Removing lead from barrel - how to

[webby4x4]

Hi folks - Newbie question here...

I've cast and loaded a few thousand rounds now for my .45 and 9 mm. Later this week, I plan to go to the range and have some fun.

Aside from regular gun cleaning, is there a special way to deal with barrel leading? Is there a solvent I should use to clean it?

Thanks,
Rick

[Ben]

webby4x4 :

At one time ( 20 yrs. ago ) , I used a Lewis Lead Remover to removed leading from pistol barrels.

Now I use Copper Chore Boy cleaning pads ( about $2.00 at Wallyworld ) . I take a few strands of this stuff and wrap it several times around a worn pistol cleaning brush until it is a good snug fit in your bore. You make 4 or 5 passes through your pistol barrel with this and there is no leading. Your bore will be sparkling clean and the soft copper ( but still harder than the PB ) will not harm your barrel steel.

You can follow this treatment with some Hoppes and then a light coat of oil .

When you've given this treatment to your pistol, you should be good to go.

Ben

[fredj338]

I second the CHoreBoy, work so easily it's not an issue cleaning up after shooting lead bullets. A drop or two of Kroil oil on the brush just makes things go faster. No chance of harming the bbl. as the copper wool is quite soft.

[RayinNH]

Ben mentioned the Lewis Lead Remover. Hoppe's makes a similar thing. In essence it is a round brass patch that fits over a slightly expandable rubber plug. As it is pulled through the bore it removes the lead from the barrel. They are caliber specific and work very well...Ray

[heebs]

Webby4x4
What I have used for years is White vinegar and hydrogen peroxide mixed 50/50. A vase works great as a holder for your barrel. Totally immerse the barrel and watch it bubble. After about 20 minutes, run a patch through and you are done. You will end up with a sludge on the patch. I usually use a degreaser and then oil as you normally do. No rough stuff needed. Just be cautious and don't get the stuff on blueing. I had a compensator with poor bluing on it and now it is a wonderful case hardened look to it.

[dwtim]

The best way is to discover a load that does not accumulate lead fouling. 8-)

Heavy fouling? Lewis lead remover or Chore Boy. I have the Hoppe's one. As long as I can get brass patches, I'm good. This applies only to severe fouling. Other than that, a nice, new brush with sharp bristles does the trick.

I've tried various chemicals, both commercial and the one mentioned above. The commercial ones stink (literally) and take maybe 2 layers of atoms off per pass. The acetic acid / hydrogen peroxide takes off more, but it also removes finishes and leaves white metal exposed. (Oh, it works good...reeeeeeeal good.)

[brianintheup]

I have found that a good bullet lube will help alot with eliminating leading. Try several different lubes and see which one works for you. If you ask which one is the best you will get multiple answers.

[ChuckS1]

Mercury is great if you can get it.

[Flash]

Mercury is great if you can get it.

Yep, I have a 5lb bottle of it. I got it from HVAC workers who remove old mercury switches.

[3006guns]

I'm glad someone else brought up mercury......fastest way to remove lead. You plug the muzzle with a tapered wood dowel and fill 'er up, then wait about ten minutes (longer on a badly fouled barrel). Pull the plug and empty the amalgam back into the original container. Clean. Fast. Politically incorrect, like most good things.

[kelbro]

Make sure that you use the Chore Boy brand. The 'off-brands' may just be copper washed steel and scratch your barrel up. Use a magnet to be sure.

[putteral]

Chore Boy is the way to go.
:castmine:

[Rockchucker]

Now I use Copper Chore Boy cleaning pads ( about $2.00 at Wallyworld ) .




Would this be in the cleanning dept?

[webby4x4]

Chore Boy it is, then! Thanks guys.

Rick

[Cloudpeak]

I use ChoreBoy, dry. And another great thing, it seems the more lead I shoot, the more polished the bore is and the easier it cleans up. My 45's take about 4 passes with the brush/C.B. and they're slick as a whistle.

Cloudpeak

[RoyRogers]

There used to be a flannel type cloth product sold for cleaning lead from barrels. One would cut patches to fit their bore from it and use on a jag. Don't recall if it was green or yellow colored cloth & I haven't seen it in years. It would remove the lead splatter from the front of a stainless steel revolver cylinder in short order as well as clean the lead from a barrel quickly. Seems I remember it was not recommended for external use on blued steel guns.

The choreboy strands work well too & cheaper than the cloth.

[RayinNH]

Roy Rogers, E-Z Brite Wonder Cloth made by Adco. Gets rid of lead deposits, carbon fouling and plastic buildup in shotgun barrels. I only use it on the front of stainless steel cylinders to remove the carbon discoloration. It works very well. I also says on the package not to rub it on blued or color casehardend finishes. I believe other companies make a similar product...Ray

[leadman]

I don't worry about leading anymore since I switched to LBT(Lead Bullet Technologies) Blue Soft lube. If I do get any leading, which is rare, a tight patch on a jag will remove it.
LBT Blue prevents the lead from adhering to the steel.
I pushed a 314299 in a 30-06 to over 2,600fps with just a hint of leading after 3 to 5 shots. One tight fitting patch and the accuracy was restored.

[geargnasher]

I'm jumping on the copper Chore Boy bandwagon, too! Learned that trick trolling threads here long before I joined. Have had many leading problems in the past (still do sometimes when working up new loads until I get the issues worked out) and it works great! :drinks:

btw, if you were to use the vinegar/peroxide trick to treat a non-blued automatic pistol barrel when removed from the gun, it wouldn't be a problem to just soak the whole barrel, would it?

Gear

[Bret4207]

Chore Boy works good, but I use 4/0 steel wool. That's something I have in the shop already and since it's something we use on a highly polished blued barrel I see little chance of it damaging the barrel. I picked the idea up from some of the Schuetezen guys and I don't think someone with a really good barrel is going to risk it, so I stand by 4/0 steel wool.

[Lloyd Smale]

two jacketed bullets every 50 rounds or so and it wont build up enough to be a problem

[Shuz]

I remove minor leading in my .44's by shooting 3 to 5 boolits that are gas checked and stoked by either 18g of 2400 or 17g of WC820. The rest of my revolver shooting is all with plain based boolits. Sure beats scrubing of ANY kind!

[felix]

Ray, try 3 grains of the fastest pistol powder on the bench, fill with grits very lightly compressed, any boolit, checked or not. Five of those shots will even take out the heaviest leading. If those won't work, slug the barrel from the muzzle with a tight boolit. ... felix

[Wilburt]

Another fan of chore boy! Works well and quick. Use it dry first... then hopps or oil.

[fredj338]

two jacketed bullets every 50 rounds or so and it wont build up enough to be a problem

This actually doesn't work that well. It will push out heavier deposits but plates over the top of lighter deposits. Plus, doing thi sin a high pressure round, like a 40, could significantly increase pressure.

[John Boy]

Warmed pure gum turpentine - not the distilled stuff. Bronze brush - sit for 10 minutes - tight patch. If really leaded - repeat process.

Works good also to remove caked powder foul in the grooves. When the patch squeaks going down the bore - your there

[JBL]

Outer's foul out is what I use on my high end target guns. My barrel has never seen a brush! You clean the barrel with a soft patch soaked in your favorite powder solvent then degrease it with Gun scrubber. Plug one end of the barrel and fill it with an electrolyte. You then place a stainless steel rode in the barrel and place a clip on the rode and the barrel. The lead (or copper) is electroplated off the inside of barrel. You can use a flashlight and actually see the lead flakes coming off the barrel and floating to the rode. In just about ten minutes all the lead is off and you have a clean barrel. Then dry with a clean patch and oil.
I also tried it on some old pitted barrels. You wouldn’t believe what came out of those!

[Cloudpeak]

No one's mentioned "Cream of Wheat" yet so I'll throw that out:smile:

I tried it on my 9mm CZ and it seemed to work pretty good. I think I used around 2 grains of W231 and topped it off with COW and a 105 gr SWC bullet but didn't write it down. I did get a small sliver of lead in the chamber which I think had something to do with the SWC bullet. Next time, I'd try a RN bullet but my bores are cleaning up so well now that I don't see a need for it right now.

Cloudpeak

[chasmo]

I just recently used the 50/50 solution 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinager and it works better than anything I have tried in the past 40 years.

[ColColt]

Ray, try 3 grains of the fastest pistol powder on the bench, fill with grits very lightly compressed, any boolit, checked or not.

Grits? Probably not found north of the Mason/Dixon but plentiful around these here parts...mostly for eatin'-not shootin'.

[SlamFire1]

Originally Posted by Lloyd Smale
two jacketed bullets every 50 rounds or so and it wont build up enough to be a problem


This actually doesn't work that well. It will push out heavier deposits but plates over the top of lighter deposits. Plus, doing thi sin a high pressure round, like a 40, could significantly increase pressure.

I regularly shoot out leading from 357's and 44 Mag's with jacketed bullets. I am unaware of any pressure issues.

I don't shoot 40 S&W's but from what I have heard those cartridges are running hot. People blow sidewalls all the time.

I have not gaged my barrels to see if I am plating over deposits. I use a copper brush in all barrels before putting the pistols away and do not notice any issues.

I had some extremely soft factory 32 S&W bullets totally lead the barrel of my M31 S&W. I could not see rifling the inside of the tube was black. It just took enough jacketed bullets to remove all that lead.

[dverna]

Grits? Probably not found north of the Mason/Dixon but plentiful around these here parts...mostly for eatin'-not shootin'.

North of the line, the only reason to buy grits is for shootin'

Heck, our dogs won't eat it.

[Recluse]

Webby4x4
What I have used for years is White vinegar and hydrogen peroxide mixed 50/50.

Just be cautious and don't get the stuff on blueing. I had a compensator with poor bluing on it and now it is a wonderful case hardened look to it.

I've used that a few times on the barrels of guns I recently acquired that had suffered bad leading and fouling.

You've got to be careful, though. Pitting can and does happen if you leave the mixture in too long or if the bbl is not in good condition to begin with. But the mix WILL take out the lead.


I'm jumping on the copper Chore Boy bandwagon, too! Learned that trick trolling threads here long before I joined. Have had many leading problems in the past (still do sometimes when working up new loads until I get the issues worked out) and it works great! :drinks:

I keep a bag of copper Chore Boy scrubbers in the cleaning cabinet, and yep, I learned about them right here some years ago while in the hardcore lurker mode.

But I was gratified to see someone else use a technique that I learned at a S&W armorer's school many years ago--and that is four-aught, or 0000 steel wool.

Bret is a big proponent of it and I am too. In fact, that is what I use on the end of a power drill to clean my revolver cylinders because no matter what, I always get fouling at end of the chambers after enough rounds and have to scrub them out.

The 0000 steel wool and some cleaning oil do a fantastic job.


btw, if you were to use the vinegar/peroxide trick to treat a non-blued automatic pistol barrel when removed from the gun, it wouldn't be a problem to just soak the whole barrel, would it?

Gear

Gear, I wouldn't submerge an entire gun in that mixture. For one, you're going to have dissimilar metals in one liquid mixture, remember? All I know about galvanic corrosion is what I've learned on our boat and from other boaters, but I would think that metal is metal and dunking dissimilar metals in a strong acidic solution could have bad consequences.

The chemists and engineers here can correct me if I'm (probably) wrong.

Two, the mixture is caustic and it is not good for you and it WILL cause pitting on metal that is not in good condition. I have experienced that firsthand on some old guns I traded for and had to work like crazy to clean up.

Just seems like a big risk to take.

:coffee:

[Fredx10sen]

Lewis Lead remover works great for me. Also 1+ on the Chore Boy pads as well.

[Wally]

If one shoots specials in magnum revolvers (ie .38 Spl/.357 Mag & .44 Spl/.44 mag) you know how the cylinder chambers get gunked up. I struggled for years to clean them easily and yes I used the Chore Boy method...if was just not that effective.

I bought an "adapter" that I could screw in a bronze brush, chucked in a drill. Using a well used brush & wrapped it tight with 0000 steel wool and spun it in the cylinder chambers---in seconds they were cleaned of all the gunk --no damage to the cylinder as the very fine steel wool is just too thin/soft to abrade the steel. I found it best not to use any solvent when using this method.

[CPL Lou]

I use a little Kroil on a tight fitting patch with some JB Bore paste for light to moderate leading. Rub back and forth vigorously for a few minutes and 'a-la peanut butter sandwiches', a clean bore !
I have the Hoppes version of the Lewis Lead Remover for tougher stuff.

[milprileb]

In a forum that pours lead alloys to make bullets, it appears the methods of taking lead out of bores (for whatever reason that happens) is pretty shallow and uninspiring.

Scrubbing like mad does not seem to be any better than rubbing sticks to make fire.

Standard solvents don't take lead out.

Its really down to something wound around a brush (steel wool or bronze wool 0000 grade, Lewis lead remover, Frontier gun shop brand or Chore boy type stuff if all copper. Anything else electronic is hardly convenient or common use item.

What I find remarkable if not totally astonishing is the myth of shooting lead out with a FMJ bullet. It is intuitively obvious that you do shoot lead out while layering copper atop lead inside your barrel and now you have created a greater challenge to clean out.

Having said all of that, I mean to throw one big stone in hopes of killing off nonsense. That being this: don't shoot out lead, clean it out.

Lastly the vinegar and peroxide trick is problematic and should be returned to the North Korean Embassy where it belongs.

[Three44s]

Around here it's Copper Chore Boy and good 'ole Lewis and just about anything wet that's gun friendly.

Finnish with USP or JB bore paste and then treat with CorrosionX and dry patch it out.

After a few round trips with JB or USP and you can pretty much drop them.

The Lewis lead remover works best on forcing cones and the Chore boy works good on the "straight aways"!

Three 44s