I noticed some hard carbon buildup on the barrel crown when cleaning the other day. I have a longer muzzle break on the rifle, and cleaning the carbon off the end of the barrel seems impractical without taking off the (tourqed) brake. Is it necessary/ important for accuracy to remove this carbon?
Rifle cleaning with muzzle brake
- Thread starter tmoxley
- Start date
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dok7mm
Well-Known Member
I try not to remove or re-torque my brakes at every cleaning. I do wet down the brake with Bore Tech carbon cleaner as a first step. I find by the time I'm finished with the bore, the brake carbon is soft enough to remove with Q-Tips or a nylon brush. For really bad carbon build up, I would suggest using an ultra sonic cleaner.
RockyMtnMT
Official LRH Sponsor
If cleaning with the brake on it is possible to get solvent trapped between the brake and the crown and cause damage to the barrel.
Doublezranch
Well-Known Member
I take my brakes off and place them in the Ultrasonic cleaner. That loosens the carbon and cleans them back to near perfect. I do not clean the barrel with my brake on.
just country
Well-Known Member
morning, auto brake cleaner works great. do before cleaning
barrel. justme gbot tum
barrel. justme gbot tum
RockyMtnMT
Official LRH Sponsor
If i clean with brake on I always shoot right after to get whatever solvent residue is left in the brake out.
dok7mm
Well-Known Member
I won't say that's not possible, stranger things have happened in the shooting world, but I've shot many, many rounds through braked barrels, over the years and have not encountered that problem. I can see where some brakes might be more prone to getting solvent into the threads, but if muzzle is kept low when cleaning and brake is properly dried, I don't see it being a problem. I use threaded & shouldered brakes and resist removing them every cleaning, as to avoid possible change to brake timing, over time.
I do remove the brakes annually to check my crown. So far, I have had no detrimental crown issues from leaving the brake on, while cleaning. My cleaning rod stop allows me to reverse a brush in the brake, hopefully minimizing drag on the crown.
I encourage every shooter to use whatever method gives him the best results, just stating mine.
Buzzsaw
Well-Known Member
clean with brakes off. If they are indexed correctly, no need to torque them down.
your crown will form a ton of carbon plus a ton of carbon on the back of the brake.
your crown will form a ton of carbon plus a ton of carbon on the back of the brake.
J E Custom
Well-Known Member
I recommend leaving the brake on for normal cleaning with the muzzle down. after cleaning I spray it with WD40 to remove any remaining solvent. Then I use compressed air to blow out any WD40 and finish up with Q Tips on the brake and dry patch the bore and brake. wipe the barrel and brake down with an oily rage for storage. After a few shooting sessions, if the brake looks like it is not clean, it can be removed and cleaned using solvent that removes carbon and/or an ultra sonic cleaner.
NOTE: I don't recommend brake cleaners or carb cleaners because some can be harmful to certain grades of steel.
If you remove the brake, clean the threads on both the barrel and the brake and apply a good Anti-Seize before re installing. if you don't have a torque wrench or don't know what the torque was when installed make a small mark/scratch on the bottom of the brake and barrel and then just align them when you go back with the brake.
If the brake is installed correctly it will make up fast and wont loosen with use.
J E CUSTOM
NOTE: I don't recommend brake cleaners or carb cleaners because some can be harmful to certain grades of steel.
If you remove the brake, clean the threads on both the barrel and the brake and apply a good Anti-Seize before re installing. if you don't have a torque wrench or don't know what the torque was when installed make a small mark/scratch on the bottom of the brake and barrel and then just align them when you go back with the brake.
If the brake is installed correctly it will make up fast and wont loosen with use.
J E CUSTOM
J E Custom
Well-Known Member
I recommend leaving the brake on for normal cleaning with the muzzle down. after cleaning I spray it with WD40 to remove any remaining solvent. Then I use compressed air to blow out any WD40 and finish up with Q Tips on the brake and dry patch the bore and brake. wipe the barrel and brake down with an oily rage for storage. After a few shooting sessions, if the brake looks like it is not clean, it can be removed and cleaned using solvent that removes carbon and/or an ultra sonic cleaner.
NOTE: I don't recommend brake cleaners or carb cleaners because some can be harmful to certain grades of steel.
If you remove the brake, clean the threads on both the barrel and the brake and apply a good Anti-Seize before re installing. if you don't have a torque wrench or don't know what the torque was when installed make a small mark/scratch on the bottom of the brake and barrel and then just align them when you go back with the brake.
If the brake is installed correctly it will make up fast and wont loosen with use.
J E CUSTOM
NOTE: I don't recommend brake cleaners or carb cleaners because some can be harmful to certain grades of steel.
If you remove the brake, clean the threads on both the barrel and the brake and apply a good Anti-Seize before re installing. if you don't have a torque wrench or don't know what the torque was when installed make a small mark/scratch on the bottom of the brake and barrel and then just align them when you go back with the brake.
If the brake is installed correctly it will make up fast and wont loosen with use.
J E CUSTOM
J E Custom
Well-Known Member
I recommend leaving the brake on for normal cleaning with the muzzle down. after cleaning I spray it with WD40 to remove any remaining solvent. Then I use compressed air to blow out any WD40 and finish up with Q Tips on the brake and dry patch the bore and brake. wipe the barrel and brake down with an oily rage for storage. After a few shooting sessions, if the brake looks like it is not clean, it can be removed and cleaned using solvent that removes carbon and/or an ultra sonic cleaner.
NOTE: I don't recommend brake cleaners or carb cleaners because some can be harmful to certain grades of steel.
If you remove the brake, clean the threads on both the barrel and the brake and apply a good Anti-Seize before re installing. if you don't have a torque wrench or don't know what the torque was when installed make a small mark/scratch on the bottom of the brake and barrel and then just align them when you go back with the brake.
If the brake is installed correctly it will make up fast and wont loosen with use.
J E CUSTOM
NOTE: I don't recommend brake cleaners or carb cleaners because some can be harmful to certain grades of steel.
If you remove the brake, clean the threads on both the barrel and the brake and apply a good Anti-Seize before re installing. if you don't have a torque wrench or don't know what the torque was when installed make a small mark/scratch on the bottom of the brake and barrel and then just align them when you go back with the brake.
If the brake is installed correctly it will make up fast and wont loosen with use.
J E CUSTOM
Having seen this on many post I just have to ask what it means..justme gbot tum...Also sorry for interruption.
jimirwin
Active Member
For what it's worth...the gun range next door had a Thompson semi-auto that was their most popular rental gun. Trouble was it kept shooting off the muzzle brake. It was held in place by one roll pin that would be sheared off. I enlarged the pin hole so a fatter pin could be used. Finally I noticed what appeared to be some contact with brake muzzle bore. Measured it and darn tootin' it was under bullet diameter. Fouling had built up until the bullet was being swaged thru at every shot until the roll pin failed! So I bored out the fouling and just a few thousandths of metal. No further trouble!
I don't expect this would be true for higher intensity rounds, but it's something I suggest looking for whenever possible.
On one of my rifles, 284 win, it had a lot of carbon build up and it wasn't shooting it's normal sub-half MOA groups. I removed the brake and cleaned the crown. It made a huge difference. Since then, I remove my breaks and clean the crowns on all of my muzzle break rifles on a regular basis.
