Ever Try a Drill/Brush To Clean A Revolver?

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trky chsr

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I recently acquired an old S&W revolver which seems to have a sticky chamber. A friend who shoots Cowboy Action with his wife and who has a lot of guns to clean afterward says he usues a cordless drill and bore brushes to clean the chambers. I tried it and it works great! If you haven't tried it I suggest you do. It only takes a minute to get all six sparkly clean. I haven't used it on the barrel but it should work fine for that as well. TC
 
I've used a bore mop with a bit of Flitz to polish chambers.

You can't do it with a barrel, rifling gets in the way. Need to use longitudinal scrub, not rotary. You could however mount a brush on a sawzall. ;)
 
It's a pretty well known and older trick but it's worth repeating for folks that don't know.

For .357 chambers a .40 cal brush works slick as snot for this.

I've also got a .243 brush I use for chambers on my .22 revolvers. Again it cleans them out sooner than it takes to type this.

Do not even consider for more than it takes to read this about using the same brush on a drill in the barrel. I'll go further and suggest that it could result in damage to the rifling. This brush in a drill is for SMOOTH WALLED CHAMBERS ONLY such as found on your revolver cylinder. The barrel is a whole other deal entirely.
 
If you ever looked in the cylinders with a bore scope you would never use the bore brush on a drill again. It won't show right away but in the long term you will see a great deal of damage to your gun. Also you can never hold the drill perfectly square to the cylinder so you wear one side more them the other. Bore brushes were never made to to be spun but rather pushed through and then dragged back through very carefully.

Don't be fooled when you use this method you are removing metal and over time there will be a lot of damage done to your gun.

I have read articles many times that almost no guns are ever shot out they are just runined by people cleaning them improperly.

Graydog
 
I have used brass wool (similar to steel wool) wrapped around an undersized bore brush to do the same thing, brass wool is softer then steel and cannot take anything except lead and powder fouling off and will not damage the steel...

change it regularly on the bore brush, it is cheap and frankly a new hunk for every cylinder hole is easy to do and limits any possible damage.
 
TinkerBell said:
....brass wool is softer then steel and cannot take anything except lead and powder fouling off and will not damage the steel... change it regularly on the bore brush, it is cheap and frankly a new hunk for every cylinder hole is easy to do and limits any possible damage.
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The whole brush, mop etc mounted in a drill thing has been used for a long time. I have used it myself to ease sticky chambers on long guns as well as handguns.

The problem with it is the misconception that the softer metal can't damage the harder metal on the firearm. The softer metal will pick up tiny particles and these tiny particles will grind away at the metal of the firearm. If you use the same brass brush over and over again doing this, there is a danger you could damage your firearm due to a combination of a build up of abrasive particles on the brush and the high speed rotation of the drill.

If you don't understand how this works, think of a bar of soap. Drop it in some sand: now rub it on your skin! :eek:

Changing out the mop or brush etc will help control this abrasive wear but you should still only use this technique of cleaning to deal with a particular issue that warrants the risks involved.

As mentioned above an oversized boresnake will take care of most cleaning issues.

John
 
SandRoad said:
I've used a bore mop with a bit of Flitz to polish chambers.

You can't do it with a barrel, rifling gets in the way. Need to use longitudinal scrub, not rotary. You could however mount a brush on a sawzall. ;)
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Now that's what I call..."thinkin outside the box"...LOL
 
In response to Greydog's and John in BC's posts I wonder if this is a case where stainless is a less appropriate metal for guns than blued steel.

I'm a big blued gun fan. I've used a .40cal brush with Ed's Red solvent to clean all my revovler cylinders for 6 guns for some time now. I have not seen any signs of the blueing in the chambers becoming lighter up to now. Even at the edges where it would be more likely to show up first.
 
Why is everyone is such a hurry to clean their guns?
I remember growing up watching my dad and his brothers sitting around drinking beer cleaning their guns and bull####ing about who the best shooter was. Everybody is in such a dam hurry for everything these days;when its cleaning time i pack in a lip full of sweet lady skoal crack a beer and tell the old lady to leave me alone for some alone time with my boom sticks.
 
graydog said:
If you ever looked in the cylinders with a bore scope you would never use the bore brush on a drill again. It won't show right away but in the long term you will see a great deal of damage to your gun. Also you can never hold the drill perfectly square to the cylinder so you wear one side more them the other. Bore brushes were never made to to be spun but rather pushed through and then dragged back through very carefully.

Don't be fooled when you use this method you are removing metal and over time there will be a lot of damage done to your gun.

I have read articles many times that almost no guns are ever shot out they are just runined by people cleaning them improperly.

Graydog
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Nonsense, old wives tale.

So, you are saying that driving an unlubricated, oversized, copper or steel projectile down the barrel at a couple thousand feet per second, ahead of a several thousand degree flame, won't wear out a barrel, but a few brush strokes with a loosely fitting, and solvent lubricated brush will wear it out? :confused:

Please, show proof, not speculation. One, just one documented case of where a gun was worn out by over cleaning.
 
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The OP needs to clean the cylinders of a revolver he just acquired. I had exactly the same problem with a 686.
I used a bore brush attached to a Dremel. This was after trying everything else I could think of.
The bore brush is much softer than the metal used to make the cylinder. I wouldn't worry about damage.
 
has anyone ever tryed to clean the smooth barrels of there shotgun with a drill, brush, and some solvent? this post has made me wonder how well it would work
 
BCRider said:
In response to Greydog's and John in BC's posts I wonder if this is a case where stainless is a less appropriate metal for guns than blued steel.

I'm a big blued gun fan. I've used a .40cal brush with Ed's Red solvent to clean all my revovler cylinders for 6 guns for some time now. I have not seen any signs of the blueing in the chambers becoming lighter up to now. Even at the edges where it would be more likely to show up first.
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I couldn't tell you :)

All I know is I grease cranes for a living and I have seen the damage that is done when a brass journal bearing becomes contaminated and eats a hardened steel shaft.

I'm not saying never ever clean a firearm this way - I do it myself on occaision- I am just saying understand the issues associated with this procedure and proceed cautiously.

I have never used a drill for routine cleaning. But I have used it to polish particularly dirty or sticky chambers in longarms and revolver cylinders. I have also used it to remove plastic residue in a shotgun barrel.

IF I was going to do this on a regular basis I think at the very least I would be very careful to clean the brushes very after and/or, as a previous poster mentioned, change to new brushes or mops as soon as they appeared to be getting dirty.

Anyhow that's all I know about the subject. Hope it helps :D

John
 
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