WB
A “bore cleaning cartridge”?
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 08:52

In higher end airgunning they produce “felt” pellets that you shoot through the bore and it cleans the lead and residue slick as a whistle. You might think airguns don’t have fouling, but the soft lead and lubricating residuals do indeed create fouling. The sudden compression to expel a pellet generates a surprising amount of momentary heat as well. But to the point bore cleaning is made really easy, fun even.

I was researching different “filler” materials for custom loads. It’s a regular thing with black powder loading as an air gap is a negative, it can blow up a gun! They often use a filler on top of the powder to fill this air gap void. Cork, felt wadding, or cornmeal, ground rice, Dacron, can all be used. As a side benefit these fillers actually serve as a sort of artificial “gas check” for the cast bullet. Never try fillers in bottle neck cartridges, they can compress into a temporary solid and really jack up pressures!

I’ve read that a load prepared with powder, corn meal (etc.) then a plain base bullet, will provide heightened accuracy and shoot clean as a whistle. It does smell funny though. I have some experience using “Cream of Wheat” ground rice cereal and it did work. With the aforementioned burnt rice odor. I have a subject barrel heavily leaded for a test mule. I have surmised that I may prepare a special load with a hefty charge and case basically full of the filler material, then capped to prevent spillage. Will it compress into a “soft” scouring projectile and push out the lead debris? It’s worth a shot!

I’ll give it a try. The “filler” needs to be weighed, as well as any overpower implement, the cap too, considered as a “projectile”. It’s usually lighter than a conventional lead bullet. But it is a factor. We’ll play and see what happens.