I've been seeing more and more about polishing the barrel and cleaning with denatured alcohol. I've never heard this before I started digging into tss world last year. I know the alcohol cleans out the oil and gunk. Is there a reason most that shoot lead never do this and those that shoot TSS do? I'm just curious about all this. How do I know if I need to polish my barrel? The two guns I'm running are 870 20 youth model and Affinity 3 20 compact. Like to hear any and all thoughts.
If your getting good patterns id leave em alone on the polishing. Deep cleaning on the other hand i would do.
Look down the barrel. If it looks shiny and smooth after cleaning I'd leave em alone if not then I'd probably polish.
My thoughts are that as long as your guns pattern well with the turkey loads you hunt with at the distances that you should responsibly be shooting at, why worry about it? If they don't, then by all means do what it takes to get them where they do.
If it's patterning good , all i do with mine is give it regular good cleaning. The results I'm looking for is shiny barrel. Don't over think it ..
Both of my 870 youth shoot apex better with dirty barrel did a deep clean then shot some low brass out of it
I use some JB Bore Cleaner and after i run that through my barrels I will use some Hoppes #9 and scrub it for about 5 minutes dipping my brush every so often to keep it moist. Then I run dry patches through it until they come out clean. Doesn't take to long to do and I get really good patterns out of my guns. I know some guys will polish them using a drill and Kroil Oil and a drill.
Denatured alcohol is not a new thing, been using it for years. It is about the best thing for removing all oil from barrels, which I do before hunting. It also does a good job on plastic wading left in the barrel.
As for the polishing look in the Guns section of this forum it used to be a big subject way back no telling how many pages on the hows and whys and it's effects on patterns.
I run a mop on my cordless drill, butch's bore shine is great stuff for cleaning!
On my turkey guns they both have chrome lined barrels, so I run a mop on the cordless with some chrome polish, really seems to keep the barrel from fouling up when shot, I do the quick polish on barrels once a year and during season I just normally run a dry bore snake through it after a shot.
I have not tried the dirty vs. clean barrel yet with the tss I load, but a friend has a shot trap and I may play with that this year.
A friend of mine ruined a barrel polishing it. Ended up buying a replacement because it never patterned right afterwards.
I polish all my turkey guns. Ive never seen ones pattern that didnt improve after polishing. Not always tighter but usually more consistant. I use a little flitz polish on some 0000 steel wool on a drill. It doesnt take long.
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Right now I'm just cleaning it good and running alcohol after and bore snake every 2-3 shots. Plan on sticking with that for the time being. The Affinity is chrome lined so not planning anything there. Just thought if polishing my 870 18" barrel would help it any but it's still getting a decent 40 pattern just not what I wanted so I may just leave it be. I'm hoping with the new chokes I got coming they will clean up my pattern. Run a .570 sumtoy in the affinity and .565 Carlsons in the 870. Both get close 200/200 pattern in the 10/20 at 40 yards. Got a .562.5 sumtoy on the way for the affinity and a .555 Carlson on the way for the 870. Hopefully that will get me a little tighter pattern out of each. Season opens Saturday here and I just thinking too much probably.
Quote from: macobb on March 14, 2020, 07:33:50 PM
Right now I'm just cleaning it good and running alcohol after and bore snake every 2-3 shots. Plan on sticking with that for the time being. The Affinity is chrome lined so not planning anything there. Just thought if polishing my 870 18" barrel would help it any but it's still getting a decent 40 pattern just not what I wanted so I may just leave it be. I'm hoping with the new chokes I got coming they will clean up my pattern. Run a .570 sumtoy in the affinity and .565 Carlsons in the 870. Both get close 200/200 pattern in the 10/20 at 40 yards. Got a .562.5 sumtoy on the way for the affinity and a .555 Carlson on the way for the 870. Hopefully that will get me a little tighter pattern out of each. Season opens Saturday here and I just thinking too much probably.
I agree , best not to over think it , and stop chasing numbers. Clean it good and go hunting. I like my Trulock 565 choke ..good luck with your other chokes.
Guess I am going to disagree (kinda').
I do not really know much about TSS and the wads used... But I would assume it is similar to steel... Harder shot (that does not give, and can scratch barrels), so we use a much thicker wad.
The combination of a thicker wad and harder shot creates more plastic deposition on the barrels and especially the choke.
My impression and experience is that these thicker wads with harder shot can leave a thick film of plastic deposition. Often times (shooting steel) that deposition favors one are or one side.
I generally soak my chokes periodically in some sort of gun cleaning solvent, and then scrub it out with a bore brush, and make sure all the plastic is out... I do this at the end of every hunting season (i.e. my duck chokes get cleaned after duck season, and my full choke at the end of turkey season).
As far as the bore itself, I might run some solvent through periodically with a brush, but I have not noticed the deposition issues that I have with the chokes.
Quote from: Marc on March 14, 2020, 10:05:53 PM
Guess I am going to disagree (kinda').
I do not really know much about TSS and the wads used... But I would assume it is similar to steel... Harder shot (that does not give, and can scratch barrels), so we use a much thicker wad.
The combination of a thicker wad and harder shot creates more plastic deposition on the barrels and especially the choke.
My impression and experience is that these thicker wads with harder shot can leave a thick film of plastic deposition. Often times (shooting steel) that deposition favors one are or one side.
I generally soak my chokes periodically in some sort of gun cleaning solvent, and then scrub it out with a bore brush, and make sure all the plastic is out... I do this at the end of every hunting season (i.e. my duck chokes get cleaned after duck season, and my full choke at the end of turkey season).
As far as the bore itself, I might run some solvent through periodically with a brush, but I have not noticed the deposition issues that I have with the chokes.
I think we're doing the same thing. I was more or less saying I don't think I'm going to be polishing my barrel but deep cleaning it and the chokes with bore cleaner and then run denatured alcohol after.
I'm a polisher. My 835 had machining marks in it when I purchased it over 10 years ago. I cleaned it up and polished it for approximately 15 minutes initially. I shoot Hevi 7's and it did improve the pattern. After the initial polishing, I now clean and polish about 2 minutes once a year, normally right before the season. I have found that brake cleaner and a stiff brush does an excellent job of cleaning the plastic wad residue from your chokes.
I'm not against polishing I'm just more worried of messing up my barrel. I don't want to try for an improvement and end up messing up the barrel on my 870. I can't polish the chrome lined barrel on the affinity I don't think.
If it's chrome lined it should already be as smooth and shiny as it's gonna get.
Back when polishing was all the rage I never understood how someone can ruin a barrel with a piece of scotch brite? Some people could destroy a steel ball with a rubber hammer.
So there's not damage or harm in putting a phosphorus brush on a drill and running it back and forth down your barrel once your Hoppes or butches has soaked for 10 minutes or so? A lot of heat from the shell goes down the barrel so I wouldn't think a dry brush could hurt it
Quote from: RiverRoost on March 15, 2020, 10:05:24 AM
So there's not damage or harm in putting a phosphorus brush on a drill and running it back and forth down your barrel once your Hoppes or butches has soaked for 10 minutes or so? A lot of heat from the shell goes down the barrel so I wouldn't think a dry brush could hurt it
You don't polish a barrel with a phosphorus brush. A regular cleaning rod with a brass brush and some denatured alcohol will remove 100% of any substance contained inside a shotgun shell. You don't need a drill just an arm and some want to, this is not that difficult.
Polishing the barrel rather your for or against is a different job with different tools. You don't need to polish your barrel everytime you shoot it. And again you don't polish the barrel with a brush.
And once again there are threads that go on for 10 pages about polishing the barrel and sticky's on the page with instructions and what you need. There's even a few hundred polish don't polish arguments if your into that. And it's all on the guess which forum section? Turkey guns, lol
If your shotgun bore is chrome or nickel plated I would suggest you dont bother
I have always polished out my bores , you have to be VERY cautious with gas ports , other than that keep the bore clean with no oil and your good
Again, i just give mine a good cleaning with Butches and patches , and shine it up and go hunting, ever bird I've shot 40 yards or less, have took a dirt flop , year after year . I agree with you Old Gobbler . If i were you guys i would practice with my turkey calls etc. and become better caller than worrying about gain 10 more shot in a 10 inch circle ..
The process for polishing a 12 gauge is pretty simple. You use a standard 3 piece aluminum shotgun cleaning rod and attach a 20 gauge brass bore brush to the end. Take a piece of green scotchbrite and completely cover the brass brush (1 revolution). Embed a good amount of JB Non-embedding Bore Cleaner in the scotchbrite pad, wet the pad with Kroil oil and using a battery operated drill on low speed, begin working the barrel from the end of the shell chamber to the choke end, back and forth. A vise, with a towel or piece of rubber wrapped around the barrel, makes a great clamping device to hold the barrel. Also use a small box at the choke end, to catch leakage and slinging oil from the scotchbrite if it exits the choke. Make sure you, remove your turkey choke and use an improved cylinder choke in the end of the barrel. You'll be amazed how much dirt, grease, grime and plastic fouling will come out of the barrel. Make sure you keep the pad saturated with the oil. As others have said, this is for steel barrels not chrome lined barrels. Chrome plated barrels have a thin layer of chrome, electroplated, inside the barrel and shouldn't be disturbed. Personally, I use this same process on my 50 cal inline muzzleloader. It cleans the lands and grooves really well, removes the powder fouling and makes loading the 45 cal sabots so much easier. There is a thread with PICS on this website.