Re: Clening Rod damage after cleaning?
Hi Guys,
My name is Don and I’m the “Bore Rider Barrel Care Products” guy. First of all I’d like to says Thanks! to “Shooter 65” for posting the link to our web site, and also Thanks! to everyone that has emailed us with questions and orders.
Secondly, I’d like to comment about “Tac Blade’s” issues with his cleaning rod. He mentioned that he had scratches running the full length of the rod. That tells me that the scratching had to start right in the front of the chamber area. Now, how do we fix the problem?
The actual bore diameter on a 338 is right around .330”. Using a rod diameter of .3125” only leaves us a margin of error of .0175”. If he was using a one piece rod guide that allows a patch covered jag to pass through it I can just about guarantee you that the hole in the guide is to big to offer the support needed to keep the rod from rubbing. I’d also be willing to bet that if he was using a plastic coated rod he would have been shaving slivers of plastic off it, and a carbon rod would not only have received damage it would also have created damage in this case. After all guys, it is carbon.
I’ve been addressing this problem for a long time with my customers. When you can put together a good fitting rod guide with a properly sized rod and our jags or brush guides your rod should never come into contact with your bore again. Two piece rod guides, like Mr. Lucas makes, offers much better support to a rod than a one piece rod guide. The part that goes on your rod is able to be bored much closer to the given rod diameter because a patch covered jag doesn’t have to pass through it.
Now, let’s talk about rod sizing. Because of all the popular intermediate calibers that have come along in the recent past some really fine smaller sized (diameter wise) rods are now being made by gentlemen like Mr. Ivy. Our recommendations to our customers are as follows:
.223 use .187” diameter rod
.243, .257, .264 use .203” diameter rod
.270, .284 use .234” diameter rod
.308, .338 use .250” diameter rod
.375 and up use .3125” diameter rod
I know what I just stated goes against what some of you have been taught to use for years in some cases. But we didn’t have these fine smaller sized rods around to go with my products back then. Again, because of these smaller rod diameters and when used correctly with my products, these combinations should keep your rod from coming into contact with your bore.
A good rod guide and rod combination is definitely needed to protect the chamber and throat area on your barrel. After that patch falls off though is where other things can go wrong. If your patch holding segments on your jag are bigger in diameter than your rod you are probably clunking them over your crown while pulling your rod back through. (not good) If your segments are smaller than your rod diameter your rod is going to act like a lap for just about it’s whole length until the rod guide can truly support it again somewhere just in front of the chamber. (again not good) Polished hardened stainless steel rods to plastic coated rods will all act as a lap in my humble opinion.
If you take the time to go to our web site and view and read about our products you will find that these are two of the problems that we have tried to alleviate. The long bore riding shoulders on our jags run about .006" under bore size. (The shoulders on our black powder items are .015” under bore size.) They are long enough to allow you time to stop pushing once your patch clears the muzzle so that the joint between the rod and jag should never come in contact with your barrel, and they are designed so that the patch holding segments will not come in contact with the crown while pulling the rod back in.
We also make extra long jags which allows the patch to clear devices such as tuners, muzzle brakes, flash suppressors, etc. while still leaving a portion of the bore riding shoulder in the barrel protecting the crown.
Now I know some of you are already thinking "but Don, your jags and brush guides will also act as a lap" and yes, you are correct, but they only act as a lap where the bore riding shoulder is touching which is very little when compared with the contact area your rod can have while going in an out.
A number of our customers have commented about the glass like smoothness they now feel when pulling their rods back through with our products on. The other nice thing about using our jags, in regards to jacketed bullet shooters, is that you won't get a false blue copper indication like you can from some other jags. For those of you who may be wondering, we lathe turn our products from "Acetron GP" which is a delrin type material. It has more inherent lubricity then delrin without the porosity problem. One of it's uses in industry is as a bearing surface either in the flat or in the round due to it's lubricity.
If you choose to visit our web site that “Shooter 65” mentioned I hope you enjoy reading about our products, and thank you for letting me take up your time.
Good Shooting!
Don … BRBCP …
P.S. I hope the moderators will forgive me because of the references that I have made to the items that I make and sell, but it was done in the context of trying to help the members of this forum understand what is available out there now for them to use. Please accept my apologies if I overstepped your boundaries.
