Have you ever seen this before? Leaching/formations in barrel.

[danwessonfan]

This is a picture of my shootin buddy's new S&W 657 w/7.5" barrel.  He just bought the gun and we've put 300-400 rounds thru it.  He told me about it doing this over and over again when cleaning it, and finally sent some pictures.  Below is the text in the email he sent that had the pics, I thought I would post here and see what you guys think.

"This bore leaching is a trip.  Attached are 2 pix.  This is after 5 extended scrubs with bore solvent and WD-40 with 5 minutes between scrubs.  You can scrub it with bore brush, look down barrel and see the grime in barrel, but not these formations.  These formations occur after I had scrubbed the bore and hosed it out with WD-40.  The formations occured in the time it took me to set the WD-40 down and look in the barrel.....seconds only."

[Ahab]

I'm not sure that's leaching. My guess it's the WD40 balling up.

[corbanzo]

run some dry patches after you WD, theres no need to leave all that in the barrel, just keep the gun in a dry place.

[Dusty Miller]

Maybe there's some chemical reaction between the WD-40 and the solvent? 

[jro45]

Did you clean the bore solvent out before you used WD40. Because it looks like the bore solvent and WD40 don't get along.

[danwessonfan]

This is my friend's gun, we were talking about it after I posted on here and think it's the WD40 lifting small amounts of gunk and bubbling/foaming up to look like a lot more than is really there.  He's meticulous so this has been perplexing, he thinks it's spotless and 5 seconds later it's spewing gunk!  To answer the question about cleaning the bore solvent out, these pics were after multiple scrubbings with WD after bore solvent.  One thing I didn't add, he's been applying Microlon gun juice to the barrel (well, the whole gun, the cylinder will free spin for over 10 seconds if you give it a good spin, and the action is like silk).  Although we haven't done the wet shooting treatment to the barrel yet, we think the microlon might have sealed the metal allowing the WD40 to lift gunk that might ordinarily stick in pores in the metal.

Let me add, this is one helluva nice gun.  The trigger is lighter & crisper after a couple hundred rounds (and gun juice) than on my well used (& gun juiced) DW 357, and the gun almost aims itself.  This and my 1894FG are going to consume a lot of bullets, I can already tell...  I've been looking for a DW 41 mag, they're on the same shelf as hen's teeth...but after shooting this one, this is likely what I'm going to buy.

Thanks for your replies, if we figure out anything else I'll post on here.  It would be interesting for someone who has a 657 to try this and see if the same thing happens.  It might be a lot dirtier than you think.

[Dand]

After taking a bunch of gummed up shotguns to a gunsmith for cleaning and servicing, I got chewed out for hosing the guns with WD 40 and letting them dry. It turned out letting WD 40 build up was most of our problem.  We carried the guns for bear protection.

I no longer use WD 40 at all unless my guns  are soaked from days of rain and I can't properly clean and dry them. As soon as I can, I clean my guns properly with several different bore solvents (depending on need and availability) then I use a light coat of Rem Oil, Hoppe's oil or, nowdays, I use Beeman's MP 5. I've also used Birchwood Casey's Sheath.

MP 5  and Sheath seem to dry without leaving any residue and my guns have seemed very well protected.

I too would suspect you are getting some sort of reaction between the WD 40 and other chemicals.  I don't know anything about microlon - could it be that it too is reacting or getting lifted out of the metal surface?

I've wondered if anybody has done some compatibility / reaction tests among various cleaning products.  Any chance that the wrong combination could become corrosive? Especially with all the new cleaners?

In my rifles I might start at the range with a couple patches of Hoppes #9 or Sweets, while the bore is warm.  Wipe the bore out at home and load the bore with WipeOut.  Haven't tried the accelerator for Wipe Out.  Then a few patches followed by Butche's or Shooter's choice (to check the effectiveness of the Wipe Out).  Then dry out the bore followed by MP5 or a little Rem Oil.

Overall I've been very happy with the effectiveness of Wipe Out in my rifles.  For hand guns its usually Hoppe's or Butches,  Lewis Lead remover if needed then dry and light coat of MP5.

[S.B.]

I agree with those who think this is a chemical reaction between solvent and WD-40.

[danwessonfan]

Thought I would follow up on this.  The gun was sent back to SW and the barrel was replaced.  It had tooling marks you could see that ran crossways of the rifling, which I think were loading up with powder residue.  As he was flooding the barrel, more and more of this was washing out and sitting in the foam from the WD40.  SW did a great job, the barrel looks like it's been lapped, and they turned it around so he had it back in 8 days.  It also feels like they may have tuned the trigger a little, it was already incredible but it's even lighter now.  I was extremely impressed by the accuracy and feel of the gun and after SW handled this issue the way they did, I bought the same gun two days ago!!  Unfortunately I was delayed, as was everyone else they sold a gun to this weekend, hopefully I can run down there and pick it up one evening this week.