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Pro-Shot Cleaning Products
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Article Printed in the July 1996 issue of Precision Shooting Magazine
TAKING CARE OF YOUR EQUPMENT
Pro-Shot Cleaning Equipment
by Richard W. Kayser
Here's a real complicated set of Theorems.
1. Shooting is the fun part of owning firearms.
2. Cleaning them is a chore.
1b. Shooting is something we like to do.
2b. Cleaning is something we have to do, or....else.
If you don't clean your rifles or other firearms thoroughly after use, the accuracy and dependability goes to Hades in a hand basket…..in a hurry. That's really about all that needs to be said about cleaning. Find a good cleaning supply source, and take care of business. In January of 1995 I went to my first SHOT Show, in Las Vegas. One of the more enlightening stops was at the Pro-Shot booth. The Damarin family, John Sr., Diana, and John D. own and operate Pro- Shot, and John Sr., gave me a half-hour clinic on the proper way to clean a barrel and action to avoid bore damage. There's a very fine line between thorough and excessive cleaning in a barrel, and John Sr. covered it well. Improper cleaning is at least as harmful to a good barrel as not cleaning it at all.
The Damarins offer a sixteen page catalog of cleaning equipment and supplies, everything from cotton flannel cleaning patches to burnished stainless steel rods, to jags and cleaning tips, to action cleaning kits, to bore guides, to lubricants and cleaning solvents for lead or copper fouling. Rods are the heart of any cleaning system, we should probably start there. The Pro-Shot rods are burnished stainless steel, a process that results in a harder, more resistant to picking up particulate matter and carrying it to scratch the bore interior surface. They are available in calibers 17, 22-26, 27 and up, and 410-10 gauge shotgun (also suitable for 40-50 caliber rifles) in 8", 12", 18" 26", 36" and 42" lengths. The length listed is actual rod working length, unlike some others, which include the handle in the OAL. Add 4" for the handle, which rotates on the rod. That allows the patch to follow the rifling, and clean the grooves thoroughly. The rods are centerless ground and polished, and then a burnishing/micro polishing step is done to densen (is that an approved form of the word dense?) the surface and close the pores of the steel. It makes it harder to catch a piece of grit or solvent and drag it back and forth through the barrel. That's been my one complaint against coated rods. Nick the coating. and it then becomes a small reservoir of solvent or grunge from the barrel for eternity.
The Pro-Shot rods eliminate that possibility. Bore brushes are still the only to consistently remove copper/lead/powder fouling deposits from a barrel, even though they can cause micro-scratching of the bore. There are various accessories for the rods, including muzzle guards for those firearms that require putting a rod down the barrel from the muzzle (ugh!), and a rod stop for things like AR-15's and Garands and M-1A's to protect the chamber area and the boltface.
Patches, I wish I had a dollar for every bundle of Pro-Shot patches I've seen used at rifle matches over the last decade, I'd be a rich man. The patches are 100% cotton flannel, finished both sides. I hate one sided patches, it's a pain to have to look at them and figure which side goes out against the bore to best absorb the solvent and collect the grunge. Patch sizes run 3/4", 1-3/8" 1-3/4", 2-1/4" and 3" square, and 2", 2-1/2" and 3" round for the various calibers from .17 to .58 calibers, in packs of 500 or 1000. There are also bore mops for everything from the .17's up to shotguns. Mops are the best way to put Sweets or oil in a barrel, they seem to create a "foaming" action in the application process.
Cleaning the barrel creates a separate problem; all that accumulated gunk that ends up in the action. Locking lugs are prone to gall, even without the help (?) you add with particulate matter from the cleaning process. A chamber cleaning tool kit allows you to swab out the chamber, which will keep particles of carbon powder ash from imbedding themselves into the case, which keeps the case from transmitting that debris into the sizing die and imbedding it in the die surface, which will then forever scratch every case that goes in the die. Fortunately, there is a simple cleaning regimen that will keep die/case gouging from occurring.
1. Always use a cleaning rod guide, like the Pro-Shot "The Stopper", when cleaning the barrel. It has a coned guide front to seal the chamber off from cleaning solvents and contaminates. Always use a bore guide. ALWAYS!!
2. After the barrel is cleaned; swab the chamber thoroughly, taking care to clean out the lug recesses.
3. Add a dab of grease, like the Pro-Gold Lubricant to the back of each lug on the bolt and smear it across the entire lug engagement surface evenly.
I mentioned cleaning, but it deserves a bit more attention. Firing cast bullets deposits an entirely different kind of fouling in the barrel than that from copper-jacketed bullets, and Pro-Shot has created an entirely separate solvent for leadslingers. I've found in my forays into USPSA shooting with a 45acp, and more recently the 40S&W and a 38 Super, that conventional wisdom is to just fire one round of jacketed bullet ammunition from a lead-fouled barrel, and the lead fouling disappears. Then just clean the copper out and you're done. That's great for pistols, but the hierarchy of the Cast Bullet Association would have you drawn and quartered for suggesting that they desecrate a Lead Bullet match rifle barrel with a copper bullet. They think this copper tubing on lead bullets is just a passing fad anyhow. I have been tinkering with lead bullets recreationally in my regular rifles, and seriously in my Schuetzen and BPCRS Sharps, and lead fouling does require a different approach. I am pleased to say that a year of Pro-Shot Lead & Powder Bore Solvent use has made the black powder and lead fouling in my Dixie Sharps 45-70, and more recently the 40-65, much Iess burdensome to remove. I leave a light film of Pro-Shot All Weather Oil in the barrel after cleaning to allay any concerns about pitting or rusting.
A patch or two before firing, and the barrel is ready to go again. I think a bit of oil in the barrel at first shot helps cut down on barrel erosion, cast or jacketed bullets. I have this theory that a bit of oil in the clean bore cuts down on the sulphur cutting that shooting does to barrels. Erosion is a symptom of the sulphur being burnt out of the pores of the barrel steel. Comments?
The Copper Solvent II is more of the same, except formulated specifically for copper and powder fouling in barrels. It's all I've used in my 223 Valkyrie in the past year, and the fouling seems a bit less of a task to remove.
The combination of 60 grains of powder and an 80 grain .224" bullet and bore is a guaranteed fouling formula. The Copper Solvent Il just seems to work. At Ieast it's only a twenty-minute, one-time cleaning regimen now. One wet patch down the barrel as soon as I can after shooting, and a second one a couple minutes later. Then a pass down and back for each round fired with Copper Solvent II on a brush, and patch 'til she looks clean on a dry patch pass-thru. Speaking of brushes, I've found a use for those used ones cluttering up my shooting box. Wrap a bit of fine steel wool around one, and put it in the chuck of your Dremel tool or electric screwdriver. Spin the steel wool on, and run that wool/brush down the inside of the necks of all of your fired cases after shooting. It really works great to remove all of the carbon build up in the inside of the neck.
That completes our "nickel tour" of Pro-Shot cleaning supplies and equipment. Cleaning is probably the least glamorous aspect of precision shooting, and that's why it's often neglected. It's also like the oil and filter company's commercial where the coverall-clad mechanic is shown with a filter and can of oil in one hand, and a car with the hood up and the engine on a hoist coming out behind him. The pitch is a simple one; change your engine oil and filter on a regular basis, or start saving your $$$ for a premature engine overhaul. The guy looks into the camera and says "you can pay me now... or pay me later...it's your choice". Proper cleaning of a barrel is a necessity, even if it also contributes to barrel wear. Keep fouling out of the action, keep the Iugs greased, keep contaminants patched/mopped/brushed out to maintain accuracy as many rounds as possible or...get ready to get on closer, more intimate terms with the man who sells and installs barrels. You can, pay Pro-Shot now...or pay Lilja later. Keep 'er clean, and keep 'er shootin' straight.
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