Good solvent for plastic fowling?

Willie Lowman · December 4, 2016, 02:37 PM

15 years ago my dad gave me a NEF rifled 20 gauge. Since then it's been passed around the family for everyone's first deer gun.

The gun came back to me recently. There is a great deal of plastic in the rifling from all the sabot slugs that have been down it's pipe. I have tried cleaning with patches and Gunzilla solvent. It didn't seem do much to the plastic. Is there a good solvent to get plastic out of rifling or is this a elbow grease kinda thing?

jaguarxk120 · December 4, 2016, 02:44 PM

Try some PB Blaster or use Ed's Red.

greyeyezz · December 5, 2016, 12:10 PM

Did you use brass brushes and hoppes 9? Patches won't remove much.

Virginian · December 5, 2016, 01:33 PM

I have never had to get rid of any plastic fowl, but WD-40, a brief soak, and a bore brush get my barrels mirror clean.

FITASC · December 5, 2016, 02:03 PM

Any good solvent, even brake cleaner will work. Ed's had acetone in it - plug the barrel, fill it up and let it sit (preferably outside with lots of fresh air)
Even WD-40 will work. Brush on a rod chucked in a cordless drill will make short work of it.

HiBC · December 5, 2016, 03:36 PM

The wads used in shotguns are polyethylene or polypropylene.Both of those are inert to any solvent I know of.Acetone,MEK,Meth Chloride,TCE,etc will not touch Polyethelene or polypropylene.
Those solvents are volatile,not good for you,and not so good for guns.

What you need is a penetrating oil.Kroil,PB Blaster,etc will work as well as anything.And a brush. And some time.Get it wet,let it soak.Scrub a little,get it wet again.

I have gone to the Scheumann Barrel website a number of times to bring back a link about barrel cleaning.Particularly,why its a very bad idea to use Chlorinated hydrocarbons such as brake cleaner in barrels.Scheumann referenced an article written by Mr Borden of Precision Shooting magazine.

It has to do with sulphur as a component of the steel for free machining properties. Sulphur is present in many barrel steels.Chlorinated hydrocarbons attack this sulphur,and are bad for the steel.

You may do as you wish,but when top barrelmakers and benchrest shooters tel me don't use brake cleaner in a barrel, ......I don't.

Jim Watson · December 5, 2016, 03:48 PM

I have soaked a trap gun barrel after a 500 target weekend with WD40, let it stand, scratched it up with a brush, let it stand some more, and patched out dissolved or suspended wad plastic like black syrup.

BigJimP · December 5, 2016, 04:32 PM

Shooters Choice...shotgun and choke tube cleaner works real well...to get the plastic residue out ...( spray it and let it sit for a few minutes / and just brush it out ).

Its also a good choice because it won't attack the finish on your wood stocks.

Bill DeShivs · December 5, 2016, 04:53 PM

Never use a brush on a drill in a rifled barrel.

dgludwig · December 6, 2016, 11:59 AM

QUOTE: "...I have never had to get rid of any plastic fowl."

Me neither. The more decoys, the better!

I agree with BigJimP's advice: Shooter's Choice choke tube cleaner and a little elbow grease will remove any plastic residue.

osbornk · December 6, 2016, 04:02 PM

I've learned something today that had never occurred to me. I bought my first rifled slug shotgun on Sunday that uses sabot slugs. I have not shot it yet because there are no sabot slugs available locally. I will keep an eye on the barrel.

dahermit · December 6, 2016, 04:20 PM

I had a Browning SxS that I brought with me to Southern Michigan (in '86) from up near Ludington. When I got to where I was going, I noticed that there was what appeared to be leading in the barrels. Scrub as I might with Hoppe's #9, I could not remove it. Then one day it dawned on me...shotshells have used plastic wads for years and as such there should not be any "leading" in the barrels. I did a little research and found that Shooter's Choice advertised that it removed "plastic" fouling. Trying it, I noticed that after a wet patch was run through the barrels and the Shooter's Choice was allowed to sit for a few minutes, looking through the bores I could see that the plastic fouling had become all wrinkled. When I pushed a dry patch through the bores it was covered with a Black mass of soft gunk. From that point on, I never tasked Hoppes with removing plastic fouling...I don't know if they changed their formula since then to work on plastic fouling, but I lost faith in them (nevertheless, I still use Hoppe's #9 for cleaning the carbon gunk that accumulates in the guns when shooting cast lead bullets in my autos and revolvers...it still seems good for that).

FITASC · December 6, 2016, 05:25 PM

After you spray your barrels with whatever solvent you decide, take an oversized bronze brush on a cleaning rod with the handle cutoff, chucked in a cordless drill and run it up and down a few times - no need to wait hours or days, the friction generated by the the heat of the brush coupled with the lubricity of the oil/solvent on the plastic will have it spiffy and shiny in seconds flat...........

This also works wonders for choke tubes - but if you hold the tube in your hand, a leather glove does well to prevent burning your fingers

Bill DeShivs · December 6, 2016, 09:18 PM

For those posters that DON'T READ the original post: He is talking about a rifled barrel.
Never use a brush on a drill in a rifled barrel-as I have already stated.

December 4, 2016, 02:37 PM	#1
Willie Lowman Senior Member Join Date: March 5, 2009 Location: Uh-Hi-O Posts: 3,006	Good solvent for plastic fowling? 15 years ago my dad gave me a NEF rifled 20 gauge. Since then it's been passed around the family for everyone's first deer gun. The gun came back to me recently. There is a great deal of plastic in the rifling from all the sabot slugs that have been down it's pipe. I have tried cleaning with patches and Gunzilla solvent. It didn't seem do much to the plastic. Is there a good solvent to get plastic out of rifling or is this a elbow grease kinda thing? __________________ "9mm has a very long history of being a pointy little bullet moving quickly" --Sevens

December 5, 2016, 01:33 PM	#4
Virginian Senior Member Join Date: February 11, 2012 Location: Williamsburg, Va. Posts: 1,528	I have never had to get rid of any plastic fowl, but WD-40, a brief soak, and a bore brush get my barrels mirror clean. __________________ What could have happened... did.

December 5, 2016, 02:03 PM	#5
FITASC Senior Member Join Date: December 6, 2014 Posts: 6,441	Any good solvent, even brake cleaner will work. Ed's had acetone in it - plug the barrel, fill it up and let it sit (preferably outside with lots of fresh air) Even WD-40 will work. Brush on a rod chucked in a cordless drill will make short work of it. __________________ "I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist'—in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government—it doesn't own you."- Frank Zappa

December 6, 2016, 11:59 AM	#10
dgludwig Senior Member Join Date: February 12, 2005 Location: North central Ohio Posts: 7,486	QUOTE: "...I have never had to get rid of any plastic fowl." Me neither. The more decoys, the better! I agree with BigJimP's advice: Shooter's Choice choke tube cleaner and a little elbow grease will remove any plastic residue. __________________ ONLY AN ARMED PEOPLE CAN BE TRULY FREE ; ONLY AN UNARMED PEOPLE CAN EVER BE ENSLAVED ...Aristotle NRA Benefactor Life Member

December 6, 2016, 05:25 PM	#13
FITASC Senior Member Join Date: December 6, 2014 Posts: 6,441	After you spray your barrels with whatever solvent you decide, take an oversized bronze brush on a cleaning rod with the handle cutoff, chucked in a cordless drill and run it up and down a few times - no need to wait hours or days, the friction generated by the the heat of the brush coupled with the lubricity of the oil/solvent on the plastic will have it spiffy and shiny in seconds flat........... This also works wonders for choke tubes - but if you hold the tube in your hand, a leather glove does well to prevent burning your fingers __________________ "I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist'—in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government—it doesn't own you."- Frank Zappa

December 4, 2016, 02:44 PM	#2
jaguarxk120 Senior Member Join Date: February 28, 2008 Location: Michigan Posts: 2,619	Try some PB Blaster or use Ed's Red.

December 5, 2016, 12:10 PM	#3
greyeyezz Senior Member Join Date: November 19, 2001 Location: N.E. OH Posts: 385	Did you use brass brushes and hoppes 9? Patches won't remove much.

December 5, 2016, 03:36 PM	#6
HiBC Senior Member Join Date: November 13, 2006 Posts: 8,283	The wads used in shotguns are polyethylene or polypropylene.Both of those are inert to any solvent I know of.Acetone,MEK,Meth Chloride,TCE,etc will not touch Polyethelene or polypropylene. Those solvents are volatile,not good for you,and not so good for guns. What you need is a penetrating oil.Kroil,PB Blaster,etc will work as well as anything.And a brush. And some time.Get it wet,let it soak.Scrub a little,get it wet again. I have gone to the Scheumann Barrel website a number of times to bring back a link about barrel cleaning.Particularly,why its a very bad idea to use Chlorinated hydrocarbons such as brake cleaner in barrels.Scheumann referenced an article written by Mr Borden of Precision Shooting magazine. It has to do with sulphur as a component of the steel for free machining properties. Sulphur is present in many barrel steels.Chlorinated hydrocarbons attack this sulphur,and are bad for the steel. You may do as you wish,but when top barrelmakers and benchrest shooters tel me don't use brake cleaner in a barrel, ......I don't.

December 5, 2016, 03:48 PM	#7
Jim Watson Senior Member Join Date: October 25, 2001 Location: Alabama Posts: 18,535	I have soaked a trap gun barrel after a 500 target weekend with WD40, let it stand, scratched it up with a brush, let it stand some more, and patched out dissolved or suspended wad plastic like black syrup.

December 5, 2016, 04:32 PM	#8
BigJimP Senior Member Join Date: February 23, 2005 Posts: 13,195	Shooters Choice...shotgun and choke tube cleaner works real well...to get the plastic residue out ...( spray it and let it sit for a few minutes / and just brush it out ). Its also a good choice because it won't attack the finish on your wood stocks.

December 5, 2016, 04:53 PM	#9
Bill DeShivs Senior Member Join Date: April 7, 2006 Posts: 10,981	Never use a brush on a drill in a rifled barrel. __________________ Bill DeShivs, Master Cutler www.billdeshivs.com

December 6, 2016, 04:02 PM	#11
osbornk Senior Member Join Date: August 11, 2012 Location: Mountains of Appalachia Posts: 1,598	I've learned something today that had never occurred to me. I bought my first rifled slug shotgun on Sunday that uses sabot slugs. I have not shot it yet because there are no sabot slugs available locally. I will keep an eye on the barrel.

December 6, 2016, 04:20 PM	#12
dahermit Senior Member Join Date: October 28, 2006 Location: South Central Michigan...near Posts: 6,501	I had a Browning SxS that I brought with me to Southern Michigan (in '86) from up near Ludington. When I got to where I was going, I noticed that there was what appeared to be leading in the barrels. Scrub as I might with Hoppe's #9, I could not remove it. Then one day it dawned on me...shotshells have used plastic wads for years and as such there should not be any "leading" in the barrels. I did a little research and found that Shooter's Choice advertised that it removed "plastic" fouling. Trying it, I noticed that after a wet patch was run through the barrels and the Shooter's Choice was allowed to sit for a few minutes, looking through the bores I could see that the plastic fouling had become all wrinkled. When I pushed a dry patch through the bores it was covered with a Black mass of soft gunk. From that point on, I never tasked Hoppes with removing plastic fouling...I don't know if they changed their formula since then to work on plastic fouling, but I lost faith in them (nevertheless, I still use Hoppe's #9 for cleaning the carbon gunk that accumulates in the guns when shooting cast lead bullets in my autos and revolvers...it still seems good for that).

December 6, 2016, 09:18 PM	#14
Bill DeShivs Senior Member Join Date: April 7, 2006 Posts: 10,981	For those posters that DON'T READ the original post: He is talking about a rifled barrel. Never use a brush on a drill in a rifled barrel-as I have already stated. __________________ Bill DeShivs, Master Cutler www.billdeshivs.com