How often do you clean your barrel with JB bore paste?

I have only used JB Bore Paste on a MMHF barrel for a Marauder .22 barrel when it had a huge lead build up in it. I ran it through about 20 times and it made a huge difference in the accuracy, but that was just when the barrel was about 2 months old … haven't used it since but wouldn't hesitate if the barrel got gunked up again. The barrel was supposed to be polished when I got it but it must have still had some roughness to it as the JB took out copious amounts of fouling after only about 1500 rounds. The use of FP-10 or Ballistol as a pellet lube seemed to help with the fouling. 

I have always thought that since Ballistol is a great bore cleaner and lead remover and very easy on O-rings … that it just made sense to use it as a pellet lube. I've been using it with a WC .25 and have put 2,000 rounds through it without so much as a running dry patch on a Crown Saver through it and I'm still getting half inch groups at 65 yards (after Ernest did some work for me on it). I've been thinking about taking the Sumo off and opening it up to see what has got blown in there … but I'm almost afraid to look! LOL

I would just like to add interest to this topic as I know there is a gold mine of knowledge to be learned! Also Flitz or JB bore paste ?

I've used JB for years on my powder burners. Great stuff. But... Your patches will always come out black due to the abrasives in it breaking down. I usually run one or two wet patches after using the bore paste and then a dry patch or two. Those usually come back clean.

If the bore paste comes out black that means its still getting lead out. When a bore is clean the paste stays grey. 

I’m thoroughly convinced most of what we believe about barrel cleaning is superstition given to us by the firearms community and competition shooters who sometimes benefit for misinformation becoming the “common” knowledge.

As such, I think we air gunners don’t clean out our barrels nearly enough or as thoroughly as we ought. A brass brush will not harm a steel barrel. It can’t. The science isn’t there. A softer metal can’t scratch a harder metal. 

I use borepaste on a new barrel then I may never use it again unless I neglect the barrel and let it get caked.

I also like to use a brass/copper brush wrapped in choirboy and spun thru a drill chuck. But that’s another topic. 

I agree with redcrow, be careful because what u think is lead, is more likely the combination of paste and barrel material especially if it’s a SS barrel, it is very good compound, but is generally used for carbon removal etc.

JB bore paste is a fine abrasive to polish the bore. Five passes of a jag with FB bore paste should come out black, even from a perfectly clean barrel. If the jag came out clean, I'd suspect something wrong with the JB bore paste; either that or something wrong with my technique. The black jag is good news, Michael. The JB is working and there's nothing wrong with your technique. After sufficient use, JB will make your bore slick as a whistle and less prone to lead fouling. It's all good, Michael.

I use the jb non embedding bore paste on all of my guns when I first got them. At first they came out black then more grey. If I shoot a lot of bullets, and I do, it leads up a bit faster than pellets. But I don’t use jb every time. Only if my accuracy really goes south and my regular cleaning didn’t do the job. Usually it’s goo gone till it’s clean and then a pass with slick 50 one lube. And I lube all my pellets and bullets with the one lube. It cuts way down on cleaning. 

I disagree. I’ve put JB down mirror polished barrels and it stays grey if there’s no lead there. I think those of you who are gettIng black paste out of what you think is a clean barrel just don’t have the clean barrel you think you do. White patches do not equal a clean barrel. Lead can mix with the humidity of the outside (or from your air tank) and harden into a plaque that patches can’t make budge. Hard solvents can even struggle to loosen lead when its that caked in. I’ve seen lead solvent fail to remove lead even after a multi day soak. Only a good scrub with some major copper/brass abbrasives can get that sort of lead out. 

Nor are you removing steel from your barrel with the JB. Nor are you removing steel if you have clean patches, then scrub with a brass brush, then get black. The black that appears after patching a “clean” barrel is simply lead plaque you loosened up. As long as black is coming out after a scrub, you’ve still got lead. 

I make ten passes once a year when I rebuild my target guns. I use a rod and mop. I embed the mop with paste and run it from the breech to muzzle, detach it then do it again from the breech to muzzle. I only want to give the barrel a good cleaning as I've already polished it.

JB bore paste is designed to remove steel, not lead. 

If JB is 'designed to remove steel' is does a poor job of it. The debate about the abrasives in JB was all the rage among the 600/1000 yard bencrest crowd ten years back. Every opinion from "it'll wash out the throat of your chamber in no time" to "it's completely innocuous". I've used it in both my light and heavy guns in that discipline to remove the carbon produced by high pressure loads with slow burning propellants.. It worked like a champ for me. But just for grins, I miked a piece of .1/4" of 416R SS at 0.2485" Then I loaded up a felt pad for my Palmer-Cole hand sander with JB and gave my sample a total of 30 minutes of vigorous sanding. In the end, I had a very, very black felt pad, a very hot sander and a piece of 416R plate with a thickness of precisely 0.2484" All the numbers mentioned here are the average for 5 or 6 measurements by two different people.So a half hour of leaning heavily on my test piece with a sander maybe removed one ten-thousandth of an inch. No, this isn't science and it sure isn't a statistically significant sample, but I went back to JB for carbon removal with no further worries.

That said, I've yet to need anything more than plain patches and Ballistol to get air gun barrels clean enough for competition accuracy. So I really can't address the use of JB in this context. Yes, it is an abrasive, so use with caution. But I've never seen it do any accuracy impairing damage in rifles that routinely saw chamber pressures in excess of 65,000 psi. 

The purpose of barrel cleaning is to remove lead. JB paste is not very good at this. The act of barrel polishing removes steel. This is what JB paste does well.

"scrane"The purpose of barrel cleaning is to remove lead. JB paste is not very good at this. The act of barrel polishing removes steel. This is what JB paste does well.

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Not trying to stir up controversy, but in my experience which includes a whole lot of bore scope barrel inspections, I've never seen anything that would support this idea. That said, one man's observations shouldn't be confused with proof of anything. If there's any documentation supporting your statements, I'd be very interested. This old dog is open to learning new tricks

I just happened to think of something. Almost all my experience with JB bore paste was in the course of center fire pursuits using fully jacketed bullets. So of course, my BR barrels never showed any lead fouling. Copper yes, lead no. What I did see was carbon deposits in barrel throats and the first few inches of the bore followed by mostly copper fouling from there to the muzzle. JB cuts through those carbon plaques quite nicely, and to a lesser degree, it also removed copper streaking. This difference between powder burners and airguns may account for the difference is our observations.

There was a guy maybe 7 years ago who was tuning Marauders. His name was Greg Davis and he had a technique for polishing the barrel using Mother's Mag Wheel polish. I wonder if anyone has an opinion on that.

Also, what technique are you using for JB Paste to clean the barrel. Bullfrog, you started to mention something but left off on it. I'd be interested to hear about it.

Thanks,

KP

I just happen to have Greg's polishing procedure with Mother Mag Wheel cleaner.

"To digest JSB's, First: The stock barrel usually preffer's a pellet with a 5.52 head diameter.
The stocker also likes speed in the 900 range this applies to both cal. If you are hand lapping JB bore paste can do more damage than good, Try some mothers metal polish smeared well into a paper towel use a .177 bronze bore brush to retain the pre-treated strip of towel that's wrapped around the brush sufficiently to be a snug fit in the bore, Stroke slowly not allowing your patch to exit either end. Six or seven passes then unroll from brush push a cleaning pad thru and resume treatment."

I've personally used JB's and Mothers with no issues

JK

Thought JB was a friable compound..

"cosmic"Thought JB was a friable compound..

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That is correct. If memory serves, the abrasive component come from diatoms. Hard, but very brittle.

"scrane"The purpose of barrel cleaning is to remove lead. JB paste is not very good at this. The act of barrel polishing removes steel. This is what JB paste does well.

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With all due respect, if JB paste can remove steel it can therefore remove lead; lead is way softer than steel.

People, do not be afraid to use brass brushes to clean your airgun barrel. I’ve done so every single time I clean mine and there is no effect on accuracy. IMO, it is the best and most effective way to remove lead buildup instead of smearing the lead onto the bore surface through the use of just cleaning patches and a pull-through.