and had to deal with a lot of barrel fouling. I found Bore-Snakes and Mpro7 to be a great labor saver duo.

[JJ1911]

+1 for the boresnakes, the brass helps clear caked residue with ease

[PEBKAC]

Boresnake. It's like an easy button for this kind of thing.

[sarge1572]

I maintain 50 - 12 ga shotguns for a police department. They only shoot "less lethal" out of them (bean bags/sock rounds). After range day, or they shoot some a-hole, the whole bbl is plastic lined.

I used to have plastic, copper, brass, chamber, brushes, and tornado brushes. To get plastic out I used to use the tornado brush (which worked the best of the brushes for that), and then scrub with the brass brush.

A REAL PITA.

While talking to a Remington guy (in NC) I mentioned it to him and he said he threw out all of his brushed and uses one now and has had it for about 5 years. It cleans the chamber and the barrel and does a fantastic job. I get through a dirty 870 now in about 15 or 20 minutes, including the barrel.

Brownells has them http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1..._CHAMBER_BRUSH ($35 for the "kit" which is a brush and handle. You NEED the handle, just choose the length)

A little pricey but you don't need handles, or other brushes, and may not have to replace it for years (and years). It's called a chamber brush, but Ken from Remington uses it for the whole barrel, and now I do to. I won't go back to the old way.

You use it by starting at either end of the barrel, twisting and pushing. When you reach the end of the handle (about 2/3 of a 22" bbl) keep twisting in the same direction and pulling until it's out. Then go through the other. Run a cotton mop through and you're done. Best damned brush I have, and now instead of having boxes of 12 ga brushes and 5 sets of handles, I have 2. One with the RODGE-F, and one with a mop. (I still have boxes of mops!! But now I have more room for them!! HA)

Jeff

PS - You said you didn't want to mess up the bore. These shotguns are used in the field and are between 10 and 15 years old. The bore on ALL of them shines like a mirror and this brush hasn't affected the quality of the bore even a little. For the patrol officers, if less lethal doesn't work the next step, potentially, is deadly force so I won't use something that may affect the shotgun (or barrel) and alter the outcome. FYI only. I use it on MY personal shotguns as well.

[randy]

Do what aippi said to do. Or get a bit more agressive and put a tornado brush on the end of a rod and chuck it up in your drill.

[1988]

+1 Boresnake and solvent.

[kmca]

I got a tip from a very active trapshooting friend of mine years ago. Go to the hardware store and get some floor wax stripper. Spray some in the barrel and watch the plastic lift off. Be sure to lube the barrel because the stripper is water soluble. The dime store sprayer will last a while, but eventually the stripper eats it up.

[Black_Talon]

I use a brass brush, wrapped with a piece of copper Chore-boy, screwed onto a section of cleaning rod and chucked up in a drill. That combo, plus your favorite cleaning solvent makes pretty short work of that plastic wad fouling.

[randy]

I've tried the shotgun plastic wad solvents didn't do much. Hot water work and then the brush on the end of a drill.

[ysr_racer]

You guys using drills are nuts. Way too much work.

A shot of this stuff and one pass with a bore snake is all you need.

http://www.quickshot.net/index.htm

[The Wingnut]

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll give a few of the methods a try and stick with what seems to work best.

[an actual gun]

Most of the time a good solvent and a few passes with a phosphor bronze 12 gauge brush will do er. If after I'm done cleaning to the point where the majority of the barrel is shiny and fouling free yet there are still some plastic streaks in there, I will let the solvent soak for awhile and get back on it anywhere from an hour later to the day after. Shotgun mops are also great. For longevity I stick a patch over them just so I don't dirty up the cotton swab prematurely. I find that most 12 gauge mops with the addition of a patch are a little tight down the bore, so I would pick a smaller one for this purpose.