Turning and turning in the widening...bore

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ironllama

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Credit if you get the poem that line is from!

Anyway, I bought a brass pistol bore brush, and here's my question: should I turn it in the direction of the rifling as I pass it through, or just put it in and pull it out straight?

All ###ual puns aside, and not to start a flame war, I just don't want to wear out the rifling. I tend to turn it vigorously when inserting it.

What do you think?
 
My cleaning rods have a bearing in the handle, so bore brushes and snug patches on a jag just rotate the rod with the spiral of the rifling as they progress up the bore. You are probably wanting to get the sides of the rifling cleaned as well as the top of the rifling and the face of the grooves - so, I really do not see how rotating more or less than the spiral can work? I think that you want your brush bristles to be dragging (scraping?) along on the entire surface that you want to clean crap off? Many moons ago, I was told to never reverse direction of a snug fitting brush within a bore - all the way out, and then all the way back - need a well worn or "too small" one to do "scrubbing".

Mind you, that is a 33" (84 cm) long rod for cleaning mostly centre fire rifle, not hand gun barrels, but I would suspect the principal is the same?

As far as the poem - some Internet place says that is the first line from Yeat's "The Second Coming" - "Turning and turning in the widening gyre ..."
 
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Thanks for the reply. I did some more research. It looks like it won't be a problem to rotate the brush, but like anything, don't overdo it.
And yes, The Second Coming! My fav poem
 
Just an FYI - I buy brass bore brushes three at a time from Amazon.ca - per bore diameter - on some very well abused, rusty "crusty" old milsurp bores, one can "wear out" a brush in about 25 or 30 full length "back and forth" strokes - is noticeably looser fit in there, compared to when you started - either the brush getting wore out, or much crap got loose and was swept out. One correctly sized brush might last a long time, if the bore is looked after, though - but consider a bore brush to be a "consumable" - if you use it at all, you will eventually be replacing it.

"Worn out" bore brushes are not tossed out, very often, here - often they get wrapped with strands from 000 or 0000 steel wool pads and used to "lap in" really grungy bores or spun with a drill in really sooted up rimfire chambers.
 
I noticed that an oversized nylon brush I used did not move with the rifling. I used a brass one for the first time tonight, a proper fitting one, and it turned with the rifling upon insertion. Also, the amount of crud that came out on the patch.
So, you are 100% right on the proper sized brush. And nylon doesn't do a damn thing!
 
Potashminer said:
My cleaning rods have a bearing in the handle, so bore brushes and snug patches on a jag just rotate the rod with the spiral of the rifling as they progress up the bore. You are probably wanting to get the sides of the rifling cleaned as well as the top of the rifling and the face of the grooves - so, I really do not see how rotating more or less than the spiral can work? I think that you want your brush bristles to be dragging (scraping?) along on the entire surface that you want to clean crap off? Many moons ago, I was told to never reverse direction of a snug fitting brush within a bore - all the way out, and then all the way back - need a well worn or "too small" one to do "scrubbing".

Mind you, that is a 33" (84 cm) long rod for cleaning mostly centre fire rifle, not hand gun barrels, but I would suspect the principal is the same?

As far as the poem - some Internet place says that is the first line from Yeat's "The Second Coming" - "Turning and turning in the widening gyre ..."
Click to expand...

The Widening Gyre was also the title of Robert Parker Spenser novel, quoting Yeats. Good read. - dan
 
ironllama said:
I noticed that an oversized nylon brush I used did not move with the rifling. I used a brass one for the first time tonight, a proper fitting one, and it turned with the rifling upon insertion. Also, the amount of crud that came out on the patch.
So, you are 100% right on the proper sized brush. And nylon doesn't do a damn thing!
Click to expand...

I actually have and have used nylon brushes - but with a cloth patch wrapped around them - so sort of like a very long jag - my thinking was to get more patch surface to contact the bore - to lay in more of the "juice" that I was trying to get to work on the crap in there. I think the nylon brushes were sold as a thing for delicate cleaning - not sure that I buy into that claim - but the sales pitch must have worked, because there are a number of sizes of them here - I just do not use them much for "cleaning a bore", for the reason that you give above.
 
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