I was shooting Remington Thunderbolt ammo in my SR 22 and I had an excess amount of lead buildup/fowling in the muzzle end of the barrel. The first time I used this ammo I fired 100 rounds and not a problem with fowling or grime and easily clean the gun with hoppes #9 and patches. The next time I fired the gun after only 60 rounds I noticed the buildup. Also this Box of ammo I used had three failure to fire. I ejected the rounds and when I reloaded the Mag. I used the rounds that did not fire. This time they worked fine. I stop firing and returned home to clean the SR 22 and that is when I found the excess lead fowling. I used a brass cleaning brush and CLP spray then used a lot of Hoppes #9 finally the lead deposit came loose and I was able to clean the pistol. After an hour and a half the pistol was cleaned and oiled feed ramp was smooth and all seems well. Has any one ever experinced such bad fowling of the barrel as I have discribed? Did I pick up some bad ammo? I really thought I had damaged the barrel. Any and all help please. Thanks as this has never happen before in any gun I have shot.
I've noticed over the past several years that the lead 22lr rounds seem to foul more than they used to. Seems to be the case with all ammos I've been using. I don't know if its because barrels having gotten tighter, bullets are a bit bigger, the lead is softer, or something else. I have tried to stick to copper plated 22lr rounds to avoid this as much as possible, but with the rarity of 22lr any more I do take what I can get. Here's an idea of how to remove it more easily. https://www.rugertalk.com/forum/f37/removing-lead-1380/
I cast my own 45 slugs for my Blackhawk and 1911s. I like to soak the 1911 barrels overnite in #9 befor cleaning.
I've had Remington Thunderbolt do that too but it was quite awhile back. I quit buying it for that reason. Lately, I've had CCI Blazer .22 lead up my SR22 and Single Ten and not very accurate in either gun. Anyway, the 100% copper scrub pad trick works great.
Thanks everyone for your help and thoughts as I was worried that I might screw-up the barrel. I did as told about with the copper scrub pad and now clean as new. No more Thunder bolt only copper clad cci or the like. now to the range to enjoy the sport. thanks again for the help.
I'm finding that with something as dangerious as a firearm there is no exact science on how a gun works or shoots. You can buy expensive or cheap pistols and can still have Magazine issues or extractor that malfunction and ect. The Ammo might shoot, Squib, fowl the bore or not even go bang. We learn what is best for each of us with the help of others that have experanced the same issue and concern that we might have. Just pass on the knowledge and keep the sport for the next generation of Shooters, Sportsmen and Law enforcement Officers. Pass the knowledge on for everyone and all will have safe fun.
uestion.... Question.... Does anyone think it would be beneficial, to do the normal bore cleaning, after shooting ,using a little copper from the scrubber pad? Even if there is no signs of leading, just normal dirty bore. Im not so sure that there isnt some lead or copper in the bore that I may not can see. Im one of those finicky guys ,that clean my guns after every outting, regardless of number of rounds. Jim
Dang, I thought this thread was about shooting birds ( fowling) but turns out it's about dirty barrels (fouling). :cheesy:
After all the time to clean with all your advice I went to the range today. No Thunder duds just Federal high velocity and what a difference. 250 rounds Bore was nice and not much powder residue any ware on the Ruger sr22. All the help was great. Now only practice will keep my shot in the center. Only if I had more .22 ammo.
It is about the "Fowling" and when to give the bird. Just be careful when using the bird as you never know if the receiptiant is armed and loaded!:cryinglaugh: A foul person might think that the Fowl is tasty but the point is How to clean you barrel>...Anyway be well and let the force be with you mi amigo.
I have had an SR22 for about 10 months. It is the first firearm that I have every personally owned and I take good care of it. I have ran several thousand rounds from various manufactures thru the gun and had never see a lot of lead buildup in the barrel. Earlier today I ran 100 rounds from a Remington “bucket of bullets” down range. I had quite a few failure to fires but the FTF round always went off with a double action second strike. I had not has this problem before but figured it was good misfire practice. The gun had been completely cleaned yesterday and the barrel was spotless. After only 100 rounds of Remington the barrel was so fouled with lead that the brass weight of my bore snake hung up about 2/3 the way down the barrel. I thought that I had done something to ruin the barrel but after an hours work I had it clean and shiny again. The ammo situation being what it is you gotta shoot what you can get but it would appear that Remington is putting out some really crappy ammo. L
That's weird because I have shot many of bucket o bullets and never had a problem with lead in my barrel. The ones that cause me problems are the non copper plated ones.
Just wondering if this will help Hi, Being a "Smith" maybe you can answer this: Would a moly coating on the lead of these "Thunderduds" and similar lead bulleted ammo help with the leading problem? I do not know much about the moly coating process, but is there a way to dip a cartridge up to where the bullet and case meet and coat the bullet with moly coating? Any suggestions? How about a graphite dip? It may seem like a lot of extra work, but which is less? Coating before shooting or cleaning lead out of a barrel afterwards? Thanks for reading. h
Now that you mention it, the ammo I was using that day may not have come from “the bucket”. They were definitely not plated. I shoot at a local gun-shop/range. They have done a good job of NOT price gouging during the “shortage” although they do limit how much you can buy. During the worst of the shortage it was a 100 round limit. I usually bought my 100, shot 50 and stashed the rest. They had a wide variety of brands and often broke up bulk packs into 100 round baggies for sale. I got a bunch of the Smart Reloader ammo boxes and kept the loose rounds there. I also picked up a “bucket of bullets” at a gun show, which also went into ammo boxes, but for the life of me I can not remember for sure if they were plated or not. The ammo that caused the fouling came out of my ammo-box stash. They were definitely Remington (an ejected case that landed in my shirt pocket has “Rem” on the bottom) but they may not have come from the bucket. The bullets that caused the fouling were not plated but the entire round did have a hard, lacquer like coating. I have shot many, many non-plated rounds of many different brands through my SR22 and had not seen this type of fouling before. The first 1000 rounds was from a cheap Winchester bulk pack I picked up before I had even bought the gun. So, I may have been badmouthing the wrong flavor of Remington 22lr bullets. I have some of the Remington “gold” bullets. I will try them out to see if there is a problem. Also I did get a second bucket of bullets that says “improved” recently. Those are definitely plated.
I appreciate the advice and helpful tips. To update… I had another box (100) of the un-plated Remington bullets and ran that thru the SR22. The barrel was spotless before and, again, too fouled to pass the bore snake weight after. I am amazed that 100 rounds could foul a gun so badly. I cleaned the gun again and tried 100 rounds of the Remington golden plated bullets. Although I did see many failure to fires there was no appreciable fouling after 100 rounds. As a reality check I cleaned the gun again and shot 100 rounds of un-plated CCI standard velocity. There was very little residue in the bore. In fact it seemed cleaner than after running the 100 golden-plated bullets. So to would seem that those particular un-plated Remington bullets were the cause of the fouling problem. In the future I will try to avoid any un-plated bullets produced by Remington. Now I may have another problem with the gun itself which is probably unrelated to the fouling issue although it did seem to start while I was using those crappy bullets. Today, even with the CCI, I had quite a few failure to fires - probably 12 or 15 out of the 100 rounds. That is quite unusual for the gun so maybe something is wearing out or a spring need replaced. I’m guessing that I have maybe 4000 rounds thru the gun.
For what its worth , Remmy Thunderbolts would not function through a 10/22 I had. Other ammo , we had no problems. It appeared the bullet was oversized , wouldn't chamber. Worked in my 77/22 ??? regards , brushunter
