A product that cleans your barrel while you shoot it?

[Yo Mama]

Out of all places at Walmart I ran into the following. I'm very confused if this actually is a thing that can work and if there are other companies or options where you can shoot a projectile down your barrel and it cleans it at the same time?

 

[Outlaw75]

Sounds like the old Williams Cleaner bullet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_cleaner_bullet

 

[Ks5shooter]

Snake oil .....

 

[WestKentucky]

Sounds like horse…. Smells like horse…. Better not step in it.

In theory it might work, but anything being truly accomplished in a single pass is questionable. Shoot the whole 4 pack and it’s still pretty questionable. How much good does it do to run a wire brush up and down 2 times…

 

[tmd16556]

Shotguns aren’t that hard to clean anyway. But you can always make money selling a shortcut.

 

[Riomouse911]

But wait, there’s more!

I’ll pass myself, but others may find it useful.

Stay safe.

 

[Nodakdad]

I have been shooting shot guns for close to 35 years, how dirty do they ever really get?

 

[Speedo66]

Do they even say what shot size they are?

 

[Thomasss]

Snake oil .....

Snake oil actually works if you can find real "snake oil." But I've seen polishing compounds applied to bullets that is suppose to reduce and remove barrel flaws on new rifles. And lets not forget gun powder that reduces copper build up the more you shoot.
Have you noticed the entire IMR Enduron group has been discontinued.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Do they even say what shot size they are?

No shot involved. The payload is scrubbing material, felt wads to pick up particles scrubbed out, a wad column designd to press the scrubbing material against the shotgun bore, with squegee disks between the scrubbing material, felt wads, and the wad over the powder charge, The gunpowder is supposed be super clean very low residue. Sounds like a great way to spend money and litter up a shooting range (as if empty plastic shot cups weren't enough litter).

 

[Speedo66]

No shot involved. The payload is scrubbing material, felt wads to pick up particles scrubbed out, a wad column designd to press the scrubbing material against the shotgun bore, with squegee disks between the scrubbing material, felt wads, and the wad over the powder charge, The gunpowder is supposed be super clean very low residue. Sounds like a great way to spend money and litter up a shooting range (as if empty plastic shot cups weren't enough litter).

Thanks, the diagram showed what looks like a typical shot shell, pointing to a liner surrounding what looks like shot.

Guess I just didn’t get that the “shot” is the cleaner.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

^ I have looked those things over in the sporting goods rack. I had a .410 and a 12ga with bores with lotsa lead streaks from shooting buckshot and foster slugs. I was tempted. At home I made myself some wads out of scouring pad material that I had used to remove burn marks from cooking pans and shine the pan finish like new I wiped the barrels with Hoppe's #9, watched a movie, then drove the wads down the barrels with a wooden dowel and mallet. The wads emerged glittering with lead.

 

[Insignificant bill]

A waste of money just clean the old fashioned way.

 

[herrwalther]

I have seen those in the same places. First saw them 3 or 4 years ago. Have picked up the box and considered it but never have bought them on price alone. 4 shells for 10 is pretty steep just to save a few minutes cleaning a shotgun barrel.

 

[DoubleMag]

I'm reminded of The Patriot where the Redcoats are unloading the ship and it blows up. The air head lady claps & laughs ''oh! fireworks how lovely!'' Or other words with greater ramifications, a waste of gun powder

 

[Hasaf]

My first thought went to the cleaner bullet packaged with civil-war mini balls. Here is the summary from Wikipedia:

Three types of Williams Patent bullets, also known as "cleaner bullets", were used by the Union Army during the American Civil War in the standard .58 caliber rifle muskets. There was a fourth developed for use in the Union Repeating or "Coffee-Mill" gun. The inventor was Elijah D. Williams of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who filed an application for his patent on May 30, 1861. It was issued almost a year later, on May 13, 1862, but field trials on his "improved" bullet had already begun.

The concept of the design was that the discharge of the musket would drive the concave disks forward thus expanding the lead bullet against the interior walls of the rifled barrel.

image from Wikipedia

Various musket balls including (second from the right) a Williams bullet


I am not saying that this thing, the topic of this thread, is not snake oil. However, it is not a some new idea. If it has been around this long, and no one is doing it. . . well, there might be a reason.

 

[Nasty Canasta]

Will it clean a pheasant if I shot one with it? Could save some time in the field

 

[Coyote3855]

Right up there with the urban myth that shooting FMJ through a leaded barrel will clean it.

 

[Nullcone]

I prefer to oxidize my propellant myself, thank you very much.

That said, I do use felt "cleaning/oiling" pellets in some of my airguns that I feel deserve it.

Right up there with the urban myth that shooting FMJ through a leaded barrel will clean it.

Also put me down as one who used to shoot a cylinder-full of warmish gas checked rounds thru revolvers at the end of a smokey cast/swagged shooting session. I think it helped with any leading that was there; maybe it was the placebo effect of actually doing something/anything about the issue.

Semi-autos... not so much (jacketed vs gas checked, of course).

Coyote's experience is obviously different.

 

[Coyote3855]

Also put me down as one who used to shoot a cylinder-full of warmish gas checked rounds thru revolvers at the end of a smokey cast/swagged shooting session. I think it helped with any leading that was there; maybe it was the placebo effect of actually doing something/anything about the issue.

Semi-autos... not so much (jacketed vs gas checked, of course).

Coyote's experience is obviously different.

My opinion is based on a one-time experiment. Friend and I were shooting a lot of lead 200 gr SWCs through our 1911s in IPSC competition. He was convinced a few rounds of FMJ would scrape out the leading. After he did that, we put his barrel in my Outers Foul Out II Electrochemical Barrel Cleaning System. The barrel did in fact look cleaner after the FMJ. The Foul Out yielded ribbons of lead that had been ironed into the rifling grooves.

Gas checked bullets might indeed have a different outcome from round nosed ones.

 

[Nullcone]

As someone who doesn't do a "full, get the lead out" cleaning until its needed (*really needed*), especially on handguns, I yield to your science sir.