Sebastian the Ibis
Member
I just spent the long weekend soaking a couple of cans in penetrating oil, and other things to get them cleaned out. After this exercise, I think I've learned a couple lessons:
1. I'm not going to shoot cheap Russian Steel cased ammo through my pistol cans anymore. Even though I love the price and probably shoot at least 5k+ rounds of it a year. It is just not worth the clean up. There was a substantial amount of lead in my can after approximately 1k rounds of Russian Steel case. So much so that I could not insert a fixed barrel spacer. I think this is because the cheap Russian bullets are not fully jacketed. In the future, I think my pistol caliber cans will be getting a steady diet of Speer Lawman or another fully jacketed bullet.
2. In the future, I am going to grease the threads with lithium grease so that I can get them unstuck more easily. A week in penetrating oil, is not something I want to to regularly.
3. The dip is the only realistic way to get lead out of all the nooks and crannies. Penetrating oil really slows the dip. It is best to get as much oil as possible off before dipping. You need a lot of dip. You probably need at least a liter of dip to get all the lead off a gunked up set of baffles, any less it sort of runs out of oompf. Even if not all the lead is dissolved, it is a lot easier to brush/pick it off once baffles have been dipped. Make sure you have an old paint can or something to put the jar of dip in, when you take it to the Haz-Mat dump.
4. It is darn hard to find a strap wrench to get a grip on a .22 can, as opposed to an oil filter.
5. I am going to try welding anti-spatter spray on the rear baffles to see if that helps clean up.
6. Don't ever use a thread adapter, unless you have a rock solid plan to get it unstuck. If you can't get a wrench on it, you are never going to get it off.
1. I'm not going to shoot cheap Russian Steel cased ammo through my pistol cans anymore. Even though I love the price and probably shoot at least 5k+ rounds of it a year. It is just not worth the clean up. There was a substantial amount of lead in my can after approximately 1k rounds of Russian Steel case. So much so that I could not insert a fixed barrel spacer. I think this is because the cheap Russian bullets are not fully jacketed. In the future, I think my pistol caliber cans will be getting a steady diet of Speer Lawman or another fully jacketed bullet.
2. In the future, I am going to grease the threads with lithium grease so that I can get them unstuck more easily. A week in penetrating oil, is not something I want to to regularly.
3. The dip is the only realistic way to get lead out of all the nooks and crannies. Penetrating oil really slows the dip. It is best to get as much oil as possible off before dipping. You need a lot of dip. You probably need at least a liter of dip to get all the lead off a gunked up set of baffles, any less it sort of runs out of oompf. Even if not all the lead is dissolved, it is a lot easier to brush/pick it off once baffles have been dipped. Make sure you have an old paint can or something to put the jar of dip in, when you take it to the Haz-Mat dump.
4. It is darn hard to find a strap wrench to get a grip on a .22 can, as opposed to an oil filter.
5. I am going to try welding anti-spatter spray on the rear baffles to see if that helps clean up.
6. Don't ever use a thread adapter, unless you have a rock solid plan to get it unstuck. If you can't get a wrench on it, you are never going to get it off.