.22 cleaning with winchester kit

I bought a cheap winchester cleaning kit and was planning on using it to clean my Savage Mark II. The rod is screwed together in 3 pieces and just barely fits through the barrel. It feels like it might be scraping on the inside. It came with a .22 brush so I just figured it must be okay but now I'm worried I may have messed something up. I've used it a few times now, you think it messed up the barrel?

A cleaning tip i got years back was to AVOID screw together rods at ALL costs as they often
once put together aren't concentric like a one piece rod. Having said that you might try this,
screw the rod together with the brush or jag in place, then take a cloth or patch of sufficient
size soaked in Hoppe's #9 or your choice of solvent and wipe the rod handle to business end
on all surfaces then let it dry. Then take your fingers, close your eyes and run a thumb and
forefinger over and around each joint in the rod and feel for high spots or mismatching surfaces
and that should give you a clue as to how or IF that joint in the rod could be rubbing against
your barrel; as to if it has done any damage so far would be very tricky to determine without
a costly borescope to examine the barrel breech to muzzle. I would definitely invest in a one
piece rod and my preference is for stainless steel uncoated. There are carbon fiber ones out
there but i've seen them splinter all to often to trust them. Just my opinion on rod materials
however but stainless you'll have forever and oh yes, after each cleaning session or before
using the rod, take a patch again soaked in solvent and rub the entire rod end to end to
eliminate any residue picked up from a prior cleaning.

Get a 22 cal Dewey cleaning rod and buy a bore guide for that nice rifle before you do any more damage.

Buy a nice rifle and screw it up with a POS cleaning kit

-- Throw that current rod in the trash. Stainless steel seems to scare me a bit; especially in 22s. I do not want anything that is harder than the inside surface of my barrel. Carbon fiber or brass would be my choice for a 22.

I actually like the Otis cleaning system -- NO rods - pull through brush and patches. On a 22 I would suggest using nylon brushes. All you are really looking at doing is removing the carbon residue from a 22 bore.

Now with all that said, I use the Otis system and have a Tipton .17 cal one piece rod. I always clean from the bolt end of the rifle when possible. Bore guides are a nice to have item and do help but I have not be able to find one for several of the 22s I own. Just be careful when inserting anything into the chamber and/or bore.

I do not think you have actually damaged anything YET .. those Winchester cleaning rods are made of aluminum and should not have hurt anything at this point. Take it out and shoot it and see how it performs now as opposed to how it shot prior to using the rod.

Aluminum does not corrode because it has a thin layer of Aluminum Oxide on it. They make sandpaper out of aluminum oxide.

Jointed rods can have the screw ends bent. This will rub the barrel. I use Kleen-Bore .22 rods for most enerything. Mild steel rods are the best for me.

I also NEVER use a cleaning jag for patches. I use a worn out .22 bronze brush and wrap the patch on the brush. A steel or brass cleaning rod jag can also damage the barrel.

Hoppe's #9 on a bronze brush, cycle the rod 12 times and push clean patches through the bore until they come out clean. Oil the bore if you are going to store it for a while.

Doug

msredneck wrote:Get a 22 cal Dewey cleaning rod and buy a bore guide for that nice rifle before you do any more damage.

Buy a nice rifle and screw it up with a POS cleaning kit

The only drawback to the Dewey rods is that they take a non standard threaded
jag that as far as I know, only they make thus locking you into their products, there
are adapters I believe for gender bending the jags and or brushes but that introduces
yet another potential joint into the picture. I understand Captain's hesitance to use
stainless rods but one thing is that I highly doubt they can be harder than barrel steel
and unlike even the coated aluminum rods, they are hard enough not to embed grit
from and carry it down into and leaving micro gouges in a barrel, I've had that happen
before but luckily not to a rifle i had a lot invested in. A brass rod if you can find one
in all one piece, the ones I've seen were Outer's brand and jointed, also potentially
carry the same risk of carrying debris/grit into a good barrel since both coated aluminum
and brass are quite a bit softer than steel. The Kleen-Bore and Pro Shot all stainless
rods are my personal favorite. Dewey does make a rod guide for the muzzle of a 10/22
to keep the rod aligned BUT, read the enclosed instructions about how to use it, it is
NOT designed to be put on the rifle then have a rod and jag/brush pushed through it,
the bronze insert in the Delrin guide WILL come out!!

The only drawback to the Dewey rods is that they take a non standard threaded
jag that as far as I know, only they make thus locking you into their products, there
are adapters I believe for gender bending the jags and or brushes but that introduces
yet another potential joint into the picture.

That's not entirely accurate, I have 22 and 30 cal Dewey rods. The 30 is as you state, some odd size thread that only their jag, which I like, uses or their adapter.

The 22 rod uses the conventional thread size and I often find myself grabbing for 30 cal use when I can't find the adapter.

a Hoppes bore snake would be better than what He is using now....

PhillipM wrote:

The only drawback to the Dewey rods is that they take a non standard threaded
jag that as far as I know, only they make thus locking you into their products, there
are adapters I believe for gender bending the jags and or brushes but that introduces
yet another potential joint into the picture.

That's not entirely accurate, I have 22 and 30 cal Dewey rods. The 30 is as you state, some odd size thread that only their jag, which I like, uses or their adapter.

The 22 rod uses the conventional thread size and I often find myself grabbing for 30 cal use when I can't find the adapter.

I have a Dewey 22 cal rod that has the same male threads and takes the same standard
jags and brushes as the centerfire rods, it might be an older model so I'm not sure, I got
it from Brownell's back in the 1990s, I can't tell from the Dewey website if the design has
changed or stayed the same.

I personally use a 22cal boresnake on my 22rf F-class rifle it seems to work very well. Soak down the brush area of the snake with Kroil and pass it through about 3 times and the bore is as shiny as it was brand new right out of the box.

45flattop wrote:

PhillipM wrote:

The only drawback to the Dewey rods is that they take a non standard threaded
jag that as far as I know, only they make thus locking you into their products, there
are adapters I believe for gender bending the jags and or brushes but that introduces
yet another potential joint into the picture.

That's not entirely accurate, I have 22 and 30 cal Dewey rods. The 30 is as you state, some odd size thread that only their jag, which I like, uses or their adapter.

The 22 rod uses the conventional thread size and I often find myself grabbing for 30 cal use when I can't find the adapter.

I have a Dewey 22 cal rod that has the same male threads and takes the same standard
jags and brushes as the centerfire rods, it might be an older model so I'm not sure, I got
it from Brownell's back in the 1990s, I can't tell from the Dewey website if the design has
changed or stayed the same.

I guess they did as my 22 cal Dewey has female threads.

I use the Ivy cleaning rod by Denny Phillups. It is a hardened stainless steel as the trend is to have a cleaning rod harder than the barrel to avoid the sandpaper effect. If done right with a bore guide the rod should have little contact with the barrel. I clean with one wet patch and two dry after each shoot on my custom barrels and a lot less on a stock barrel. I'm with everyone else, throw that Winchester kit in the trash and invest in a good rod that will last a lifetime.

45flattop wrote:

msredneck wrote:Get a 22 cal Dewey cleaning rod and buy a bore guide for that nice rifle before you do any more damage.

Buy a nice rifle and screw it up with a POS cleaning kit

The only drawback to the Dewey rods is that they take a non standard threaded
jag that as far as I know, only they make thus locking you into their products, there
are adapters I believe for gender bending the jags and or brushes but that introduces
yet another potential joint into the picture. I understand Captain's hesitance to use
stainless rods but one thing is that I highly doubt they can be harder than barrel steel
and unlike even the coated aluminum rods, they are hard enough not to embed grit
from and carry it down into and leaving micro gouges in a barrel, I've had that happen
before but luckily not to a rifle i had a lot invested in. A brass rod if you can find one
in all one piece, the ones I've seen were Outer's brand and jointed, also potentially
carry the same risk of carrying debris/grit into a good barrel since both coated aluminum
and brass are quite a bit softer than steel. The Kleen-Bore and Pro Shot all stainless
rods are my personal favorite. Dewey does make a rod guide for the muzzle of a 10/22
to keep the rod aligned BUT, read the enclosed instructions about how to use it, it is
NOT designed to be put on the rifle then have a rod and jag/brush pushed through it,
the bronze insert in the Delrin guide WILL come out!!

I went to the local welding shop and purchased a brass welding rod about the size of a 17 caliber bullet..rounded the end and smoothed it with a nail file...it works fine for me..