Originally Posted by LoboGunLeather

I was taught this method during a few weeks spent on a casual assignment at the Fort Benning, Georgia, post armory cleaning all sorts of weapons heavily used in training, frequently with bores heavily fouled by jacketed bullets. Works perfectly well for leading removal.

Use a worn bore brush of proper size wrapped with strands of 0000 steel wool, run it through the bore dry multiple times until rifling appears to be clearly defined. Then clean normally using bore cleaning solvent, good bore brush, and patches.

In the 48 years since that experience I have used this method on dozens of firearms (pistols, rifles, revolvers, shotguns), and all have been completely cleared of lead deposits within a few minutes. In my revolvers I have adapted a variation for cleaning cylinder chambers with leading at the forcing cones, just chuck a section of cleaning rod with steel wool wrapped bore brush into a drill, insert and give each chamber a brief treatment. Leading on cylinder faces and around barrel/frame attachment can be scrubbed off with hand-held steel wool.

No damage to rifling, bore, or revolver finish. My 6" Model 19 went through several seasons of PPC competition using lead bullets, has been cleaned in this manner dozens and dozens of times, and still performs perfectly after 43 continuous years of use and tens of thousands of rounds fired.