forcing cone cleaning

[delftshooter]

lewis lead remover for barrel bore, working fine. the cone attachment for cleaning the forcing cone, is doing nothing in my 357. The actual cone of the forcing cone has a nice heavy duty layer of lead i cant get out with anythng except a quick swipe of the soft end of a cleaning brush. cant get much due to angle adn top strap in the way..


is there a quick method of getting the lead plate out?

[JDHasty]

I came up with a way to clean lead out of our slug guns. A variation on it might work for you. Copper Chore Boy, and take a magnet with you when you go shopping, for some reason they produce copper ones and copper plated ones. I tear off a hunk and then use a hardwood dowel against the concrete floor and shove the barrel down over the dowel. It does an amazing job. One pass and all of the lead is gone. Perhaps you can put some Chore Boy pad on top of the screen that comes with a Lewis Lead Remover.

https://choreboyscrubbers.com/chore-boy-products/copper-scouring-pads/

[fastdadio]

My Dan Wesson .22 will lead the forcing cone. Once it gets bad, I pick it off with a dental type 90 deg. pick. It usually comes off in one big piece.
Easy peasy in my case.

[Thin Man]

The most effective forcing cone tool I have ever found is the Brownell's "Revolver Chamber Brush". I was a Police Dept. armorer when we all carried revolvers only (yup, I'm that old). I experimented with every available option on chamber cleaning and stopped searching when I found these brushes at Brownell's. This was the only tool I found to give complete cleaning and satisfaction. Delftshooter, PM inbound.

[delftshooter]

My Dan Wesson .22 will lead the forcing cone. Once it gets bad, I pick it off with a dental type 90 deg. pick. It usually comes off in one big piece.
Easy peasy in my case.

Im worried on damage to the forcing cone if i just sit down and start picking away at it. I know the companies sell dental picks in some cleaning kits for scraping lead out of nooks and crannies, but the long term safety is a question.

I fired 2 cylidners, comprising 14 rounds of generic store bought sellor bellot wadcutters. They left a layer of lead in the forcing cone about as thick as tissue papper. Not exactly enjoyable.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use a copper chore boy strand (CCBS).
Using a proper sized brass jag on a cleaning rod, with thick cotton patch, I wrap the CCBS around the patch. Pre lube the barrel. This setup will barely fit in the barrel. It removes any barrel lead fouling as well as any large deposits in the forcing cone. After a few trips down the barrel, I just barely push the patched brass jag with CCBS still intact through the forcing cone area...moving back and forth a fraction of an inch...cleans up any Lead deposits remaining on the forcing cone.
a few hours soaking the area in Ed's Red makes it easier.

[Bazoo]

To use the Chore Bore Method for cleaning a revolver's forcing cone, you begin the same way as you clean the bore but you add a larger amount of pot scrubber around the brush. Add so much that you cannot pull it into the bore. It will bunch up and conform to the shape of the forcing cone.

Turn the cleaning rod while pulling the brush into the forcing cone. Having a cleaning rod that doesn't have a swiveling handle is a must for this operation and you can make one easily by bending a hook or loop on the end of a section of aluminum rifle cleaning rod.

[DougGuy]

is there a quick method of getting the lead plate out?

I would suggest looking at cylinder throat diameters, and boolit diameters. Somewhere there you have something contributing to the leading, by letting powder gas escape along the sides of the boolit, and now you got melted lead sticking in the forcing cone, and every shot just adds to it.

The easiest way to get the lead out is by not putting it in there to start with. Boolit .001" to .002" greater than your groove diameter, cylinder throats .0005" to .001" greater than boolit diameter. No super hard alloy needed, in fact hard alloys contribute to leading if they can't obturate to the throats as the rounds are fired. Same with the hard crayon lube.

[Bazoo]

Doug knows bullet fit! I'd love to have a Ransom rest to test my gun now... send the cylinder to Doug, and have a great before and after target.

No shame in shooting gas checked bullets until you can get the gun figured out, course that wont help get the forcing cone clean now.

[JDHasty]

It looks like others have gravitated to the copper Chore Boys for lead. I stumbled on them under the sink in mom’s kitchen decades ago and have used them since. I’ve never had lead buildup in revolver forcing cones, but am a stickler on bullet size. If there is anything that can match a Chore Boy for getting lead out efficiently I certainly haven’t heard about it.

[gunther]

Thin Man: Looking at Brownell's catalog, they show both a bronze and a stainless steel chamber brush. Which did you use? Thanks.

[hylander]

Brownells,
Lewis lead out.
Gets the lead out of anything with minimal effort.

[metricmonkeywrench]

I use a pinch of the Frontier metal cleaner strands wrapped around a bore brush to aid in cleanup of the Oops loads.

https://www.amazon.com/Big-45-Frontier-Metal-Cleaner/dp/B07RM692X8

[sledman]

lewis lead remover for barrel bore, working fine. the cone attachment for cleaning the forcing cone, is doing nothing in my 357. The actual cone of the forcing cone has a nice heavy duty layer of lead i cant get out with anythng except a quick swipe of the soft end of a cleaning brush. cant get much due to angle adn top strap in the way..


is there a quick method of getting the lead plate out?

Don't be afraid to put some pressure on the Lewis tool. It won't work until you do.

[grousehunter48]

lewis lead remover for barrel bore, working fine. the cone attachment for cleaning the forcing cone, is doing nothing in my 357. The actual cone of the forcing cone has a nice heavy duty layer of lead i cant get out with anythng except a quick swipe of the soft end of a cleaning brush. cant get much due to angle adn top strap in the way..


is there a quick method of getting the lead plate out?

Chore boy as noted works, but also I’ve not seen the Lewis lead remove fail. It may take a good bit of pressure to get the cone clean. I’ve also fit a heavy weight patch over the cone attachment coated with JB bore paste. It works but it’s not super quick.

Once upon a time I had also used one of the various lead remover cloth products, cut to fit the forcing cone attachment. Again it works but takes time. Also, I fear that the level of abrasive material there may ultimately grind the forcing cone and change dimensions.

You didn’t indicate what revolver this is. Referring to Doug, dimensions or bullet alloy could be an issue. I was thinking that the condition of the forcing cone or possibly dimensions such as barrel/cylinder gap, timing, a carbeurized cone (cooked with heat checking,may be adding to the issue.Possible that there is hard entry edge on the cone that can be fixed with a light chamfe. Or that it’s time to have the barrel set back and cone recut.
If it were me I would get it clean and then checked dimensionallyby someone who knows revolvers. If the mechanicals are ok, then the load may be the issue. My two cent.

[Rapier]

When I do a revolver setup, as I shoot cast in everything, I clean up the factory forcing cone. I have found that 99% look like 20 miles of bad road, chatter, machine marks, etc. Then I polish the cone and uniform the exit holes to .002 over the groove diameter. I polish with valve grinding compound to 800. All my cast are alloyed very, very hard then water dropped before being powder coated and sized to the actual slugged groove diameter.
A sequence that has worked for me in competition and in hunting for 60+ years. I never figure on getting any expansion with a handgun at all, it is way more important to me to hit exactly what I aim at. I hunt with a handgun,, on the ground in heavy brush, hogs and deer.
Hunting wild boar on the ground with a single shot handgun adds a bit of spice to your life.

[sigep1764]

What was said above, I use a dental pick. It will bend before it scratches the forcing cone. The metal in the picks is pretty soft considering the dentists use them on our teeth!