Brass Or Bronze Bore Brushes?

We all know that guns need to be cleaned regularly. When we clean guns, we will use brushes of different materials. Generally, there are bronze brushes and nylon brushes. So which brush should we choose?

Some people were taught to use brass brushes – part of this harks all the way back to muzzleloaders. Those barrels were scrubbed! As time has changed, firearms as well as the solvents and materials used to clean them, have changed but have we potentially carried on old habits?

While copper has become a bit of focus for gun cleaning, it is carbon that we should potentially be more worried about. Carbon is harder than copper, and over time will build up, layering with copper and forming rings in your barrel. A carbon ring is going to create excessive stress and most certainly affect your accuracy and groupings. Because the carbon is often covered with a layer of copper, it’s copper that gets the blame.

These generally form in the throat of the barrel, and carbon deposits can take some work to get out – especially if you haven’t cleaned it for a while. Often, this is where a brass brush and solvents get used. If it’s had the chance to build up, you are also potentially looking at the polishing compound. Remember, carbon is right up there with the diamond when it comes to hardness. What is certainly much easier, is regularly removing the deposits before they build up.

When you let carbon build up in your gun, you are going to need to use a brass brush to try and shift it. Nylon isn’t going to be strong enough, but then, it is possible that brass won’t be either!

Once we have addressed carbon, copper becomes our next item of interest. Most bullets have some form of the copper jacket on the lead inner. When fired at high velocity through a tightly fitting barrel, some trace of copper is left behind. If this is left, it will build up.

Brass is an alloy containing Copper and Zinc. This being the case, using a brass brush could cause two issues: firstly, the solvent being used to clean the copper is also going to attack the brush, wearing it out quicker, as well as tricking you into thinking the barrel has more copper in it that it really does, as the brush itself causes the blue/green marks on your patches. Additionally, copper is much softer than carbon and can generally be removed with a nylon brush – potentially even just with a jag and patch. So, for copper, you need to use nylon brushes.