Cleaning the counter bore on a Mosin Nagant?

**IronBuddha** · March 28th, 2013, 01:56 AM

I was just inspecting my rifle and I noticed the counter bore of my Mosin Nagant hasn't been getting cleaned. I clean the hell out of it after every use, I practically have it down to a science and I get the main bore looking good. But I guess because the counter bore is wider then the rest of the barrel, the scrubber is not able to spread enough at the end to also scrub the counter bore. Is there a trick to scrubbing/cleaning the first inch or so inside the rifle barrel to get at the counter bore?

**spartakis252** · March 28th, 2013, 02:20 AM

Don't know from experience but I would think a pistol caliber bore brush from the muzzle end should clear it out. Although I'm not one to advocate muzzle to breach cleaning there's not much else I think you could do.

**IronBuddha** · March 28th, 2013, 02:34 AM

Originally Posted by spartakis252

Although I'm not one to advocate muzzle to breach cleaning there's not much else I think you could do.

Yea I kind of don't have a choice but to do that, but my concern is the wire brush. Whenever using a wire brush you want to go all the way in and out because if you go opposite direction in the middle the wires will spread and can cause damage (I'm sure there's a name for this, I just don't know what it is

)

An idea I had was maybe using a drill and a nylon brush to scrub the end of it, but what caliber should be used for the counter bore, and could anything go wrong since it's only a nylon brush I'm using and not brass/copper. I would rinse it out afterward to get any bristles that might come off.

**Pukindog** · March 28th, 2013, 01:48 PM

A bronze wire brush will not cause damage to a steel barrel. Take a Q-Tip, dip it in some solvent, swab the counterbore, dry with another Q-Tip and you're done. No big deal. Don't over engineer it.

Jeff

**IronBuddha** · March 28th, 2013, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by Pukindog

A bronze wire brush will not cause damage to a steel barrel. Take a Q-Tip, dip it in some solvent, swab the counterbore, dry with another Q-Tip and you're done. No big deal. Don't over engineer it.

Jeff

I use surplus ammo. It would take 5000 Q-tips to clean up the gunk.

**Pukindog** · March 28th, 2013, 03:03 PM

Surplus ammo; better yet.

Use some windex. All you need to do is remove the corrosive salts to prevent rusting. The rifle is counterbored must likely because of poor cleaning practices. There is no rifling there. Use a rod with a patch inserted into the muzzle end to swab the area of the counterbore with windex and repeat with a couple of dry patches.
Jeff

**SigSauer226** · March 28th, 2013, 03:52 PM

You actually clean your Mosin????

Like pukindog said, don't over engineer it. Just do a quick clean with some windex to get rid of the salts. It's counter bored so that portion of the barrel no longer serves any purpose other than giving your front sight somewhere to sit. So no matter how well you clean it, it's not going to make a difference. Unless the fouling is so thick that it's obstructing the bore. And if that's the case, you're doing something wrong.

**IronBuddha** · March 29th, 2013, 03:41 AM

Thanks guys for the input. Instead of Windex I use hot soapy water mixed with ammonia. It cleans everything out much faster then Windex, I'm assuming it's because of the water being hot since Windex is pretty much the same thing.
Since it's not a bad thing unless it's really gunked up, I'll start doing what you guys recommend and just hit it up with some patches and Q-tips.

**Milsurpshooter60** · March 31st, 2013, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by IronBuddha

I was just inspecting my rifle and I noticed the counter bore of my Mosin Nagant hasn't been getting cleaned. I clean the hell out of it after every use, I practically have it down to a science and I get the main bore looking good. But I guess because the counter bore is wider then the rest of the barrel, the scrubber is not able to spread enough at the end to also scrub the counter bore. Is there a trick to scrubbing/cleaning the first inch or so inside the rifle barrel to get at the counter bore?

Well i use my garand tool breech cleaning brush and gunscrubber on my breech end of the rifle,s i own in 30 cal to clean the chamber .CTD has the garand tool with the brush ,they are fairly easy to find just look up garand tool.ANd yea its corrosive do not forget the windex,or youll have a rusted out bore real quick.