617 Cleaning

[Grigler]

Hey! Very fussy with my new 617! What should I use to clean the lead off of the back of the circular ring of the barrel? I have a lead cleaning cloth which works very well on everything but the small tight places like around the outside of the inner barrel ring. Does anyone use a small brush with stainless silver cleaner on the small hard to get at spots? Thanks for your help! Grigler

[dmar]

Try using one of those brass gun cleaning toothbrushes soaked in a good solvent. You can also take a strip of t-shirt and 'floss' the area. I find the brush works great. You can find them easily at gun shows, or just find/order them online.

[snubbiefan]

Just for kicks...I put a couple of drops of Hydrogen Peroxide on serious lead build-up around a forcing cone and the stuff just flaked-out. I'm no chemist and don't wear a lab-coat, but it must have had some chemical reaction with the lead, or what was binding the lead to the steel. I will admit that this was not a keeper gun. I bought it to resell and it had never been cleaned. I don't let mine get that dirty or fouled.

[sop]

I use one those plastic/nylon dental pick cleaning tools (they come in packs of three styles, you can get them where you buy your gun cleaning supplies) to get out the stubborn bits of lead trapped between the top strap and the forcing cone ("the inner barrel ring") and other areas where a brush or solvent might not work or fit.

[hangnoose]

For such a great gun, fun to shoot, with an ansac speed loader & loading block easy to shoot a brick of ammo in no time, accurate, nice trigger, excellent practice piece for a 681 or 686, they can be a royal pain with frequent clean up needed (for some of them).
The close tolerances & dirty nature of 22 ammo, you may only get app 200 rounds out before you feel the cylinder/trigger begin to "drag". I hope you enjoy gun cleaning if yours turns out to be one of these as my 4" 617-6 10 shot is. My 10 shot 617 6" never had the problem. +1 on the dental picks and soaking in lead solvent helps. I'm leary of peroxide after doing a # on some bluing, I know it's stainless, and peroxide can work well. I often remove the cylinder from the frame when I want to give the cylinder face a good scrub, it's not all that hard to do & gives you much better access to it. With all the extra cleaning just don't get sloppy & end up with a scratch. For all the trouble it's still worth it for me. If you have 1 of the dirty types and do a lot of shooting, some home made Ed's red solvent will save some $. My Ruger MKll is getting lot's of rest since owning the 617. Firing the 617 in double action mode for steel challenge & bowling pin, times are VERY close between the 617 & MKll, & not much slower to reload with the ansac speed loader. Good luck & enjoy.

[Lou_NC]

When the lead buildup gets bad on my .22 revolvers here's what I do:

1. Invert the revolver in a bench vise (padded jaws). I clamp my revolvers by the barrel, with the muzzle angled slightly downward. (I like to remove the cylinder, but that's not really necessary to do the following).
2. Take an eyedropper and slowly fill the area between the top strap and barrel extension with Hoppe's #9. (I have a stash of decades old Hoppe's #9 that makes short work of lead fouling). Surface tension will keep the solvent from dripping out if you do this slowly. The solvent should cover the entire "line" of lead fouling that is deposited on the topstrap.
3. Let it soak overnight. If it evaporates slightly, replenish and let soak a few more hours.
4. Crush the mouth of an empty .223 brass case shut with a pliers. Now you have a brass "lead scraper" that you can use to scrape off the softened lead fouling. The brass will not harm blued or stainless steel.
5. Repeat the soak if necessary. (Once you remove the softened lead, if there is some still left, re-soak it and let it soften before scraping).

Time is your friend.......let the solvent do its work and you will find you need to use much less elbow grease. I'm talking overnight here, not minutes.



I used this process to remove an incredible amount of lead fouling on a model 17 that I bought used at a gun show years ago. Best experiment I ever did.........I used virtually zero elbow grease on the job!



Next go out and buy the cheapest, filthiest .22 ammo you can lay your hands on (assuming you can find any at all) and don't worry about shooting tons of it because now you know how to easily remove any fouling it may cause!



Good luck,
Lou

[Grigler]

Thanks for the good ideas!

[Super Dave]

I really like these tools by Gunsmither.
Scrape n' Scrub
I have one of each type and use them all to clean my 617.
Enjoy, it's a fantastic gun.
Dave

[MajorD]

I am one of the most unfussy people when it comes to cleaning. My 17 gets cleaned every 20 bullseye matches or 600 rounds. Knock off enough crud to keep it running and move on. I consider grime that does not affect function totally inconsequential and ignore it.