cleaning brush

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mrd

32 Cal
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Just wondering if most folks have THE BRASS BRUSH IN THEIR CLEANING RITUAL. I ALWAYS HEAR I SWAB IT WITH THIS OR THAT AND NEVER HEAR ABOUT A BRUSH. I MYSELF ALWAYS USE ONE AFTER THE PATCHES COME OUT CLEAN AND THEN I WET IT DOWN AGAIN, AND MAN IT LOOKS LIKE STARTING ALL OVER . To ME THAT IS CLEAN; JUST WONDERING .
 
If you choose to use a brush make sure you ONLY use a brush that is locked to the shaft and use it with a solid range rod NOT the wood rod on the gun, and finally like O'Brian said give it a turn before retracting. Cheap brushes and rods account for 99% of issues of a stuck brush.

th
 
Very rarely use a brush but...

As discussed above, turn it to get the bristles to lay down somewhat. I usually do this before I even have the brush completely in the bore and continue to turn it all the way down. Once you get the bristles to flex they usually continue to do so quite easily.

This is of course using a sturdy metal range rod at home with the gun secured in the vise.

I only use it when working on the most stubborn fouling/rust, as in the basket case rifle I bought last spring, for routine cleaning it is not needed.
 
I normally use a brush as one of my cleaning steps, but it's a one-caliber oversize poly brush. Very seldom see any need for brass in cleaning black powder. Maybe if a guy waited too long before cleaning .... hah.
 
As has been said, you can use a brush if you feel it is necessary as long as you use the correct brush and give it that little CW turn before pulling it out.
Some say it is completely unnecessary,,, but some say a lot of things.
Our late friend @Flehto used a brush on an inverted/muzzledown rifle instead of wet swabbing between shots, this broke up and allowed to fall out any caked on residue. It always made sense to me, even of the muzzle down thing isn't practical for everyone. I recently have been doing similar on a certain part on a particular unmentionable, dry brushing dry residue/carbon,,,, works much better than turning it to liquid 1st then trying to mop up.

Get the propper tools and try it for yourself.
 
As has been said, you can use a brush if you feel it is necessary as long as you use the correct brush and give it that little CW turn before pulling it out.
Some say it is completely unnecessary,,, but some say a lot of things.
Our late friend @Flehto used a brush on an inverted/muzzledown rifle instead of wet swabbing between shots, this broke up and allowed to fall out any caked on residue. It always made sense to me, even of the muzzle down thing isn't practical for everyone. I recently have been doing similar on a certain part on a particular unmentionable, dry brushing dry residue/carbon,,,, works much better than turning it to liquid 1st then trying to mop up.

Get the propper tools and try it for yourself.

On an unmentionable bud..

It's a little easy. Just shoot it till your barrel is not burning you hot but you know hot. Then Clean it.. you can still run a dry brush first but i don't think you'll need it at all.

Everything cleans right out.

It almost does too good a job.

It's annoying dealing with patches. Cleaning rod. Small caliber. Just pull a bore snake threw and go home clean the rest.
 
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Never tried it myself. Chore boy?

Use a smaller brush with that... would it get stuck?

That brush was a surprise for me. Thing went down easy.
 
After shooting clean your rifle before the residues become hard and, after and at home, clean and oil it with a normal process (water/soap, Ballistol/water, Parker Hale oil, patches, etc.). That'll be largely sufficient, if you want to use a brush, take a plastic brush and try to forget the brass: sometimes it could be hard to remove that brush from the barrel...
 
Back in the day when I first shot a muzzle loader I tried using a brush-- well because that's how you clean guns, right?
The brush got stuck so hard I had to remove the breech. Never again...

Removable barrels are put breech end in a bucket of water and dish detergent and swabbed (pumped, more like it..)with a tight patch. Pinned barrels get a magnetic doo-hickey over the flashhole with a tube running into the bucket. They get perfectly clean that way.

If I feel the need to polish to bore I use a square of extra-fine scotchbrite pad over an undersize jag.
 
Brass brush gets stuck, hmm never had a problem with that. Guess that answers why a lot don't do it.
 

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