Cleaning Chamber End Before The Freebore

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Wm Cook posted this 2 weeks ago

I've always had a hard time getting the area where the case mouth ends and the freebore begins.

To a degree this can be ignored but eventually the buildup backs up far enough that a loaded round makes contact with the crud. The length I trim my brass to leaves me about a .040 jump between the case mouth and the start of the freebore. After 60 to 80 rounds I have to mess with it until I get it clean enough that I can go back to shooting. Routine barrel/bore cleaning is typicall done every 25 - 35 rounds.

Typically I run 4, 5 patches wet with Ed's Red followed by two or three 10 strokes using a bore brush and again wetting in between with Ed's. Following that I run wet patches through until they come out clean. The barrel always comes out clean but that little area between where the brass ends and the face at the start of the free bore collects carbon.

Last night I wet a patch with CLP and tapped it into the start of the freebore and left it there overnight. This morning I tapped a 30-06 piece of brass (.308 chamber so the 30-06 neck reaches the wall that starts the freebore), against the crud and then ran a wet patch through it.

The picture on the left is after my normal wet patches, bore brushing, wet patch cleaning. The one on the right is after bumping the 30-06 case against freebore wall and then running a wet patch through.

Just wondering how others keep this area clean. Thanks, Bill C.

A “Measured Response” is as effective as tongue lashing a stuck door.

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RicinYakima posted this 2 weeks ago

When I was shooting matches with A2400, this was an issue. At the end of every day, 65+ rounds, a GI brass brush was run down the barrel, followed by a wet patch of Ed's Red and two clean patches. Next morning one fouling shot and I was ready for the sighter target.

I thought most of this was primer fouling, as I was using WW primers at the time.

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Aaron posted this 2 weeks ago

Perhaps a Lewis Lead removal tool would help scour this area?

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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rhbrink posted this 2 weeks ago

I always thought that this is a carbon build up and have used carbon cleaner to remove most of it. It does take some scrubbing to get that area clean. Some of the Ball powders that I shoot breechseating are worse than others.

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John Alexander posted this 2 weeks ago

This is an area that I think gets ignored by a lot of shooters and that may be the right approach, I have never seen a report of of before and after strings of groups to find out if cleaning improves matters.

In the absence of information saying it is harmless, I clean it out before a match with a bore brush a few sizes larger than the bore and rotate the brush in that area after normal bore cleaning.

I always wondered why I was issued a chamber brush with my M-1. Why clean a chamber? Maybe it was to clean this area. I can't remember if the brush reached that far or not. Of course we didn't have bore scopes so had no idea that gunk was accumulating there.

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Wm Cook posted this 2 weeks ago

I believe the carbon buildup is from all the soft loads typical with cast bullets that I'm shooting (1650 - 1720fps). Lately I've been playing with a bunch of powders while I was working with primers and flash holes. As I said, the bore is never a problem and it comes out clean with no lead buildup. Ugly bore though. Tool chattering marks from stem to stern. I think Aaron might have something about using the Lewis lead remove tool. Looks like Brownell has it ($20) sized for 30 cal as well as 35, 44 and 50.

This tool would have come in handy for me a couple years back when I first started out shooting accuracy. Back in the 90's I was taught not to oversize the bullets so I was pushing .311, .310 bullets into a freebore that was only .3085. That left a ramp of lead buildup that was a devil and a half to clean out. This was on my first ever "intended to shoot cast accurately" rifle about mid 2020 if I remember right. Prior to this I had been shooting surplus military plus 30-30's, 35's. All of them had voluptuous freebores.

I usually buy 9mm brushes (oversized like John says) and use a pistol length Dewey rod. With a touch of blue Lock-Tite I can rotate it clockwise and counter clockwise to wear down the buildup. Before I clean next time I think I'll soak that area before the regular bore cleaning. By the time I finish the barrel cleaning the crud might brush out easier. Below is what the Lewis cleaner looks like. It has a common 8/32 thread. Not a bad idea at all. I still run a couple passes through the barrel with 0000 steel wool if I ever do see any lead. Thanks, Bill.

A “Measured Response” is as effective as tongue lashing a stuck door.

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delmarskid posted this 2 weeks ago

I like coarse bronze wool wrapped around a bore brush. I’ll soak a patch with kroil and stuff it in the throat and soak for a few minutes or just wet it before I go to town.

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Wilderness posted this 2 weeks ago

Bill - I thought your idea of using the longer neck of a fired .30-06 to scrape the gunk was spot on. This isn't far off the rust removal trick of using a sharpened brass key and turps to shift an exterior rust patch.

You could take that idea a bit further, by making a long neck .308 case out of a .30-06. This would need to be full chamber (neck) length, but not overlength so the bolt could still close on it. The case neck would need to be expanded to a tight sliding fit in the chamber neck. With a nice square mouth trim and no deburring it should scrape nicely with a bit of to and fro on the bolt.

Alternately, for cast bullets at least, you could use longer cases. This is how I make my chamber length gauges so I know "how long". The flange on the end of the plunger is full chamber neck diameter. My Ruger .308 chamber length was 2.025". My .30-30s are 2.120" and 2.150", much longer than available brass, unless I make it from .38-55.

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barra posted this 2 weeks ago

I have a rifle I’m working with at the moment with a longer neck area.

unfortunately it has been shot with short brass for so long there is pitting before the leade .

Have used a bit extra lube on the case neck over the area and I believe it helps fill the holes and they extract easier.

anything else I can do?

I will get my brass choir boy out and see if any of it is lead.

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Wm Cook posted this 2 weeks ago

I had forgotten about the chamber length gage. In the recent past I was always using chore boy wrapped around a brush. But it seemed inefficient to me since it wasn't a flat surface scrubbing a flat spot. Always messing with the ball of copper to try to get it to clean up. Always thinking that there should be a simple tool that would fit the neck of the chamber that could be used to scrub out the junk. Something like the Lewis tool but specific to cleaning the end of the chamber where the freebore starts.

I think pre-soaking the area is a must, at least for carbon buildup. With my 30-06 case in the .308 chamber I drilled out the primer pocket and put a 8/32 screw through it to mount it on a pistol cleaning rod. Guess there are a few ways to approach this. If its lead like barra thinks that's a whole different animal. Don't throw me in jail for this but I've been desperate enough that I almost went to using an acetone and hyd peroxide patch to soak the area when I had a lead build up. Thanks, Bill.

Cleaning Chamber End Before The Freebore

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