polishing bbls...yall take it easy

[fountain2]

ok, since there is a lot of polishing talk on here and the praise...im gonna share my experience.  first off, this is now this was no as the sticky, but how i did it with what i have and how several do it here.

i took my 20 ga charles daly auto and 835 and cleaned/polished them using 0000steel wool and wd 40.  ran it up and down for a while and then swapped to clean wool and ran it more.  i then went to a clean patch and swabbed followed by regular household alcohol.  clean as a whistle on both.

took the 20 to the sumtoy shop to set up for tss.  long story short, patterns were not there.  we were both blown away and confused.  we ran distilled alcohol patches through and pulled out stringy plastic several times and the wads looked crazy too.  something was up.

thinking i had ruined my bbl, we began to run other loads through it and shot it against a shop gun.  it began to come back around when it got dirty and cleaned with the alcohol more.  the plastic stuff kept coming.  something with my cleaning process caused a wild reaction.  an hour or so later i tried the tss again and it was better.  time of day difference, bbl differences?  i dont know but it was off yesterday bad and the only thing different was the bbl cleaning.  the plastic sticking like that was mind boggling.  it looked like string cheese coming out.

im gonna steel wool the bbl again with dry wool and hope it goes back to normal and shoot one more time this week at my range.  im done with all that crap.  polish vs no polish...ive never gained with all the hassle, so im done.  i will keep em clean and no oil or anything of the sort.  ive heard it from willaim/sumtoy and he should know since that is what he does and is primarily in the business of patterning..mostly at short range, but same principle.....and yea i heard " i told ya so".  no more wasted money or energy on polishing for me.  i just shoot and swab clean.

that plastic stuff coming out along with all the other fouling that was stuck in there after one shot was crazy...and this was with 3 different loads, not just tss.  hopefully i have it all shot out, but then theres the 835 that i mentioned earlier that i never shot yesterday and did the same thing to......

there is another thread like this in the 20 ga section..same results as me after all that..check it out

[Philippe]

I'd like to see some pictures of this so called plastic coming out of barrels. I do however get that plastic in some of my chokes but i have never seen it come from any of my barrels after they have been cleaned and polished.

[msgobblergetter]

Technique and the components used is the key to getting good polished results.  I don't know your technique, but WD40 with steel wool alone is abrasively a very harsh way to polish.  This is why most use a compound such as JB compound in conjunction with a lubricant...being that JB was designed to be used in such manner.

[bird]

Steel Wool, Bore Paste and Kroil here.  Clean the barrel and lube it after wet polishing it. Before firing then run some dry patches through it, no alcohol! I think your issue is running dry steel wool through the barrel. By doing so you may be roughing the barrel rather than smoothing it. Just a thought.

[msgobblergetter]

Yep, no alcohol!

[ILIKEHEVI-13]

I wouldn't run steel wool through my barrels.  Having been a benchrest shooter, I would never run any type of steel brush down my barrel.  Neither would the other shooters.  

[fountain2]

I've ran steel wool a good bit in my 835 and only a time or two in that 20 but see no harm in it ad its nit abrasive enough to take away.  Many on here have ran the wd 40 in place of broil, reloading section, not here, but anyways I didn't see harm there.  I also see no harm in the alcohol.  It doesn't leave any residues and dries completely and cleans very well.  What's wrong with the alcohol??  I've dine my 835 this way before with no trouble so maybe the cd was different.   I will hopefully find out today.   

Im not seeing the harm in the 0000 steel wool.  I wont run any more oil in them.  I will bore snake between shots and leave it. 

[bird]

Go ahead and use the steel wool but don't do it "dry".  I think that may be what has caused your issues. You have to have some lube on that wool.

[Gamblinman]

I used the Kroil method, and used Flitz Metal Polish at the end. I can see relections in my barrels. Mirror polished.


Gman

[Tom Foolery]

Wool+WD40 was your problem, I did the same thing to mine and the exact same thing happened.  Patterns sucked and plastic fouling was unreal. 


Kroil+wool or Kroil+scotch brite and some kind of compound is the way to fly. 

[SumToy]

Now for one the steel wool did not make this happen.  The stings of plastic run down the barrel in a line in a few places.  So all that is out of it.   Now the oil I have no idea why you need it.  I have did it over and over with dry steel wool and have never had a problem.  I think the problem is how it is did.   Both ways will work if did the way it should be.

Like I said take a junk make a good one but can take a good one and make a junk one.  Be careful how you do it. 

[Shellwaster]

It must be in the WD40. After a deep cleaning I used dry 0000 steel wool wrapped around a 20 gauge brass brush in my 12 gauge and got a very shiny barrel and no ill effects of the pattern. After I ran the steel wool I wet patched the barrel again with Hoppe's #9 then ran dry patches until all visible moisture from the patches were gone. To ensure I got it all I ran a mop down the barrel. After shooting I ran a bore snake down the barrel 3 or 4 times and it is just as shiny as after I polished.

You must have not been holding your tongue just right.

[paladin]

Sumtoy You say you have no idea why you need oil and that the steel wool did not do it.
First of all, the main sticky suggest scotch brite and Kroil. these are very different from steel wool and wd40. Also the grit of steel wool will make a difference.
I have used steel wool(0000)and wd 40 before getting scotch brite and kroil. It is not the same.
Just follow the directions and by all means don't use a thin rod.
Each time I replaced one of the substituted components with what was recomended the barrel improved.

[fountain2]

I've not had any problems on dry wool and and i've done it with hopped on it as well and then run patches through it until it cones back out like it went in.  

Im not gonna go with wd 40 no more.  I gotta go get me a bore snake today for the 12 and clean each shot.  I just don't think the dry wool is hurting it no more than im doing it.  Im only running it for a few minutes then I get bored..im not sitting down for 30 mins or so.  Prolly 30-50 strokes.  If that ain't clean enough then it ain't gonna get clean by me.  If it takes all that for one to shoot, then mine just won't shoot and i will get a different one.  

I was mainly working the 20 to get it good and clean since I haven't had it long and don't know its past history.  I wanted to get all out of it that I could.   This may have hindered it some, but in sure I fouled it up enough now to get all that out.  It just don't take all the extra work I don't think...if its gonna shoot, it will.  If not, it wont

[RemingtonRules]

This is funny.  Guy has a problem, states problem, then does not want to listen to possible answers to his problem.  I believe the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result.  I will not waste any more time here.