So what was up with our forefathers? Tougher than us?

[charlie cleveland]

sonds like the plastic wadding is melting in the barrel ....I shot some plastic wads in some black powder loads it melted the plastic wad after 5 shots it just about clogged up the barrel....shot some regular smokeless shells thru it to help clean it up but lots of scrubing later some of it is still in there....charlie

[Andy]

The chore boy and Frontier pad left little shards of lead all over the bench so I'm positive it was lead. This was a brush wad and BP did say it leads to more lead fouling. Have some sporting 20g wads on the way, but this was all they had available a year ago when I started reloading.

[Woodcock survey]

Over the years i have bought a number of old shotguns from the pre plastic shot cup era as i am sure most of you have. Initially they clean up well but after a few days i see lead raising up in the barrels and clean again and again and again. I think it gets smeared on over and over again and does not come out easily so it accumulates over many years.
Have a soft spot for Stevens favorites and have a few that looked like smooth bores until lead remover and a brass screen was used over several days until a perfect bore emerged.
The worst was a .45 1911 that patterned not grouped and the barrel showing very faint rifling but after 4 days of cleaning and soaking in a pan of copper solvent it now groups well.

[Keith Doty]

Shot about 150 rounds of cast bullets out of one of my 1911s years ago.....NEVER AGAIN. Spent hours getting the lead out. With shotguns, I have noticed some wads are much worse about leaving plastic residue in the barrels than others. Elbow grease appears to be the only answer to getting it out.

[Jack Kuzepski]

What you need is a tomlinson cleaner. Someone mentioned a lewis lead remover, a tomlinson is an older version for shotguns, they have the shotgun threads. They can be found at gun shows from someone that has old accessories. The cleaners are often used so the scrubbing pads are not the best. You can buy the brass screen in sheets from Grainger or MSC and with metal shears cut them to shape of an old one. The older ones had wooden paddles to hold the screens, later ones had metal paddles. Either one works good. Brownells used to have brand new ones that went for about $100.- Checking their web site they no longer have them although they do carry 12 and 20 gauge Lewis lead remover heads for about $30.-, however I think they are out of stock.

Jack

[Keith Doty]

I am tempted to try fine (green) Scotch Brite pads. Anybody tried them?

[Bob Jurewicz]

Hoppe's Tornado brushes. Spiraled coils of stainless steel wire that will not damage or scare the bore but scrubs leading and powder residue.
Bob Jurewicz

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Keith Doty

I am tempted to try fine (green) Scotch Brite pads. Anybody tried them?

Do NOT use any color/grit Scotch Brite pads. They have a very hard abrasive.





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[OH Osthaus]

Andy

don't your loads have plastic wads?

if so- the crap so hard to get out is plastic fouling, which is a PITA they did not have to deal with

[Big D]

Carb cleaner will take care of plastic fouling