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Barrel cleaning question

Since the hammer doesn't have a barrel port for cleaning fluids to get in, it is somewhat easier to clean, you don't have to worry about fluids and crud getting where it shouldn't be. I'm not a fan of bore snakes myself but some people are, sorry @Reedmosser, but big plus on the rest. Get a tipton carbon fiber cleaning rod, it has a crown protector like any good cleaning rod does, and clean from the muzzle with jags and bronze brush. There is a product called "lead away" that is patches with a very mild abrasive, it won't harm steel and works fairly well on a jag. Not much faster than regular patches/cleaner/bore brush but does speed things up a small amount. If bore really has a lot of lead in it, you can scrub with copper scouring pads, look up how to do it on the powder boards that deal with cast lead shooting. If you end up using copper scrub pads, be careful on which copper pads you buy, many are actually copper plated steel which is a huge NO, pure copper only. Pistol and cowboy action shooters that shoot only lead have been doing it for decades to get lead out and it will not harm any bore, about the most effective method in existence when you have a lot of lead to get out but really unneeded if you don't have a ton of lead. Use whatever cleaning fluid you like, there really are not any that will clean lead fast, it is mostly mechanical removal with lubrication. Used to be you could use electrolysis to remove it all, technically you still could, but it creates some nasty toxic waste and you would have to make your own solution since it hasn't been sold in decades. The toxic waste, and it is nasty, is why the outer's foul out has not been around in decades. The stuff will absorb through skin and put lead in your body, not much and not quick but lead builds up. I still have an outer's foul out and a fair amount of original solution, I've pulled it out maybe twice in the last 20 years for two extremely bad bores on a couple used PB handguns I bought.
 
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Thanks karl_h for a ton of info.
I'm not new to guns and gun cleaning, I'm an old fart that's enjoyed the shooting and hunting sports forever.
I am new however to pushing lead slugs. Even my muzzleloader gets sabboted slugs so lead build up wasn't a problem.

The entire barrel unscrews very easily from the Hammer. At the risk of bumping the o-ring where it seats into the receiver, I'm thinking that would be the easiest and cleanest way to take care of the barrel. Anyone else with a hammer do this?
 
Since we are talking about big bore cleaning, the bigger the bore the easier the clean.

clean a barrel.jpg
 
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