Author Topic: Best lead remover? (Read 1540 times)

Selmer · « **on:** February 28, 2003, 03:58:37 AM »

What's the best solvent you have found for removing leading in a barrel? I have a .454 barrel for the Encore coming and I will shoot cast bullets out of it, I need to know which solvent to buy, cause I know it's pointless to use my copper solvents on leading, right?
Selmer

CJ · « **Reply #1 on:** February 28, 2003, 04:15:16 AM »

Outers Foulout is the best I have used. That is the reverse electro plate system. About $60 if you shop around. In revolvers I used a Lewis lead remover years ago. Little abrasive for my taste. Thats the one that uses copper or bronze screen patches. I dont know if they are still made, but I have seen the same thing, maybe by Hoppes. If your lead bullets are properly lubed and sized, and hard enough you may be surprised at how little leading you get.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #2 on:** February 28, 2003, 11:44:27 AM »

jb bore paste

Graycg · « **Reply #3 on:** February 28, 2003, 01:21:24 PM »

I'm with CJ and Veral Smith, the best way to clean lead from a barrel is to properly alloy, size and lube your bullets and not get any leading to begin with.

I shoot lots of high velocity lead loads and rarely get any leading.

regards,
Graycg

Selmer · « **Reply #4 on:** February 28, 2003, 01:44:52 PM »

Well, the maker of the bullets has replied, Lloyd Smale, and he says JB bore paste, which I used every few cleanings to make sure my bores are nice and smooth, so JB bore paste it is. Thank Lloyd! I can't wait to actually get to use your bullets, I'm counting down the days, I'll give a product review here if GB will let me.

Selmer

Lead pot · « **Reply #5 on:** February 28, 2003, 02:20:24 PM »

I found penetrating oil workes about as good as anything.Squirt some in the barrel (dont put it in with a patch)and let it set for a while.Put a tight fitting cotton patch on your cleaning rod and pull it from the muzzel to the breech end through the barrel or use a guide and push it. You will find that will pull most of it out. Than give it a good work out with a good bronz brush.
I dont have a leading problem unless I get the alloy to hard.I run 30-1 lead tin.Lp.

Castaway · « **Reply #6 on:** March 01, 2003, 08:40:32 AM »

The absolute best way to remove leading from a barrel is with mercury. Fill the barrel and let it sit for a few minutes and all leading is gone. Having said that, as it's impractical nowdays, a Lewis tool with bronze wire screen is the way I do it. Scrub, scrub some more and the barrel eventually comes clean.

pinduck · « **Reply #7 on:** March 01, 2003, 09:47:02 AM »

I can remember years ago an old gunsmith I knew used mercury all the time to remove lead then he would reclaim the mercury by lining a funnel with a piece of chamois skin and the mercury would drip thru the chamois back into his mercury jug and he would discard the lead amalgam. I f you tried that now every group with letters of the alphabet in their name would go ballistic. :grin:

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #8 on:** March 01, 2003, 10:32:06 AM »

the penetrating oil thing works good too and I still have a properly hidden bottle of mercury that someday ill get up the nerve to try on a gun that is real bad. Mostle though its a bronze cleaning brush with a little bit of chore boy pad added to it and some penetrating oil or jb paste.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #9 on:** March 01, 2003, 10:34:27 AM »

for 90% of it graycg has it right and for most of the rest shooting a couple jacketed or gas check bullets through your gun when your done takes care of another 9%

rob_helms · « **Reply #10 on:** March 05, 2003, 08:16:41 PM »

Lead removal cloth is the best thing I have found. I have purchased it marketed as Hoppes, Remington, and Kleenbore. It's non abrasive, and great to clean barrels, forcing cones, cylinders, molds, etc. It will remove bluing, so be careful there.

carpediem · « **Reply #11 on:** April 09, 2003, 07:17:20 AM »

:-D Greetings from the Great White North:

Have any of you gentlemen heard of a product called "Copper Melt"? At the last gun show, the maker of this solvent had a table and was selling to the general public. I bought a bottle and tried it out. Gentlemen, I have died and gone to heaven. This stuff works great for lifting any kind of crap you have in your barrel; copper, lead, fouling, whatever.

This solvent has a high concentration of amonia and therefore it is recomended that no copper brushes be used. Apply 5-10 drops, using the eye dropper that comes with the solvent, to a clean patch. Run the loose fitting patch down the bore. Keep doing this until the patch is no longer turning blue or coming out dirty. A half dozen patches will clean the most stubborn fouling.

I will never go back to using any other kind of bore cleaner. I am hooked.

And no, I am not the producer or sales rep for this product.

Kindest regards,

Carpediem

Paul H · « **Reply #12 on:** April 09, 2003, 09:23:29 AM »

Good bullets don't lead! The one precaution is to remove all jacketed bullet fouling before shooting cast.

If you do get signifigant leading, then the best way to remove it is to use a copper dish scouring bad, wrapped around a bore brush and sopping wet with solvent. The copper scouring pad will remove the lead in large chunks.

The best way to prevent leading is to get the barrel well and goodly clean, and using JB compound to get a nice polish. Then do regular cleaning with Ed's red. Personally, I seldom clean the barrels of my cast bullet guns, as I believe I'm more apt to do harm then good.

John Traveler · « **Reply #13 on:** April 09, 2003, 10:24:49 AM »

I've used the classic 28% Stronger's Ammonia copper removal method, and can verify that it works well.

HOWEVER, and this caustion applies to other high-ammonia copper solvents as well, the problem is that continued exposure to barrel steel will leave microscopic pitting!

It's important to limit exposure of the barrel to copper-removal solvents. I believe a couple minutes is the limit. I dunno if anyone out there really wants his barrel to become rough and pitted with overuseage of this stuff!

Leftoverdj · « **Reply #14 on:** April 09, 2003, 10:49:35 AM »

For getting the worst of a bad case of leading out, a milsurp .50 BMG brush is hard to beat. Follow up with the treated cloth or JB.

But the best advice you have been given is not to get leading in the first place. Life's lot easier when you treat cast bullets like cast bullets and buy some jacketed bullets when you need jacketed bullet performance.

Took me a lot of years and much bore scrubbing to learn that.

Joe Kool · « **Reply #15 on:** April 09, 2003, 02:32:01 PM »

Buy a brass pot scrubber pad at the grocery store. It looks like very course brass wool. Some brands have a small wooden handle. Some brands are steel that is brass plated, you don't want this tpye. Use a magnet to be sure the scrubber is brass and not steel. Pull a few strands off the pad and wrap it around an old bronze cleaning brush, so it will be a tight fit in the bore. Use the brush dry, don't use any type of solvent. About 15-20 strokes will clean out 95% of the lead. Then I use Pro Shot lead solvent and a bronze brush to take out the little bit of leading that is left. There may be better solvents, I just happened to have some Pro Shot. Never use a stainless steel bore brush, it will leave fine scratches in the bore and will make the lead problem worse.

Kragman71 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 09, 2003, 04:16:35 PM »

I'm old enough to know that Mercury does a great job of removing lead from a gunbarrel. Simply fill the barrel about 3/4 th,plug the barrel and slosh it around for about 5 minutes. The mercury will amalgamate(form something like an alloy)with the lead.
Dump the solution out,save it for another time,and wipe the barrel with Hoppe's. The barrel is super clean. I've done this for many years without any problems. I felt confident because I worked with hazardus chemicals as a job.
There is no reason for this any more.Now,I use the Outer's Foul Out System. It takes a lot more time,but is much safer,and does just as good a job.
Frank