Lead Removal

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  • Last Post 16 November 2007
ubetcha posted this 05 July 2007

I've been working on cleaning my T/C 30-30 bbl.I have noticed that there seems to be something on the lands of the rifling when I look down the bbl.I don't know if it's lead or possible pits.I'm guilty of not cleaning properly.I have cleaned the bbl with a good solvent and ran clean patches through the bbl first.Then I started using a nylon brush with a  patch of Hoppe's rust and lead removing product down the bore.After a number of passes the patches are coming out black.I have run the patches several times through the bore and they are still coming out black.Is this an indication of excessive lead still in the bore or is something else happening.I have read the one will still get black patches when cleaning if using a bronze brush and good solvent so that why I'm using a nylon brush.I'm thinking that it MAYBE lead.The bullets I've been shooting were sized .309. I have not had the bbl slugged to find out the throat size yet.There are a couple I want to take to the gunsmith and have done.One is a Ruger M77,the T/C bbl,and a7.7mm Jap I would like to shoot

 Thanks for the help

 

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CB posted this 06 July 2007

I've used those lead removal cloths for years to clean my barrels and I don't care how clean the barrel was the patch still comes out black. I've checked barrels with a bore scope so know they were clean but it made no difference, the patch still turned black.

Pat

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Ed Harris posted this 06 July 2007

The best way I've found to thoroughly de-lead a barrel is to fire a dozen jacketed rounds through it, then use Sweets 7.62 to dissolve the copper, followed by an aggressive cleaning with Brobst JB paste, then flush well with Ed's Red and run through two dry patches to be sure you get all the abrasive paste out.

If you do this an Outer's Foul Out doesn't find anything to work on.  And you won't have to re-condition the bore to restore accuracy, as you must do after using Foul-Out.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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cat1870 posted this 13 July 2007

How about using some 0000 steel wool on a swab? I've heard that this works well. Comments anyone???

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Ed Harris posted this 13 July 2007

Yes, this will work fine.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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ubetcha posted this 14 July 2007

There is a product called Choreboy and Choregirl that I have used in the past and did use in the 30-30 bbl.Choreboy is copper wool and Choregirl I beleive is brass wool.I have used Choreboy to clean the forcing cone of my revolver when I shot on a bullseye league many years ago,and it did a good job.I did get very small shiny specs out of the 30-30 bbl,but I was looking for better/faster way

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Creedmoor posted this 09 October 2007

I was told, and have tested the following and it seems to work great. Mix equal parts white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Cork/plug your bore at one end and pour the solution in. It will bubb;e and fizz - that's the lead being disolved. When it stops, rinse the bore with clean water, dry the bore and run an oiled patch through. You're done. I took a lead bullet, a steel washer and a blued gun screw and put them all in a glass jar and covered them with the aforementioned solution. After a half hour, most of the bullet was just a gray mushy blob in the bottom of the jar. The washer was unchanged and the blued gun screw was still blue and unchanged. If anyone else knows anything about this technique, any advice, or cautions would be welcome. It does seem to work.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 09 October 2007

The black stuff is part of your barrel steel (g) ... to test this, rub the outside of your stainless barrel with the same type of patch.    Don't worry, it would take a million strokes before you could measure any differences ..

BTW, same with jb residue ...  a little bit left in the barrel ( a little bit ) will not result in any wear on anything ...

... as for the xxxx steel wool, that is all used ( with hoppes 9 dripped into it ) for years for my jacketed .222 cleaning ... accuracy lasted for many thousands of rounds ...  Brownells supplies clean xxxx steel wool.

regards, ken campbell, all gritty in iowa

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Molly posted this 13 November 2007

I haven't actually tested for leading removal, but judging from how clean they leave a bore, and how hard the compressed wads are, I suspect a few COW loads would do an excellent job of removing every trace of leading. Molly

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454PB posted this 16 November 2007

I've been beat up on some other forums for advocating Ed Harris' method of lead removal. Most of the critisism is that a leaded barrel can be considered an “obstructed bore". You have to use some common sense and use mildly loaded jacketed loads to accomplish the lead removal.

For me, it only takes one or two rounds of jacketed to remove the lead.

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Tom Acheson posted this 16 November 2007

Ken,

The Freedom Arms factory once advised against using the Birchwood Casey Lead-Wipe cloth on the face of their revlover cylinders. They noted that people would rub the cylinder bullet exit openings inconsistently and this changed the ID dimension and shape (removing the “sharp” edge of the hole), even though very slightly, and this contributed to reduced accuarcy. It was not made clear if the fear of degraded accuracy would be with jacketed or cast bullets.

Tom

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utk posted this 16 November 2007

Creedmoor wrote: I was told, and have tested the following and it seems to work great. Mix equal parts white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Cork/plug your bore at one end and pour the solution in. It will bubb;e and fizz - that's the lead being disolved. When it stops, rinse the bore with clean water, dry the bore and run an oiled patch through. You're done. I took a lead bullet, a steel washer and a blued gun screw and put them all in a glass jar and covered them with the aforementioned solution. After a half hour, most of the bullet was just a gray mushy blob in the bottom of the jar. The washer was unchanged and the blued gun screw was still blue and unchanged. If anyone else knows anything about this technique, any advice, or cautions would be welcome. It does seem to work.

It certainly removes lead, but it can also damage/remove steel, and some have reported of pitted bores.

Do a Google search for, say, vinegar peroxide lead.

I personally wouldn't use it... 

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ubetcha posted this 16 November 2007

I read an article somewhere{I don't remenber where)that running jacket rounds though a bore to remove lead only puts copper fouling over lead fouling and doesn't really remove it.I can't say for sure if it is so or not.When I look down a barrel to look for lead ,all I see is light reflection.The old eyes are not what they use to be.Thats why most of my firearms have scopes.

    Tom ,keep up the good articles in the I.H.M.S.A. paper.Very informitive

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