Lead delimea (very very plugged up barrel)

[ghh3rd]

Not exactly the correct forum to post this, but many lead experts reside here and this is about lead (and steel) after all.

Short story, a very reliable .22 Ruger pistol, with a very clean barrel, met Remington Thunderbolt ammo for the first time today, and became totally non functional after less than two magazines.

A check when I got home revealed so much leading that I cant get a patch through, and I made the mistake of starting a brush which got stuck, half way through, almost permanently. If a Kroil soak doesn't loosen the crud up, would it be the "dumb idea of the year" to float this short little barrel on top of 20 lbs of lead in my Lee pot (just fits across it) to melt it so it can be scrubbed out hot?

I figure that the barrel must get almost hot enough to melt lead at times, and I don't think it will hurt the barrel..., but wonder if lead would stick to the stainless steel barrel for some strange reason... again I don't think it would... ?

I don't want to try it out without at least seeing if someone here chimes in to urge me not to try it. I don't want to post back that my barrel is full of lead, on both the outside and the inside.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Randy

[Three44s]

I am not expert enough for you to bank on my advice to go ahead with your idea.

I would hold off till a gunsmith advises you ........ there are some on this forum.

But I can tell you from our experience at well drilling and heat treating our drill bits that many steels will normalize at temps below where lead melts. That means that you "could" change the heat treat on your barrel by heating it to Pb and alloy melting temps.

Myself, I would not go at this approach.

Wish you the very best of luck!

Three 44s

[waksupi]

Interested to see more responses on this. I thought those were clad bullets, and couldn't lead.

[303Guy]

Would barrel makers use a steel that will be affected by such low temperatures? We are talking stainless here but steel barrels were routinely soldered onto. I can't speak on stainless steel barrels. I too am interested in more responses.

[dudel]

Foul out will remove the lead atom by atom without heat or scrubbing. I save it for the worst barrels.

I thought Thunderbolts were plated. That said, 22lr is the dirtiest ammo I've seen.

[Petrol & Powder]

I can't see a good idea there. You would need to get the entire barrel up to temp and then somehow get the lead out of the bore. I don't think it is just going to be a matter of heating the barrel and then turning it on end. I believe it's more likely you'll just end up with more lead in the bore.
If a cleaning rod will pass through the bore I think some elbow grease and time will produce better results with far less risk.

[Tatume]

This happened to me shooting cheap promotional ammo in a 6" Smith & Wesson M617. I couldn't get a cleaning rod into the barrel, and sent it back to S&W. They couldn't clean it either, and installed a new barrel. I suggest you call Ruger and ask for help.

[500MAG]

I would go with Dudel's suggestion and the elbow grease for a while. I would never consider heating up that barrel and if that fails, like Tatume said, send it to Ruger. If you hear it up most likely Ruger won't touch it.

[Toymaker]

I'd put a foam earplug or cork in the barrel, reach up on my shelf for my jug of mercury and fill the barrel. Seriously, got any friends in the chemistry department of the local college or university?
Foul Out and other products with elbow grease. Maybe plug the barrel and fill it with Foul Out and let it sit a while. Then old fashioned elbow grease.

[cstrickland]

wow I have heard of this before, but have never seen it. I have a 10/22 that had over 1000 rounds of thunderbolt in a single afternoon. Yes it had some lead in it but I was able to get a patch and rod through

I am assuming this is like a Mark II or Mark III since it is stainless and you mentioned across the flats. I personally would have no issue with heating a stainless steel barrel up to the temp needed to melt lead. I know for a fact that my stainless and carbon steel AR barrels have been hot enough to melt lead, and still shoot just fine.
The lead will melt from contact with the molten lead quicker and the barrel should not need to be in the molten more than a few seconds .

[Garyshome]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide will "dissolve" lead into a black substance and it'll wash right out

[Dusty Bannister]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide will "dissolve" lead into a black substance and it'll wash right out

Might view some of the cautions about this method. Do a search for more topics of this nature.
"White vinegar and Hydrogen peroxide"

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-117129.html

[bowenrd]

I personally know of 2 people that plugged the bore by shooting Remington Thunderbolt 22 ammo. When I looked at the ammo it appeared to me to have no lube or graphite on bullet. Both people spent hours scubbing and soaking. Both people contacted Remington and of course Remington denied any liability because of their ammo.

Word around here is do not buy Remington Thunderbolt 22 ammo.

[WILCO]

Any thoughts would be appreciated.




I can't believe your first thought isn't to consult a professional gunsmith or contact the manufacturer.

[Harter66]

I had a 9mm bbl severely leaded and access to an ultrasonic cleaner full of Hoppes. It took 3 trips at 30 min or so to get it down to steel . It was cool actually as it lifted big flakes of leading and left another layer loose every time. I was also suprised by how much general crud came off the bbl as well.

[Tatume]

Might view some of the cautions about this method. Do a search for more topics of this nature. "White vinegar and Hydrogen peroxide"

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-117129.html

+1, and also use caution with mercury too. These are toxic substances.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

You guys who are thinking thunderbolt is clad...are thinking of yellowjacket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNHlzyALGwQ

A friend of mine "coated" a Ruger MK II stainless barrel with lead from some Remington thunderbolt ...We used a 17 cal cleaning rod and brass jag cotton patch soaked in Kroil ...and lots and lots of elbow grease.

[mdi]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide will "dissolve" lead into a black substance and it'll wash right out
Yep, this works, but don't allow the mix to sit in your barrel for very long. I have a Dan Wesson .44 Mag. that now has pits in the barrel from this mix. I'd keep the solution's time in the barrel to 1/2 hour then scrub. Repeat as necessary and oil the barrel after cleaning...

BTW; I swore off any Remington rimfire ammo several years ago. Dirty, inconsistant accuracy, especially with the "hyper-velocity" stuff, and a lot of their ammo would not function reliably in a Remington rifle!

[EMC45]

Thunderbolt is junk. I would rather not shoot Thunderbolt (or Golden Bullet) than shoot the .22s. I would do a Kroil soak with a snug fitting QTip in the end of the barrel over night. Then brush it with a bronze bore brush.

[Thompsoncustom]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide will "dissolve" lead into a black substance and it'll wash right out

When I first got into reloading I used this method and tho it works great it attacks the metal in the barrel a little at a time, I kept it in my barrel for maybe 10 mins each time but after enough time and uses it pitted the bore up pretty good. Not worth it I would stick my barrel under a torch before I would use that again.

I don't think the heat required to melt lead would have any effect on the barrel but I'm just guessing and don't really know if I still had my hi point c9 I'd drop it in my casting pot and test it out for ya.

[imashooter2]

I personally know of 2 people that plugged the bore by shooting Remington Thunderbolt 22 ammo. When I looked at the ammo it appeared to me to have no lube or graphite on bullet. Both people spent hours scubbing and soaking. Both people contacted Remington and of course Remington denied any liability because of their ammo.

Word around here is do not buy Remington Thunderbolt 22 ammo.

Make it three. S&W 617, less than 100 rounds of Thunderbolt.

[Gtek]

If I read correctly you were able to remove rod. What about a .17 brush wrapped with Chore Boy/Kroil and a generous amount of elbow grease. Hopefully getting to the point of wrapping .22 brush.

[rking22]

It leaded my 617 so bad a cleaning rod wouldn't go thru. I noticed I couldn't hit anything on a cyl full an stopped shooting. Found an inch of lead near the forcing cone. Soaked over night in Kroil then the"plug" slid out with slight pressure from the brass cleaning rod. Have also experienced similar with some winchester junk boxes.
With the brush stuck a good Kroil soak is the best starting place.

[country gent]

You might mix shooters choice and kroil oil 50/50. we used it for stubborn carbon jacket fouling in high power rifle barrels. Kroil oil being a penetrant carries the shooter schoice into the barrel fouling joint lossening it. It works pretty good on hard fouling. Heating the barrel to 500-600 degrees could affect it. Also not sure how finish could be affected, I would avoid heat, and work scrubbing it out.

[**oneshot**]

Had Thunderbolts lead up a barrel. Started with a 17cal brush wrapped with copper brillo and kept building it up until I could switch to a 22cal brush and copper brillo. Make sure you clean the cylinder with the copper brillo also.
I used Gunslick Foaming bore cleaner to soak the barrel and cylinder after the brillo and it did a great job.

[1911cherry]

The vinegar - peroxide will work just handle the waste carefully and dispose of properly, its a lot easier than using heat. Its hard to believe that 2 mags full would lead that bad, lucky it didn't damage the gun.

[zippidydoodah]

If you have access to mercury. Plug the end of bbl and pour in mercury. It will dissolve mercury. Then pour out.

[selmerfan]

Interesting. I've been working through a brick of Rem. Thunderbolt .22LR ammo in a Ruger Mk III pistol. It shoots the TB better than anything else I've tried and I haven't seen any leading - yet. I'm 250 rounds in at this point. I might maybe better run a Kroil patch in there and get it cleaned up...

[dondiego]

I too recently shot some Thunderbolts and my barrel was like a mirror afterwards. I have had more duds with Rem ammo than any other brand though.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

If I read correctly you were able to remove rod. What about a .17 brush wrapped with Chore Boy/Kroil and a generous amount of elbow grease. Hopefully getting to the point of wrapping .22 brush.

This is exactly what I was going to post. Good ol' Remington 22 lr. They are indeed legendary. [smilie=b:

[ghh3rd]

By the way, it's a Ruger SR22 pistol.

I finally got the barrel clean. I soaked it in Kroil for a day. I found an old mushy worn out .22 brass brush, which would fit a little way into the chamber. I wrapped a couple of strands of "Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner" around the end of it and pushed it back in, just enough pressure to ensure that it could come back out.

After a lot of these push it in, tug it out's, it was going it just a little farther. I applied more Kroil, and let it sit another day. I put more strands of Big 45 on the brush, and repeated the process and it started making more headway, with little pieces of lead separating from the barrel.

After a few more sessions, I was finally able to get the brush all of the way through, and loaded it with more strands of Big 45 -- that stuff sliced through the remainder of the lead after many passes, and the barrel is finally clean and bright again. The Kroil was a great aid, and the Big 45 took care of the rest.

What a hassle! I tried to call Remington, twice, but quit waiting to speak to someone after waiting 30 minutes (timed) each time.

I've never had bad leading, and it shocked me how quickly it happened. I feel lucky that we quit trying to get more rounds through it when we did, or something bad could have happened. It's strange that the gun likes Golden Bullets.

Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions!

[prs]

I would use the elbow grease method. In this day and age of get what rim fire ammo you can, I have some ofnthis RemCrap and some other uncoated lead bullet ammo that tends to lead my barrels. Lucky, that I caught it time to not be so bad. My preventative measure now is to go ahead and use the ammo but lube the bullets. I open the box and slide out the tray with the boolits head up. Then dip a patch into the Johnson's Paste Wax, smear my the wet patch over the boolits. No more leading and once dry the boolits are clean to handle. Thought about trying Recluse lube, but the wax works well as is. I sure wish I could buy CCI Stingers at normal prices.

prs

[Blammer]

get some mercury, pour it in the barrel let it desolve the lead then finish cleaning it

[MT Gianni]

Dip the remaining rounds, bullet only, in a thinned mix of LLA. [Lee Liquid Alox]

[ghh3rd]

Those bullets will never touch another of my barrels. I am not that desperate to shoot those .22's to risk going through that again.

It's funny that I had just only recently read a post somewhere from someone whose dad was a gunsmith. Someone brought an old .22 that had been handed down in their family in for him to look at as it hadn't been a good shooter for years. What he described was what I saw in my barrel, a ton of lead so that the bullets were being squeezed through the lead. Then it happened to me :-\

[TCFAN]

Just now saw this thread. The very same thing happened to me only my pistol was a Buckmark.Ammo was Thunderbolts that had no lube or grease of any kind.I shot half a brick before i noticed that the bullets were going through the targets sideways when I could hit them.
When I took the pistol apart I could see very little light through the barrel. A cleaning rod would not fit.I plugged the muzzle with a rubber insert and filled it with Kroil.Let it soak for a day and went after it with a cleaning rod and a bronze brush.It took awhile before I could get a rod all the way through but when i did I took bronze Chore Boy wrapped around a old brush and started scrubbing.The lead came out in long strips.All together it took 3 days to get it back to normal.
I will never ever buy REMINGTON unplated rimfire 22's again........Terry

[ghh3rd]

TCFan - sounds like we got the same lot of ammo :? and resolved the leading the same way. Again, I have been shooting many thousands of .22's for decades, and larger calibers (cast 38 40 44 45) for several years, and never had a leading issue before -- now I know what it feels like :(.

[bbqncigars]

I had much the same leading experience on my 1894 Marlin. I got it over the net (yeah, I know) from a reputable dealer. The bore on this 25-20 was so leaded that I ruined two Brownell .22 rifle brushes progressing through days of Kroil and copper ChoreBoys before the smooth steel was revealed. It boggles my mind that someone could shoot a gun with a bore that leaded.

[fastfire]

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide will "dissolve" lead into a black substance and it'll wash right out

I clean SS suppressors by soaking over night some times for 3 days replacing with clean solution each day with no issues.

[winelover]

I have shot brick after brick of Thunderbolts in four different 22 caliber firearms without major issues. Yes, I get an occasional miss fire but no big deal when plinking. These are not recent manufacture, paid $8.90 a brick back in the 90's. Maybe their quality control was better then.

Winelover

[ghh3rd]

It is ironic that up until a couple of years ago I had two one-pound vials of mercury that my father left behind from his days making dental appliances. I dropped them off at a chemical amnesty day they had around here -- I was afraid of the consequences if a hurricane / flood ripped through the house and distributed mercury all over the place.

[Motor]

I know some stainless steel acts like a lead magnet but I never heard of Remington T bolts causing such lead fouling.

I did have a SS Security Six that I sold because it would always lead foul but with it a Lewis lead remover did the trick. I know the .22 is much tighter. Personally I would go the chemical route.

Motor

[Petrol & Powder]

Glad you got it fixed!

[birddog]

Go to the hardware store and get some brass wool, using a 17cal jag and rod. I use a homemade cleaner of equal parts of acetone, kerosene, marvel mystery oil. Cuts lead buildup very well. When done get some fire lapping compound and go to work polishing the bore. Some need more than others.
Charlie

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

what did you mean to say with the word? If it was dilemma, you are close...