My Bore Polish Method to Shoot Better

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Last Post 21 September 2024

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onondaga posted this 05 April 2012

There are several methods to hone or polish bores. My method works well to Break-in a new barrel without shooting the firearm at all. You can also use this method on an old blackened Military bore and bring it to a slick shine that likes cast bullets. A lot of firearm manufacturers bores are not match grade or even friendly to cast bullets. The method I describe here is my own and has proven to be a simple, effective way to polish a bore with minimal or no dimensional bore change and leave a new barrel nicely broken in or an old one bright and slick. The process will also effectively lower ballistic pressures to a small amount because the bore will give less friction to your bullets when your bore is slicker. The Turtle Wax Chrome Polish has a very fine abrasive that is tough enough to cut and polish chrome. Most gun barrels are not that tough but some military and commercial firearms have chrome lined bores. Most barrels are Chrome-Molybdenum Steel and respond to this polishing method very well. Chrome lined bores also respond well to this method but require more pull through times with the Bore Snake. About100 ” €œ150 pulls. Stainless barrels are actually softer than Chrome/Moly barrels and take less work to polish. i30.photobucket.com/albums/c338/rhymeswithwhat/BorePolish.jpg&rdquo/"> THE METHOD: Drop the weighted end of a Hoppe's Bore Snake into the chamber and let it out the muzzle. Pull it till the thicker part is just entering the chamber. Use a syringe and put about 1 teaspoon of the chrome polish into the chamber. Pull through 10 times and then start again with adding another teaspoon of polish for each cycle of 10 pulls. I repeat this using one new teaspoon of polish and ten pulls per cycle. A total of 5 to 10 cycles for a total of 50 to 100 pulls will break-in a new barrel or polish one that needs a polish. When done polishing I do another 10 pulls with no added polish and that completes the job. No additional cleaning is necessary to begin shooting. When I am done I clean the Bore Snake by soaking it in Mean Green or 409 Cleaner for Ã‚Â½ hour, then thoroughly rinse it and hang it to dry. Gary

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Buzzard Bill posted this 05 April 2012

Hey!!! Gary

I have a 1917 I got from the CMP that has good bore but is dark from shooting blanks, how do you think this will work and if so I am thinking I will need to clean the bore snake more often.

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onondaga posted this 06 April 2012

It should do the job. Just clean the bore snake after you are done. There is no need to stop and clean it during the process that I could see. If you stop to clean the snake you will remove the polishing compound from it and then will have to dry the snake before you can resume polishing.

Gary

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 06 April 2012

i love it ! lots of bang for the buck, and a grins thing to do. i had a shooter buddy who would douse his new firearms with auto polish and then watch tv and cycle the action until things got smooth...worked for him ...

fwiw, here are some thoughts... HONEING .. think sunnen hone ...done by spinning a mechanism, usually centrifugally expanding shoes, that generate a round hole as it is advanced thru a tubular hole. it also can size the hole, and give a chosen grit finish all at the same time. a great use of a hone application would be to optimize the chambers of a revolver... i should mention that there is an inexpensive hone variation available, the “brush ” type...a wire mounted collection of little balls of abrasives, you can spin this rig in a hand drill ...

LAPPING ...the object here is to fit two surfaces to each others form ....rub them together with an abrasive between them... in barrel improvement ( attempts (g) ) most commonly a melted lead slug is poured down the muzzle around a cleaning rod tip..or brush etc., pushed out the end of the barrel, and some abrasive embedded ( 270 clover is good ) ...then the rod is stroked thru the lightly oiled barrel until the soft lap gets too loose to work. clean, check barrel, and repeat as desired. this method is the best if you want to ---lap--- out the tight spots down the barrel ...or, at your peril, to play with a tapered diameter barrel i.d.

POLISHING ... doesn't correct size or diameter variations ...but is easy to understand and accomplish, and probably does give improvements in accuracy and especially in ease of cleaning. and lots of personal satisfaction.. confidence often makes a gun shoot better.

i should add, deja vu. that in my experience, using a finer grit than 300 or so just makes the honing-lapping-polishing take longer... hope this helps... ken

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onondaga posted this 06 April 2012

Ken Campbell, Iowa:

My method is a polishing method it is not honing or lapping. It won't improve bores with a tight spot or heavy pitting or blown out muzzles or blown out chamber throats. It will make a pitted bore bright and slicker to improve the pitted bore performance somewhat. I don't have a cure all by any means, but this is a good bore polishing method that is pretty simple and easy.

The method eliminates using a lot of ammo and repeated cleanings for a traditional new bore break-in. You can do this at home then just start shooting a new rifle and be confident it is ” broken in” well before you take it to the range.

A nice feature of using the Hoppe's Bore Snake is that the brush segments within the snake cause the snake to rotate with the bore rifling during the pull through. The polishing is kept very even.

I don't know the exact grit size or composition of the grit in the Turtle Wax Chrome Polish. My experience has me guessing it is about 600 grit or smaller and likely aluminum oxide, silica or carborundum because it cuts and polishes Chrome. Polishes engineered for plastics or paint won't cut and polish Chrome. I don't know for sure and the label has no info on the grit in Turtle Wax Chrome Polish, but it sure does work on chrome, chrome/moly and stainless alloys very well!!!

My close friend has a very old .22 rim-fire rifle that was his late dad's and the bore was black as could be. He could not get the bore bright with anything he tried and doesn't remember it ever being bright for over 60 years. I did this polishing for him and the bore became mirror shiny. He swears the old gun shoots better now than it ever did and it is very easy for him to keep the bore clean and shiny now.

EDIT- I just checked the online MSDS for the Turtle Wax Chrome Polish, the abrasives in it are Pumice and Kaolin Clay. These are Silica based abrasives. Gary

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OnHoPr posted this 13 July 2012

I have been trying to gather info on breaking in a barrel. After you use your method do you still go through a firing procedure? Such as Badger Barrels compels, and other barrel manufactures as well. For example, for the first five shots, clean and cool between shots, then five three shot firings, clean and cool between groups, then five five shot firings, clean and cool between firings, then five ten shot firings, and the same procedure. This type of method is to not only to smooth out machining marks, but also to break in the barrel steels memory to prevent shot walking.

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onondaga posted this 13 July 2012

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=5730>OnHoPr: “After you use your method do you still go through a firing procedure?" NO.

Follow the procedure as outlined and the bore is broken in better than a shoot and clean routine. The bore is polished to a hard shine with this procedure. The firearm bore is completely broken in and ready to shoot as if it has been shot many times after a traditional break-in. Just do the procedure and start shooting.

Make sure to take no short cuts and don't invent creative options, use a genuine Hoppe's Bore Snake in the correct caliber and use genuine Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and Rust Remover and a syringe.

You should expect excellent results for your effort when done correctly.

The only warning I have is that if your barrel is of particularly poor quality with rotary tool marks visible on the lands or tool marks are visible in the grooves a more aggressive method should be used first, such as a barrel cast tool bit honing with abrasive or fire polishing or dropping in the dumpster. Also do not use this method repeatedly to de-copper a barrel that is repeatedly copper fouled. You will eventually wear your barrel out by doing that. The method is a breakin method or a de-coppering method to use ONCE.

P.S. Always cool between shots if you are a good enough marksman to realistically expect accuracy. If you do not completely understand why shooting a hot barrel is bad for a firearm, you are lacking an essential marksmanship skill, study up on that. I also recommend using a clean dry BoreSnake at the range with a single pull through after every 5 to 20 shots and 5 pull throughs at the end of your shooting session. I only clean and lube the barrel with traditional methods at the end of the season or before any long term storage. Don't ignore other firearm action maintenance such as trigger, action, bolt care, etc.

Common sense is also needed. If you are getting leading, powder fouling or copper fouling, you need more, better maintenance and bullets that fit.

Gary

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45ACPete posted this 22 July 2012

I had to try this method on two guns--a Krag and a Swedish Mauser. Ordered the bore snakes from Midway and bought a container of the chrome polish. Started with the Swede and found it took so much effort to pull the snake through the barrel that there was no way I was going to do this 50 times--did about 25 pulls, replenishing the polish after each 5 pulls. It went much easier with the Krag, but again I only did 25 pulls. Looking over the two snakes, it actually seems like the 25/6.5 snake is bulkier than the .30 cal. snake, although the diameter of the brass bristle section is smaller. The barrels do show improvement--if they seem to shoot better next time out maybe I'll do it again.

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onondaga posted this 22 July 2012

http://castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=5733>45ACPete:

Glad you gave it a try Pete. Some BoreSnake sizes do fit pretty tight. The 50 cal BoreSnake I have said it is for 50-54 caliber and it is so hard to pull through it is hard to do by myself. My 22 and 30 and 45 cal BoreSnakes are a lot easier.

I hope you get a chance to get the job done on those rifles. 25 pulls is not enough for an old Mauser or Krag.

Hope your rifles shoot better for you too. This procedure has worked very well for me. I did not say the procedure is EASY!!!! My grandson has helped me do this and he holds the rifle while I pull with the pull cord wrapped around a 1 inch wood dowel handle.. If you have someone to help, this is a lot easier. I am very sorry, I should have mentioned that in my original post.

We did my grandsons brand new Savage 11/111 in .308 Win. right out of the box to break it in without a shot and it has shot cast bullets superbly with no leading usnig deer hunting loads with 170 grain GC FN bullets in #2 alloy at 2162fps, he is shooting 1 MOA at 100 yards right from the start. At the range he pulls a dry clean BoreSnake through once every 10 shots. That is his only maintenance besides action clean, lube till he has to long term store the rifle over the winter .

Pete, when I did my NEF .500 S&W Mag rifle with that tight 50-54 Cal. BoreSnake, I had my brother help me. My 14 year old Grandson , at the time, did not have enough strength. My brother and I took the rifle down and one of us held the barrel/forearm assembly and the other did the pulling. We took turns till we got the full 10 cycles of 10 pulls each done till we finished. We were whipped tired, sweating and drinking lemonade before we finished!!!! Incidentally, He is a Dentist and provided me the plastic syringe for squirting the abrasive paste into the chamber. He uses those syringes with silicone Dental impression material at his office and gets them by the gross.

Gary

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45ACPete posted this 22 July 2012

Gary--my arm is recovered enough, I guess. I'll give those two guns another 25 pulls each. Pete

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onondaga posted this 23 July 2012

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=5733>45ACPete:

If you had dark bores, it is going to take 100 pulls total adding polish every 10th pull and then an additional 10 pulls with no more polish at the end to get those bores in tip top hard shine condition for cast bullets.

Get a friend to help and some lemonade!

Gary

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mulespurs posted this 05 September 2012

I tried it on a 22 lr cal upper on an AR-15 tha t was new and cutting some lead off some bullets as it chambered them, and also had some misfires. The misfires seem to be gone and the jamming has gone away as well. I have not checked accuracy as of yet.

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Crash Landing posted this 25 September 2012

Gary I find your bore polishing method appealing and worth trying. I have an old 22RF barrel that could use a clean-up, just ahead of the chamber. Before I begin, I have one question for you about your method. I'm not claiming to know more than you about bore polishing but it seems to me that a sturdy steel cleaning rod with a chamber guide would do as good a job as Hoppe's bore snake. A tight-fitting patch could be soaked with the polish and re-saturated each 10 strokes. Does this seem like a workable alternative, or am I way off base here? Thanks

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onondaga posted this 25 September 2012

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=4444>Crash Landing:

Don't cut yourself short, patches and a rod would take 2,000 strokes to do what a BoreSnake does in 100 with my method as described here in this post. This procedure cuts and polishes barrel steel to a hard slick shine, it is not a routine cleaning cleaning.

Maybe you haven't owned a BoreSnake or tried one. Notice the thin pulling section of the Bore Snake, that is just for pulling, but the entire long thick section is very snug and hard to pull through the bore, pulling it through just once is easily as effective as running 20 tight clean patches on a rod with one complete pass for each new patch.

Your problem sounds minor with your bore. It may just be leading from 22 RF ammo . Try using a snug fitting small cut piece of ChoreBoy pure copper kitchen pot scrubber pad in a slotted patch tip on your cleaning rod. 10 strokes with that and Hoppe's #9 will remove the most stubborn leading. Don't use an off brand of pot scrubber that is copper plated steel. Check the pad with a magnet to make sure it is NOT steel that can ruin your rifle. Get a real Chore Boy brand scrubber.

But if you want to polish your bore next after the lead is out, to make your bore mirror shiny with a slick hard shine that shoots better and stays easy to clean; try my method with NO substitutes or shortcuts.

Gary

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seaside posted this 16 October 2012

great information

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onondaga posted this 16 October 2012

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=6845>seaside:

Welcome to the forum also. The bore polishing method I've outlined really works well. I hope you give it a try when you need to. It works especially well on modestly priced new rifles to break them in and give the bore a match grade hard shine while breaking it in without a shot fired.

Gary

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seaside posted this 16 October 2012

Thanks

I recently was given a Win model 670 in 30-06.

I believe it was made in 1967 and pretty sure never fired

this is the less expensive version of the mod 70, different safety but basically the same action as the model 70

I am thinking I will use this method on that gun before firing.

do you also recommend this on a gun already broken in

I have a 270 wsm weatherby vanguard that has been shot a 100 times probably, range practice. Is this recommended for that or not?

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onondaga posted this 16 October 2012

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=6845>seaside:

The 670 sounds like it would benefit from the full 100 pull cycle break-in polish cycle. The other rifle, the Vanguard, if it was traditionally broken in with cleaning every 5 shots for 100 it is likely fine. If the Vanguard never had a correct break-in, it is not too late and the method will correct anything from an incomplete break-in.

Both bores will also benefit getting a hard slick shine and make maintenance easier in the future. The bore polishing method is a one time deal, don't over do it with repetition, but get the full 100 pulls the first time.

Gary

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JSH posted this 16 October 2012

Interesting thread, I may have to give this a try on a rifle or two. Suprised no one mentioned FLITZ? Maybe a little to much of a good thing? I really think the bore snakes have a place. I think there are a lot more gun barrels worn from bad cleaning habits than there ever was being “shot out". My MN M-39 looks to be a prime example from the slugs of the throat and the muzzle. jeff

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onondaga posted this 16 October 2012

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=2923>JSH:

I Have tried Flitz for this job! I found it much less effective than the Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and Rust Remover.. Flitz is a great polish for brass but it doesn't cut and polish barrel steel hardly as well as the Turtle Wax product that has silica based abrasives engineered to cut and polish CHROME. Flitz is also about 400% more expensive. If you are going to try this, I recommend forget the Flitz.

It is only about $3 for 12 ounces of the stuff I recommend , Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and Rust Remover, it is available at most auto departments and parts stores.

Additionally, I use the Turtle Wax product in my vibratory case cleaner. I like it better than Flitz there too. I stir in 1 teaspoon every 8-10 case polishing cycles and add a short spray of Silicone with a laundry dryer sheet cut to 2 inch squares. Run the machine without the brass about 20 minutes to distribute the polish on the media or it will clump in brass the first time. My brass comes out jewelry shiny in 4 hours with this stuff added to #12 grit walnut media from HarborFreight.

There is another polish I would like to try. It is called Blue Away. I used to use it on my motorcycle chrome plated exhaust pipes . Blue Away is designed to polish off the heat bluing on motorcycle exhaust pipes. I bet that would work well too, but I think it was pricey. Be careful if you try Blue Away, it is definitely more aggressive on chrome and may be too much so for rifle barrels.

Gary