Thread: Barrel Cleaning

Barrel cleaning threads come up from time to time, and often someone chimes in with a statement that you can wreck a barrel by cleaning it blah blah blah.
Could someone please give me a run down on how to wreck a barrel by cleaning it.
And I mean by following manufactures instructions on cleaning products etc, not by doing dumb shit as advised on Internet forums etc.
Thanks
Jeff

I tend to file those sorts of ideas in the 'myth' category without decent evidence. I'm sure someone has done it somehow, but can't imagine it's a regular occurrence. In theory I would think mechanical damage to the crown would be your most likely pathway to significant damage.

More of a joking myth comment than anything else,caus guys clean their barrels too much.A 3 piece cleaning rod loosely screwed together,pushed down the barrel could micro scratched the crown.

Don't forget that pull throughs and boresnakes can wear a groove in the muzzle too

I would hope that steel barrels designed to explode things through them at high pressure and velocity could tolerate a brass three piece rod. I wouldn't know though barrel only probably gets a huck out once or twice a year depending on round count.

Oh and a quick pull through occasionally

frequent cleaning from the muzzle without some form of centreing device can possibly cause lapping the rifling at the muzzle - but I think it would take a long time and a lot of laxc cleaning method

Not removing excess oil from the bore before firing could possibly do it, although I'm not sure if that comes under cleaning or not cleaning.

Jeff, cleaning Black Powder barrels, when I first got into shooting BP, I read a good way to clean the barrel was to hang it under the rose while taking a shower.
My wife wasn’t keen, she said it could ruin our mornings if it came off.
I think the corrosive primers from our younger days, never went away. I can remember the old 303. The first thing you did when you got home, was clean the barrel.
I be had two old mates give me their 303s to sell, both I couldn’t see through the barrel. One old mate said to put a round through it, it will come up like new.

There are some shooters / hunters who sincerely believe barrels can by ruined by "over cleaning". I'm not argumentative and have never challenged anybody's statement of that but am always sceptical of that claim. Dealing from time to time with qualified people over many years I have never had one say " look at this, a barrel stuffed by cleaning ... " Personally I think of any possible way a barrel might be ruined that cleaning would barely rate.
The closest I believe I have come myself is bulging a barrel by not wiping out oil before shooting. Accuracy was affected, not ruined, but I continued usefully hunting that barrel for several years thereafter.
This thread raises a question for me.
What are the most likely causes of ruined barrels ? ( Jeff hope you don't mind my question on your thread )

Originally Posted by 30.06king

There are some shooters / hunters who sincerely believe barrels can by ruined by "over cleaning". I'm not argumentative and have never challenged anybody's statement of that but am always sceptical of that claim. Dealing from time to time with qualified people over many years I have never had one say " look at this, a barrel stuffed by cleaning ... " Personally I think of any possible way a barrel might be ruined that cleaning would barely rate.
The closest I believe I have come myself is bulging a barrel by not wiping out oil before shooting. Accuracy was affected, not ruined, but I continued usefully hunting that barrel for several years thereafter.
This thread raises a question for me.
What are the most likely causes of ruined barrels ? ( Jeff hope you don't mind my question on your thread )

Neglect is probably the most likely cause.
I honestly thought someone would have been along by now to tell me how to shag a barrel with a cleaning patch or brush.
Perhaps it is all bullshit.

Originally Posted by 30.06king

This thread raises a question for me.
What are the most likely causes of ruined barrels ? ( Jeff hope you don't mind my question on your thread )

I have personally seen barrels damaged by leaving suppressors on whilst in storage causing rust from the crown down (no idea if this affected accuracy).

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Neglect is probably the most likely cause.
I honestly thought someone would have been along by now to tell me how to shag a barrel with a cleaning patch or brush.
Perhaps it is all bullshit.

You could be right about neglect.
A long tims ago I talked to a then hunting guide, now deceased, who did a few seasons with the NZ Forest Service culling goats. NZFS apparently supplied the rifles and ammo, all .222 or .223, and shooting was high volume. On the subject of barrel life he believed barrels that stayed accurate the longest were the barrels that got cleaned. He didn't say how frequently they were cleaned but I thought he was qualified to make the statement.

You might find the barrel is already fuked and a clean was the magical fix. But then now its clean you can see how fuked it is