Originally Posted By: trw999
On the subject of barrel wear, somewhere I recall reading of a noted gun scribe visiting the Birmingham Proof House.

He was shown one of the barrels used for proof testing. It was old and well used. Apparently, it still measured as intended; in other words it was not worn internally despite having many thousands of rounds through it. It may even have never been cleaned, but now I really am testing my brain cells!

Anyway, the point made was that is not the rounds fired through a barrel that wear it, it is the cleaning. This really rather surprised me. It didn't go into details but I assumed that using a phosphor bronze brush for cleaning is, in effect, an abrasive action and thus likely, over the years, to wear away at the inner surface. Now I'm the messenger here so don't shoot me (pun intended!) and, as I have indicated, this is stretching my memory - a lot!

I have to say that ever since I only ever clean my barrels with a phosphor bronze brush once, lightly, at the end of the season. All the rest of the time I use a nylon brush to get rid of the deposits, before then using a woolly. I also always clean my guns at the end of each days use.

Sorry, I' wittering on - again!

Tim
Hardened and machine nickel alloy gun barrel steel bearing "worn" on the barrel ID by a non-ferrous bronze brush- Strange indeed-??

"The field is the touchstone of the man"..