Anyone polish the INSIDE of their barrel?

[d_striker]

I was reading about polishing the inside of the barrel with jb bright preventing fouling. Has anyone done this?

[Shottist]

Fire lapping is a form of polishing the inside of a barrel. The grits go up to 1200 (in the NECO kit). Final polish is with a cleaning patch on a bore brush, coated with JB paste or SemiChrome. I have done it many times, both rifle & revolver. Always got an improvement in accuracy and reduced (basically eliminating) leading.

Hope this helps.

[yondering]

The Tubb's Final Finish kit is a bore polishing kit. It does a great job of eliminating fouling.

In my experience, for JB compound to be effective, you have to start with a really smooth bore in the first place. It's such a fine polish that it won't clean up a rough bore with any reasonable amount of work.
I have heard of applying it to paper patched boolits though, with good results.

[stephen perry]

Using JB inside barrel as a final cleaning step has been around as long as JB has been around. Tubbs and others have been handed down in his case from an ordinance tech that gets no credit or money for marketing such. But such is the game when articles are written use a well known name. Follow the directions on the JB container, apply solvent on the patch before adding JB. Black patches mean something is working. No need to repeat. Patch out after JB with your solvent. White patches are not necessary after patching. Slight color in the patch is OK. If you are storing a gun add a couple patches of solvent this gives the needed lubrication especially in a chrome moly barrel.

Polishing is a loose term in gunsmithing. Does it mean removing metal or removing the last of powder fouling. Left over powder fouling can cause leading in a barrel as lead will attach to anything as it moves at a high velocity.
Done.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR :brokenima

[AZ-Stew]

I bought a Bushmaster Varminter upper receiver for an AR I was building this spring. Bushmaster has a recommended break in procedure for this barrel. I was skeptical, but followed their instructions (which are available on line). Fire up to 60 rounds, then clean to bare metal, followed by JB, applied according to Bushmaster's instructions. Another 60 rounds and repeat the cleaning procedure and JB. After a total of about 400 rounds, if I recall, repeat the cleaning again, followed by JB. Each time I did their cleaning procedure I got less fouling, of both copper and powder varieties. I'm up to just over 1,000 rounds now, and each time I clean it, there is less work to do. If I had known about Montana Xtreme Copper Killer solvent before I started, the first couple of cleanups would have been easier. That stuff REALLY cleans a bore in record time. After a 70 round match I only have to use 2-3 patches to get rid of everything left in the barrel. The copper is gone after the first or second patch.

When I was doing the JB bore paste application per Bushmaster's procedure, I always got black patches, even when the bore was as clean as the solvent would get it. I called Brownell's to find out whether my solvent was defective and that I was getting the last of the powder fouling with the JB, or whether I was seeing something else on the patch. Brownell's told me that the JB was taking off a microscopic layer of metal from the bore, just as silver or copper polish does when used. This is why your silver or copper polishing rag gets black spots on it. Point is, the JB is a fine polishing compound. It does polish the bore, but doesn't remove enough metal to damage the barrel.

When I get my new bolt action varmint rig finished next spring, I'm going to use the same break in procedure. It works. The Bushmaster barrel is extremely easy to clean and the rifle seems to be more accurate than it was when I started using it.

Regards,

Stew

[Shiloh]

Used some Flitz a time or two. Thats as radical as I've ever been. Fortunately I have no really bad barrels.

Shiloh

[JeffinNZ]

AZ-Stew is right about the JB. My .223 Rem 700 used to jacket foul until I began cleaning it with JB each time I used it. Hundreds of round on.........very little if any jacket fouling and never cleaned if just fed lead.

[d_striker]

Thanks for all the good replies.

I just ordered some JB Compound and JB Bore Bright. I'm going to lap the barrel of my XDm 9 in an attempt to reduce both lead and copper fouling. I notice copper residue in the barrel after only one magazine of my jacketed reloads. I also get a little bit of leading.

Can anyone direct me to some instructions on how to go about this?

[AZ-Stew]

Here's the Bushmaster breakin procedure. I guess I forgot some of the details:

A new barrel will shoot best if careful attention is given to proper break-in. Differing opinions exist as to what constitutes proper break-in, however, we recommend that no more than 20 rounds be fired at one time before cleaning the barrel - for the first 60 rounds. Each time the barrel is cleaned for the first 120 rounds, it must be thoroughly cleaned, removing all traces of copper and fouling. Recommended procedure for thorough cleaning: In all cases it is vital that cleaning tools (brushes, patches, etc.) be pushed from the breech toward the muzzle and then removed from the rod at the muzzle end. DO NOT drag anything back through the muzzle. Clean the bore with a good bore cleaner. Decopper the bore with a copper solvent. Clean the bore again with JB Bore Cleaner paste as follows; 1. Work the JB paste into a new patch. 2. Wrap the patch around a worn bore brush. 3. Push it through the bore for ten strokes. Replace the patch every five strokes. 4. Run a dry patch then an oil patch if storing the rifle. After the barrel is broken in , clean the bore immediately after each shooting session. Decopper the barrel every 300-400 rounds. Clean the bore every 1,000 rounds with JB Bore Cleaner.

As they say, don't scrub the JB back and forth through the barrel. One direction only. Use a bore guide. If you get JB on your cleaning rod (and you can't help but do it) and you scrub it back and forth against either end of the barrel, you'll damage the barrel.

Since JB is a mild abrasive, I deviate a bit from Bushmaster's procedure. After the JB I run a couple of patches coated with solvent through the bore to wash out the JB, followed by a couple of dry patches, and finally a patch coated with oil. I just discovered Montana Xtreme Bore Conditioner, which is a very light machine oil. I think it's perfect for preservation. It's too light for most lubrication jobs. I don't work for them, but the folks at Western Powders (Ramshot, Accurate and Solo powders and the Montana X-Treme cleaning products) are making great stuff. They're well known now, but I see them becoming a much bigger name in shooting products.

Regards,

Stew

[d_striker]

Thanks Stew!

[kodiak1]

Shoot Paper Patch they shine em up really nice on the inside.


Ken.

[zomby woof]

I've used the Kroil J-B compound and J-B bore bright. It gets a barrel extremely clean. It will save you lots of patches. I just added the bore bright. The original J-B works so well, I don't notice much of a difference with the bore bright. The better the barrel, the better and easier the clean up. Kriegers clean up easy.

[stubshaft]

Used some Flitz a time or two. Thats as radical as I've ever been. Fortunately I have no really bad barrels.

Shiloh


+1 On using Flitz. I used to use it to prep my Benchrest barrels and as a final polish when breaking in my Silhouette barrels.

[GP100man]

I`m another Flitzer , it done a good job & ya can feel it as it does it`s thang , the mop will get smoother & smoother as ya go!!

[XWrench3]

[QUOTE][Fire lapping is a form of polishing the inside of a barrel. The grits go up to 1200 (in the NECO kit). /QUOTE]

i have used the tubbs final finish system. it worked quite well. at the time, i was shooting just "j" bullets. but, if i remember right, it stops at 600. i am going to do this to my s&w 629 soon. where do i find the neco kit??? i-think-i-gott-a-have-a-need-a-one! LOL!

[rob45]

[QUOTE][Fire lapping is a form of polishing the inside of a barrel. The grits go up to 1200 (in the NECO kit). /QUOTE]

i have used the tubbs final finish system. it worked quite well. at the time, i was shooting just "j" bullets. but, if i remember right, it stops at 600. i am going to do this to my s&w 629 soon. where do i find the neco kit??? i-think-i-gott-a-have-a-need-a-one! LOL!

I prefer the NECO kit over all others if I'm fire-lapping. They are pricey, but the quality is top notch. Just one of their kits will provide enough material to do at least ten barrels; usually closer to fifteen. Their abrasives are selected for uniformity, and that is the key to not only the higher cost, but also the superior effectiveness of their product. Follow their instructions to the letter, and you can't go wrong. If you don't feel the need for the entire kit, they used to sell the individual components.

The NECO kit comes with 220, 400, 800, and 1200 grits. A tech there explained this to me. Bore lapping by the barrel manufacturer is a very labor-intensive process; most barrel makers do not polish any finer than 320, sometimes with the exception of very small calibers .22 and under. So if I'm starting with a factory barrel, I start with the 220 grit. A "custom" barrel means I start with the 400 grit. An ultra-premium $$ barrel gets started with 800 grit.

I asked them about going finer than 1200, and was told that while doing so was not detrimental, it was not necessary as it would provide no extra benefit. In other words, a waste of time, powder, primers, and bullets. When you start getting that fine, the cleaning compounds such as JB provide that final effect. In my experience, the most important factor is thorough cleaning intervals during the fire-lapping process, especially when switching to a finer grit size. Otherwise, you're no longer lapping the barrel itself; you're lapping fouling. As always, follow their directions.

http://www.neconos.com/index.html

In the past, I have received a lot of flack about using the fire-lapping process. Those who seem to condemn it are also those who do not understand it. This goes hand-in-hand with the concept of "breaking in" a barrel; some believe in it, while others say it's hogwash. Any time I get a new gun (or barrel), I fire-lap it and that takes care of any "break-in" procedure.

Properly fire-lapping the bore will not ruin the barrel, as is commonly believed. At the very most, the process will remove no more than .0001" of metal from your bore, usually considerably less. The largest concern about fire-lapping involves lengthening the throat (moving the rifling forward). I have talked to several industry insiders about this, from gunsmiths to barrel makers to the people at NECO. They all offer the same advice: Use only jacketed bullets for the fire-lapping process; using lead bullets (for the fire-lapping) seems to accelerate the tendency to move the throat forward. So I guess if you have one of those guns notorious for a short throat (newer Ruger No.1??), fire-lapping with a lead bullet might be a way to take care of that problem!:rolleyes:

While the lapping process can improve accuracy, it is not meant to be a cure-all for accuracy problems. It won't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It can be used to smooth barrel-to frame constrictions in revolvers, and it polishes a rough bore as received from the factory. Smooth bores are definitely the way to go when shooting cast boolits. What fire-lapping will do is reduce fouling, considerably. All types of fouling: lead, copper, and powder. To me, anything that means more shots and less cleaning (and easier cleaning when that time does come) is simply a good investment.

This is based on my experience; as always, your mileage may vary.

[Bass Ackward]

I always say that there are no facts in shooting. Well, I am wrong.

Here is one: Everything you put down your bore from a patch to a copper bullet to a bullet loaded with some abrasive material, all has some amount of metal removing (polishing) effect. Metal HAS to be removed to obtain a perfect or uniform surface or bore condition.

The ONLY difference between those methods mentioned is the RATE of metal removal and the margin for error associated. But all guns are new, they wear to break in, they wear to improve and they continue to improve up until they stabilize and then they wear and begin to degrade and eventually wear out. Every gun regardless of make or type goes through those stages. Just some stages are faster than others, mostly based upon " our " expectations for accuracy or the method that we will use the gun.

The only thing we are trying to accomplish is to reach a state where " we " are satisfied with the accuracy " we " are getting with the way or method " we " intend to use the firearm and then try to maintain that acceptable condition for as long as possible.

If you need to use an abrasive to reach " your " standard, then you are justified in doing so. If you can wait and simply afford to fire 2000 jacketed, ( or 10,000 cast) then you reach the same point too. It just cost you more and took longer.

[rob45]

If you need to use an abrasive to reach " your " standard, then you are justified in doing so. If you can wait and simply afford to fire 2000 jacketed, ( or 10,000 cast) then you reach the same point too. It just cost you more and took longer.

Amen.

[JIMinPHX]

Lead Away cloth is a mild abrasive too. I've brought a couple of barrels up to a mirror finish with that stuff before.

[John Boy]

If one wants to 'polish' the bore on their rifle, 600grit Aluminum Oxide is a good abrasive. And be fore warned ... clean the bore after every shot!

[condorjohn]

Would you buy a new car and put grit in the gas or oil to break it in, would you just drive it?

condorjohn

[303Guy]

Would you buy a new car and put grit in the gas or oil to break it in, would you just drive it?I would follow the manufacture's recommendations on breaking it in for the first few thousand miles! An improperly 'broken' in new car engine can suffer considerable damage and shorten its life due to the high friction of the newly machined parts. Perhaps a rifle that is nor 'broken' in can also be 'damaged' and never achieve its full accuracy potential. This could be due to fouling build up on rough edges allowing those bits that need to be 'worn down' to be protected while other bits undergo normal wear, thus degrading accuracy potential.

Some folks have stated that the accuracy of a worn out rifle can be restored by fire-lapping and using a slightly larger, throat fitting projectile. This certainly works on rust damaged bores. I have one and after fire-lapping it does not copper foul and is rather accurate. Then I have a hornet with more severe rust damage which also does not copper foul and is pretty accurate. I have also restored a badly pitted 22 LR to leading free accuracy.

[troy_mclure]

i flitzed my xd40sc bbl.

and used lots of fine powdered graphite with a oily mop to fix up a badly rusted, pitted .22 wmr barrel. smoothed it out the barrel real nice. went from 6" groups @50 yd, to 3" @50 yd.

[d_striker]

Would you buy a new car and put grit in the gas or oil to break it in, would you just drive it?

condorjohn

nice logic. Because gun barrels and internal combustion engines are exactly alike.

[yondering]

i have used the tubbs final finish system. it worked quite well. at the time, i was shooting just "j" bullets. but, if i remember right, it stops at 600.

You're probably thinking of something else, maybe the Wheeler lapping kit from Midway? Even the coarsest of the 5 steps in the Tubb's kit is much finer than 600 grit. It is not a "lapping" kit, per se; it's a "polishing" kit. Also, the Tubb's kit does not tell you what grit or grade of polishing compound it uses.