Greetings,
Life is about learning. I thought I could treat my cast shooters like I treat all of my rifles. Shoot them until accuracy degrades then clean them. Bad choice. Some of my barrels had 1500-4000 shots on them and I just noticed they started to throw shots. Proven loads would put a round 10-12 inches out of the group. Been doing it for a couple years now and I just decided to look down the barrel. 3 lands were completely fused together and the thrown shots were skidding.
So I set about cleaning them. Hardest work I have done on firearms since I started. Tried everything... chore boy, 45 nickel scrubber, solvents Iosso paste and a solid weeks worth of elbow grease. Just to get to the tops of the lands.
Best was the tornado brush to break the tops. Then the lead cleaning cloth of a bronze brush to start down the grooves then a little at a time it started coming out.
My advice is not to let them get there. What has your experiences been for heavily leaded barrels?
JB