Jag sizing

[Ken Rummer]

At the range I clean between shots so the group more closely represents what to expect with the first shot from a clean barrel. The down side to this is I sometimes create a crud problem by cleaning. Other posts have suggested sizing the jags to reduce this. Searching on "jags" gets a lot of hits soooo.

What is the optimum clearance between the jag and the bore to pull the crud out and not shove it down the bore and plug things up?

Is the clearance sized with respect to the groove diameter or the land diameter or something in between?

Is the jag tapered, different diameters on each land on the jag? Is larger dia on the muzzle side when in use?

(Commercial cleaning patches are approx. .015 thick)

Thanks

 

[Rifleman1776]

I don't know if there is an exact size needed. Just not too close to bore is my advice. Many, if not most, of the commercial brass jags are OK as they come. But, if you need to reduce size and don't have many tools the way I do it is simple. I chuck the jag shaft into a drill. (don't overtighten on brass) and turn on. Then using the flat side of a file just hold against the jag. Don't take off too much. Test and redo if necessary. You can also use a corner of the file to deepen the grooves if necessary to hold the patch.

 

[Zonie]

If your shoving crud down the bore into the breech I suspect your method might be improved a bit.

IMO, what you should be doing is to run a damp (not dripping wet) patch down the bore to the breech. Let it sit there for at least 10 seconds.

Then, pull it back out of the barrel.

That waiting time allows the fouling on the bore to soften so when you pull the patched jag back up, almost all of the fouling will come with it.

After removing the cruddy patch from the jag you can run a clean patch down the bore and back out just once to dry things off before loading.

The thing that some folks do that really causes problems is to run either a dripping wet patch down the bore or they pump the ramrod up and down like they are trying to scour the bore wall.
That will just result in breaking the fouling off of the bore walls and knocking it down into the breech.

As for jag sizes a few of mine run about .015 under bore size.
I usually use the cotton cleaning patches made for a .45 revolver. They seem to be large enough to work on everything from my .45's thru my .58's.

I like these larger patches because they wrap themselves around the upper side of the jag where the rod is. This keeps them from coming off and getting stuck in the bore.

Speaking of getting stuck in the bore, I've seen this happen when someone tried wiping the bore with a cleaning patch that was too small.