Damnedest thing....

[GF.]

So after I missed my tree stump, of course I owed my rifle a cleaning......

And as I went along, I started dropping patches off of the jag. :confused: Ultimately, I was able to keep them on by keeping a little pressure against the rifling, but it sure caused me some consternation for a while there. I did pick up a few good ways to remove lost patches, though...

Snapping a cap didn't budge them, BTW....

I didn't have a worm, so I clipped the end off of a 20 ga. bronze brush and separated the wires to make one; that works pretty well. And when the patch got pressed all the way down into the breech plug ( I was experimenting with a T/C jag that steps down from .54 to .45 or so to see if I could get into the plug), I was able to pump it out with water.

But I really don't get why the patches stopped staying put on the jag... :confused:

I also never quite got to where the patches were coming out as clean as I want them to be - looks like there's still some light surface rust or something. And even when I started running lubed patches down the bore, it's just not as bright as I really want it. Looks like there's a fine, fine layer of white, oxidized stuff in there, and I can't get it to go away.

Do you suppose it's possible that 12 years in a salt air environment is just more than a barrel can take without benefit of regular swabbing?

I'd hate to think that this rifle has had it :frown:

I figure the best thing to do is to dedicate an afternoon to a range session and see if it still hits at least as well as I can see to shoot it; it was a one-hole wonder the first session out of the gate, so it'd sure be a shame if I've neglected it to death.....

Any ideas?

[Gil Martin]

I use a slotted tip on the cleaning rod to run patches down the bore and have never lost one. Not sure how you clean you rifle, but I use hot soapy water, hot water, dry patches and oil patches. Light rusting can be removed with Remington Bore Cleaner on a patch around a brush and JB Bore Cleaner on a brush. Good luck on your project. All the best...
Gil

[captchee]

your cleaning jag should have groves around it . these groves are what hold the patch to the jag . if you patch is to thin , it will pop off . as to getting down in the improved breech .
you can use a sloted cleaning tip as gil stated . or get you a 22 cal bore brush and brush the fouling out .
as to salt air ?/ should not have hurt the bore . but if you have not cleaned it in a while . the salt air will add to the fouling and etch the bore . again not an issue unless its tearing up patches when you shoot

[GF.]

Plenty of grooves on the jag, just not thick enough on the patches, I guess. The worrisome thing is the not being able to get the patches to come up as clean as I'd like, so when it started to feel like the bore was getting bigger as I went along, I started gettin' the heebie-jeebies!

Yup, I've always been a hot, soapy water kind of cleaner - I usually start with a 20 ga. bronze brush with a patch on the end - after a while, those get necked down to fit all the way to the bottom of the breech - and I've always just kept on running wet patches through the bore 'til they came out clean. Then some dry ones, then some with wonder lube on 'em.

Hadn't thought of using a smaller brush down there on the breech... Oughtta take a look at that....

Thanks, fellas!

[Sabre]

What are you using for patch lube GF ? If it's a bore butter/wonder lube type stuff it will combine with burnt powder residue and form a coating on the bore. I guess this coating is what T/C refers to as "seasoning". If you have a buildup of that in your bore it will make your paches come out brown even after alot of cleaning. Patches and hot, soapy water won't get rid of it. To remove it you need to go after it with a bronze bore brush.

[DaveHawk]

GF I use a little decreasing at the end of the season for the finial cleaning. If you talk with any chem clean or fire restorers companies see if you can get a little bit of Soot Eraser off them. You only need 15% in warm water to loosen up any and all residue. then warm soap and water will remove the the rest.