Mud Wasps plugged barrel

[ascast]

Mud Wasps plugged barrel in my heavy target gun which I use for deer plugging. I have brushed and brushed but still have a blob of something stuck in there. Anybody got any ideas? Barrel is stainless, 30-06.
I really want to get it out without blasting it out with light loads
thanks all

[smokeywolf]

If you can do it without risking your wood. I think I'd try alcohol first. If that doesn't work my next effort would be with acetone.

[JWFilips]

Wouldn't mud wasp secretions be water base? I'm thinking hot soapy water
Just my 2 cents

[alamogunr]

I hope they haven't been in there long. I had an old single shot .22 that I bought for $4 when I was in high school. After taking care of it (sort of) for 30 years I left it in the garage. We call them dirt daubers here in TN, got into the barrel. I didn't find it for months and although the mud is gone, the bore is extremely pitted where the nest was. I just shoot shot cartridges in it now.

[Mk42gunner]

I'd get one of the stainless steel Tornado brushes and try it. Don't expect too much, the barrel is probably pitted even though it is stainless.

This may turn into your first chance to counter bore a rifle.

Robert

[ascast]

I'd get one of the stainless steel Tornado brushes and try it. Don't expect too much, the barrel is probably pitted even though it is stainless.

This may turn into your first chance to counter bore a rifle.

Robert




Not first time, but.... it's about 10 inches in. I assumed it was rust but maybe it is secretion of some kind. I am hopeful

[John Boy]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WYnkIkz2L._SY355_.jpgHand Steamer

[jmorris]

Get a bag of finger cots to prevent it in the future.

[ascast]

Get a bag of finger cots to prevent it in the future.

brilliant !

[aspangler]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WYnkIkz2L._SY355_.jpgHand Steamer

Where do you find one of these? I have been looking for two years.

[retread]

Here you go> On sale too!

https://www.amazon.com/Bargains-Multi-purpose-Pressurized-crevasses-Accessories/dp/B00T56FK96/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479706059&sr=8-1&keywords=comforday+steamer

[Ballistics in Scotland]

A piece of brass rod or tubed filed slightly obliquely will make a good scraper. It is also possible that a lot of boiling water poured through, like rifle used to get in the days of corrosive primers, making the barrel too hot to hold, will shift what cooler water won't.

I don't know if the substances they use will pit steel, but if they do, the chances are that it is right at the muzzle, and isn't deep enough to make the crown uneven. It may have little or no effect on accuracy. Don't let it undermine what you expect of yourself, until you have given it a careful trial.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Get a bag of finger cots to prevent it in the future.

I do not want to dwell on what you might do with a double shotgun. People talk. Jeff Cooper thought the best home defence weapon for someone totally uninterested in recreational shooting was a double hammer shotgun. It could lie on a shelf for years with no spring tensioned, and he advocated taping the muzzles to keep ceramically inclined intruders out.

[Mk42gunner]

Not first time, but.... it's about 10 inches in. I assumed it was rust but maybe it is secretion of some kind. I am hopeful
Ten inches into the bore doesn't sound like the mud daubers we have around here. At one time I had a Type 38 Arisaka that had hung in a barn for years. It had a fairly solid three inch plug right at the muzzle. It had already been shortened to about nineteen inches, so it got a 5/16" counter bore, down to good rifling.

It shot okay, not stellar, but okay afterwards.

Yours may require a new barrel.

Good luck,

Robert

[Blackwater]

I'm with JWPhillips here. The reasons being you don't want to poke a hard rod in that nice, smooth bore, and scratch it up, so this means that you'll want to use something soft. Nothing's softer than hot, soapy water, and make sure you use liquid hand soap, and NOT "dishwashing detergent." Soaps and detergents are to separate and very different chemicals. Soap has fats in it that tend to help "float" out any dirt, grit or grime, while detergents merely loosen any bond to the barrel. I'd use a LOT of hot, soapy water, merely poured in, and let it do its work. Keep going until you can see not even the slightest trace of glop in your bore. Then, let the barrel dry a few minutes, and then use solveent, and then oil the bore, and wipe most of that oil out with a clean, dry patch. There'll be no rust, which is the big fear that many have of using soap and water on metal in a gun. Hot, soapy water can really be a godsend to keeping guns clean and working right. I found nothing that would come close to it in re-doing some guns that had sat a week in brackish water after Hurricane Katrina. I cleaned up 3 M-12 Win.'s, and the owner said they'd never functioned nearly as well. We polished out all the pits we could, and reblued them, but the BIG job was fighting the rust. Nothing I tried beat hot, soapy water. NOTHING! I learned a lot working on those 3 guns. FWIW?

[SSGOldfart]

Wouldn't mud wasp secretions be water base? I'm thinking hot soapy water
Just my 2 cents
Yep they get into everything in ETX
Hot water is your best choice here, it might take a couple of washing to get it all out ,use a little soap the first time and plain hot water from there.

Do Not try shootings it out.:evil:

[Texas by God]

Good old dirt daubers. Water will get it. Stand it up muzzle down and fill the barrel to the throat and let it sit overnight. The mud will wick up the water and soften enough to rinse most of it out. I had to do it this summer to my brothers .243 beater rifle. Luckily no pitting. Best, Thomas.

[jmorris]

I do not want to dwell on what you might do with a double shotgun.

I don't have a problem with them in the house and the only doubles I have outside of the safes are old "wall hangers" anyway with Damascus barrels.

I also use ID/OD push on plastic caps though. They are a bit more durable than a finger cot for extended use.

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20160724_131701_922-1_zpsmqgl6rzk.jpg

[huntrick64]

I used to just roll up one of those foam ear plugs and stick in the end of the barrel. As long as moisture doesn't get on it, you will do well with it.

[aspangler]

Here you go> On sale too!

https://www.amazon.com/Bargains-Multi-purpose-Pressurized-crevasses-Accessories/dp/B00T56FK96/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479706059&sr=8-1&keywords=comforday+steamer

Thanks! One on the way here.