chore boy question......

[bld451]

I went looking for bronze wool to take to the range today, and found some Chore Boy. I read the package and it was pure copper. I didn't get it, as I was looking for bronze. I'd seen folks describe CB as bronze wool, but not as copper. Did I find the right stuff to clean lead from my pistols?

The nice thing is that during my testing at the range, I didn't have any leading with any of my loads that couldn't get clean with a couple pulls on a boresnake. :)

[williamwaco]

I went looking for bronze wool to take to the range today, and found some Chore Boy. I read the package and it was pure copper. I didn't get it, as I was looking for bronze. I'd seen folks describe CB as bronze wool, but not as copper. Did I find the right stuff to clean lead from my pistols?

The nice thing is that during my testing at the range, I didn't have any leading with any of my loads that couldn't get clean with a couple pulls on a boresnake. :)

The Chore Boy ( I thought it was Chore Girl, what is this world comming to? ) Is very popular as a bore scrubber especially among shotgunners.

I personally use the bronze wool but would not hesitate to use the copper.

You should be able to find bronze wool at any hardware store or any other store that sells furniture finishing supplies. I get mine at Lowes.



.

[bumpo628]

I just tried the copper chore boy for the first time on my M&P45. I had the slightest little spot of lead, but I could tell it was going to be difficult to get out with the standard brushes. I couple of swipes of the same brush and a small section of chore boy wrapped around it and that spot was gone. That stuff works great!

[Buckshot]

............Yup, Chore Boy works a treat. Chore Boy is solid copper (maybe some copper alloy?) but bore harmless nonetheless. A few years back I was in one of those 99¢ stores and they had "Copper Pot Scrubbers" in a plastic net bag. Got home and checked it with a magnet. No bueno pro ca-ca, as it was copper plated steel.

Years back Presicion Shooting magazine did an article about what the BR50 guys (22RF bench rest) guys did for cleaning. Some didn't unless accuracy fall off suggested cleaning was needed. Others reported particular cleaning rituals. What was amazing to me was some reported actually using steel wool. I grant that steel wool is some probable mild steel that would undoubtably not have an effect on the tougher alloyed high pressure barrel steels. However some 22RF bbls are 1137, 11L17, and 12L14 and I would NOT use steel wool on those.

Like the doctor said, "Don't stick anything in your ears larger then your elbow", I have an adverse reaction to scrubbing my barrels with anything ferrous at all.

...............Buckshot

[Bret4207]

I started using 4/O steel wool after reading a report that mentioned the guys at the Coors shoot using it. If the big name shuetzen guys with their high dollar barrels were using it and since that what we used to give a gloss finish to a blue job...it isn't going to hurt any barrel in the very short time we're using it.

[wickerbill]

Here's a tip to help the chore boy work even better. Mop the barrel with Krol first. It will help float the lead and the chore boy works even faster.:drinks:
Bill

[williamwaco]

Here's a tip to help the chore boy work even better. Mop the barrel with Krol first. It will help float the lead and the chore boy works even faster.:drinks:
Bill



If you don't have Kroil, use whatever penetrating oil you have. WD-40 works well too.

[jcwit]

As does tranny fluid, the red stuff for automatics.

[sqlbullet]

ATF is magic in so many ways.

I have used both chore boy and steel wool. The steel wool comes out when I get a mil-surplus rifle with a really bad bore, usually carbon deposits. Copper wool just doesn't touch decades old carbon build up.

[captaint]

Funny, about the steel wool. One never knows. I was always told, by older gunsmiths, that rimfire barrels were softer steel due to the lower pressures involved. Still not sure I could bring myself to put steel wool in my rimfire barrels. I don't even bronze brush them out. Solvent and patches seem to get them completely clean. Just me.... enjoy Mike

[Bret4207]

Take some 4/0 steel wool and start rubbing the outside of you rimfire barrel. All it will do is make it shiny. It'll do the same inside since the outside is the same steel as the inside. Think about it- steel wool is just mild steel "shavings". As you use it the edges become dull. The only reason it woks as well as it does is because there are so many edges. Anyway, if it doesn't mess up the outside or the barrel, how will it mess up the inside?

[adrians]

0000- is a good friend of mine ,i always have a good stockpile off the stuff.
does a great job of getting the crud out of my dies and leaves them all shiney, i like shiney things..:evil:[smilie=w::evil:

[gray wolf]

OK--I am sure all of you know this--BUT for those that do not, here is a little tip.
Take a piece of WEED whacker string
( the heavy mono line that cuts the grass )
( Cut it to be about 8" longer than you need to go through your barrel and action )
With a razor blade trim one end at a long angle so that it leaves a sharp point.
Now take a Bic lighter or a match and heat the other end till it starts to melt a little ball on the end. Before it cools off press it against a metal surface, any flat piece of metal.
This will make a flat Nub on the end. Take the sharp end and put it through the middle of a 30 Cal. patch, run it down to the nub you put on the other end. The flat nub will hold the patch in place. Put a little solvent of your choosing on the patch and run the pointed end through the barrel, when you see the point come through the barrel --grab it and pull it through. Works great for 22RF , for a larger bore use two patches.
I like it for general cleaning and for 22 barrels. No rod hitting the barrel and no--Nada
metal in the barrel. Cheaper than a bore snake. I have even put strand of Chore boy over the patch with some ends extending past the patch, the second patch holds it together and leaves the Chore boy whiskers to scrub the bore.
Simple and small to go in my kit and works great at the range.
I have helped many a new shooter clean his barrel at the range. Simple, quick and cheap.
Then I give it to the new shooter and tell him it's not a substitute for a thorough cleaning when a rod may be needed. But I find it so easy and quick that I use it often enough to not have to use the metal rod that much.
I know it's kinda like a bore snake, but I made it myself in 5 Minutes and it cost about .5 cents.
If you screw up and get it stuck, pull hard and they break at the nub. just pull it through and pull the patch out.

[blackthorn]

gray wolf---I do the same thing but I cut the line about 16 inches longer than the barrel and just fold the line in half, push the fold through and put the patch in the bend, then pull---

[C.F.Plinker]

I take the last inch or inch and a half, bend it back on itself, and whip it down using fish line. This allows me to leave a small loop which is big enough to hold a patch or a strip of cloth. Pull through as described above. When I use the ones with the melted end I found out that for 22 cal. I could only use a patch that was just over an inch square. The loop allows me to use a strip of material that is 1x3 inches or so. This lets me get a lot more solvent on the patch.

[geargnasher]

The Chore Boy ( I thought it was Chore Girl, what is this world comming to? ) Is very popular as a bore scrubber especially among shotgunners.

I personally use the bronze wool but would not hesitate to use the copper.

You should be able to find bronze wool at any hardware store or any other store that sells furniture finishing supplies. I get mine at Lowes.



.

I think Chore Girl was steel, like a Brillo pad, and Chore Boy was solid copper. Haven't seen Chore Girl pads in years.

Gear

[btroj]

I think Chore Girl was steel, like a Brillo pad, and Chore Boy was solid copper. Haven't seen Chore Girl pads in years.

Gear

Seems that finding them is a real "chore"?

[geargnasher]

:groner:

Gear

[sqlbullet]

There was an interesting article in the Garand Collectors Journal a few years back about steel cleaning rods and muzzle wear on the M1 Garand. The TL; DR; of the article was that you would have to clean all day, every day for years and years, intentionally pressing the rod against the muzzle before you would have a meaningful impact on muzzle erosion.

Shooting, especially rapid fire for extended periods, would wear the muzzle pretty fast though.

Just food for thought.

[jcwit]

What does TR and DR refer to?

IHNIWYTA

Meaning? I have no idea what you're talking about.

[btroj]

I have no clue either.
IHNIWYTA either.

[jcwit]

OK--I am sure all of you know this--BUT for those that do not, here is a little tip.
Take a piece of WEED whacker string
( the heavy mono line that cuts the grass )
( Cut it to be about 8" longer than you need to go through your barrel and action )
With a razor blade trim one end at a long angle so that it leaves a sharp point.
Now take a Bic lighter or a match and heat the other end till it starts to melt a little ball on the end. Before it cools off press it against a metal surface, any flat piece of metal.
This will make a flat Nub on the end. Take the sharp end and put it through the middle of a 30 Cal. patch, run it down to the nub you put on the other end. The flat nub will hold the patch in place. Put a little solvent of your choosing on the patch and run the pointed end through the barrel, when you see the point come through the barrel --grab it and pull it through. Works great for 22RF , for a larger bore use two patches.
I like it for general cleaning and for 22 barrels. No rod hitting the barrel and no--Nada
metal in the barrel. Cheaper than a bore snake. I have even put strand of Chore boy over the patch with some ends extending past the patch, the second patch holds it together and leaves the Chore boy whiskers to scrub the bore.
Simple and small to go in my kit and works great at the range.
I have helped many a new shooter clean his barrel at the range. Simple, quick and cheap.
Then I give it to the new shooter and tell him it's not a substitute for a thorough cleaning when a rod may be needed. But I find it so easy and quick that I use it often enough to not have to use the metal rod that much.
I know it's kinda like a bore snake, but I made it myself in 5 Minutes and it cost about .5 cents.
If you screw up and get it stuck, pull hard and they break at the nub. just pull it through and pull the patch out.

Ya, ya, I know, but then I don't get to brag to everyone about my $150.00 hardened Super Duper Exotic Stainless Steel cleaning rod made from a meteorite that fell to earth centuries ago and hand forged by elves in the darkest forest that were laid off from the Keebler factory because of the ecomony and the cut-back in sugars. Then hand polished very carefully by the elves sisters being held in a slave labor camp in the eastern dark forests.

Hey everyone have a Merry Thanksgiving and may all of us count our Blessings.

[Bret4207]

There was an interesting article in the Garand Collectors Journal a few years back about steel cleaning rods and muzzle wear on the M1 Garand. The TL; DR; of the article was that you would have to clean all day, every day for years and years, intentionally pressing the rod against the muzzle before you would have a meaningful impact on muzzle erosion.

Shooting, especially rapid fire for extended periods, would wear the muzzle pretty fast though.

Just food for thought.

I don't think it was the cleaning rod itself that did the damage, but the grit that they tended to pick up since they had an oily surface to attract it.

[btroj]

Steel isn't so bad as Al rods, they are so soft they pick up lots of grit.

[jcwit]

Right, as is wood, this is the reason Muzzleloading barrels were worn down at the muzzle.