Well I finally polished my barrels. I had gathered alll necessary supplies and sat on them. I was fearful of ruining a barrel. I watched many videos on the subject. Today I polished 4 barrels, my fears were unfound. I approached the first barrel with trepidation. It was an easy task, should have done the polishing sooner. I used the red JB paste and Flitz they came out with a mirror like finish, pellets glided smoothly through the barrel. I ran out of daylight but hopefully will try them tomorrow. Fear not!
Fear and trepidation
- Thread starter john8
- Start date
If nothing else it should help make the next cleaning easier and quick. Hopefully you will shoot nothing but one hole 5 shots groups from here on out. 
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One hole 5 shot groups, in my dreams. Hope springs eternal, practice, practice and more practice.
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I've had really good luck with it. It's really nice to see an out-of-the-box rifle that you really wanted to shoot well settle in to sub-moa grouping after you take the time and do the work.
I'm thinking that you'll be happy with the results, and I look forward to seeing how much of a difference it's made.
J~
I'm thinking that you'll be happy with the results, and I look forward to seeing how much of a difference it's made.
J~
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I want to give you a thumbs up 
but also comment that it sounds like the opposite of fear and trepidation to do 4 barrels all in one go for your maiden voyage. I’m sure it will be fine though...I think it would take something bordering on gross negligence to harm a barrel with something like J-B Bore Compound, let alone the red stuff (Bore Bright). And the fact you had some reservations suggests you took appropriate care.
To lend some perspective, a few days ago I worked on a barrel that exhibited some slight i variation in friction when pushing a pellet from breech to crown. Just guessing but maybe 2 or 3 ten-thousandths of an inch. The thickness of a sheet of copy paper is over 10x that much. Nevertheless with a poured lap and 280 grit compound, I spent over an hour scrubbing the tight spots into uniformity. It ain’t easy to remove even a scant amount of material.
Meanwhile the standard J-B compound is somewhere north of 1000 grit and fragments into smaller particles. Plus most people will not spend that much time scrubbing so it seems to me the usual cautions are vastly overstated.
but also comment that it sounds like the opposite of fear and trepidation to do 4 barrels all in one go for your maiden voyage. I’m sure it will be fine though...I think it would take something bordering on gross negligence to harm a barrel with something like J-B Bore Compound, let alone the red stuff (Bore Bright). And the fact you had some reservations suggests you took appropriate care.To lend some perspective, a few days ago I worked on a barrel that exhibited some slight i variation in friction when pushing a pellet from breech to crown. Just guessing but maybe 2 or 3 ten-thousandths of an inch. The thickness of a sheet of copy paper is over 10x that much. Nevertheless with a poured lap and 280 grit compound, I spent over an hour scrubbing the tight spots into uniformity. It ain’t easy to remove even a scant amount of material.
Meanwhile the standard J-B compound is somewhere north of 1000 grit and fragments into smaller particles. Plus most people will not spend that much time scrubbing so it seems to me the usual cautions are vastly overstated.
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Don’t expect pellet on pellet results right off the bat. I recently polished my Avenger barrel (which is really good anyway) and it took about 60 pellets before they started stacking. Now it’s a laser beam, even with lesser quality ammo.
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MM, I gathered all the supplies necessary, patches, brushes, jags and a new cleaning rod. I upgraded my rod to a Tipton carbon fiber rod with the slidind, rotating handle, sweet rig. My old 3 piece aluminum rod had seen it's better days. I pulled the barrel off of the SK, first 2 K1s I pulled the barrel leaving it in the barrel housing base because I had heard it is a difficult job realigning the barrel, on the last K1 I pulled just the barrel to save time. Next I clamped them in a vise with plastic gaurds. On the K1 barrel I used the method I use on the SK, screw the barrel in till the magazine doesn't rotate than back it out till the magazine rotates. I used JB red paste followed by Flitz. I ran a brass brush through the barrels to loosen up any heavy fouling fallowed by 2 patches with Ballistol than ran patches through it until clean. Next up I ran bore mops with JB, 20 strokes at 7", 20 strokes at 14" and lastly 20 strokes at21", determined length of stroke by how many mops I had. I next ran 2 Ballistol patches than dry ones until clean. I repeated process with the Flitz. The job was easier tha I anticipated.
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You are correct, failed to read all of it.Ummmm, did you not bother to read the post you quoted? Sorry, had to.
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Codger, I used paste and polish on a bore mop. My reason being the mop will conform to the lands and grooves of the barrel thus giving you a more thorough polish. Be aware this is my first foray into polishing, very limited experience. My reasoning may be faulty.
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d3vnull, if you can't find the length you need it's any easy task to shorten the length. I heated brass retaining collar, pulled it off, cut rod to length and glued the collar back on.
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No worries, my fault for not reading thru the post.
I hesitated on posting this but it could be valuable info for someone considering this.
I've cleaned a barrel just not with JB Bore Bright. I used JB Cleaning Compound and Kroil on a Bore Mop and followed up with Flitz on a mop after cleaning.
A lot of powder burning forums say the Bore Bright is more aggressive and to avoid using it. It's a mixed bag of who would and would not use either of the JB products. Brownells has the cleaning compound and Kroil in a kit. I often use Kroil on other things but it's not O ring friendly based on contents. MSDS
I know you used a mop so this is for those that might consider a brush. I am concerned you used Bore Bright @john8.
This is not intended as criticism, throwing someone under the bus or flaming them.
I apologize if this information is interpreted as other than intended. I am truly concerned someone could damage their barrel.
The quote and photo are from Frank Green of Bartlein barrels.
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Perhaps there is room for different interpretations of the word "aggressive" here but the Bore Bright product is most definitely a finer abrasive than the standard compound. I have compared them on a polished specimen and the Bore Bright produces noticeably less dulling and swirls. And using it on a brass lap to develop a beveled crown reveals a markedly slower material removal rate.
Regarding any concerns about enlarging a bore with either one, I can't comment on how much using them on a brush affects the material removal rate but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would take a Herculean effort to remove 1.5 - 2 thousandths with either a mop/felt or a cast lap. Maybe by spinning it up in a drill and scrubbing across the lands, but here's a picture of the only guy I know who could do it by hand...
And frankly I'm a little concerned about how those shoulders would hold up.
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