Scratches and swirl marks inside barrel

[eb2145]

Hello all. Being a new shotgun shooter I"m hoping I can get some advise and insight here with an issue I have. I have a Remington 870 Tactical. 18 barrel 7 shot. After some heavy shooting came cleaning time. Being as the gun was new I figured enough passes with cleaning patches and oil would be enough to get it clean but there was still some "residue" inside the barrel. Now to the issue. I knew I had to use a wire brush in order to get the barrel clean, except the only thing I had at the moment was an old worn out 12 gauge brush with frayed bristles. My instinct was to just be patient and wait to go into town and get a new brush, but being the idiot I am I didn't. So after lubing the inside of the barrel I start brushing, not too aggressive but not gentle either. The barrel did get clean however now the barrel is full of scratches. Not deep scratches but the kind you see on black or dark car paint after it's been scrubbed too hard. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of scratches I'm describing. The barrel has also lost the mirror like finish and is now a bit hazy. Now Im concerned that I've damaged this barrel and now I feel so mad at myself for using that old frayed wire brush. I am hoping to hear some opinions on what kind of damage I may or may not have done to the inside of the barrel. Any comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Neverhome]

I am going to make a guess here that because the brush was old it did not make enough contact with full barrel and residue was left. If you were shooting sabot slugs you may have some plastic residue in there for the same reason. The scratches are most likely just where the brush did actually clean through the dirt. Brushes designed to clean shotgun barrels should not scratch it. Before you worry too much I suggest you get a new brush and a good bore cleaner like Rem Oil or CLP (just don't get the CLP on your plastic stock or foregrip) or even the old standard Hoppes Solvent. Give it a good soaking and let it sand for an hour or so and then brush it out and run patches through it until they come out clean. It should be OK. Good luck.

Neverhome

[Synchronizor]

This wasn't a steel brush, was it? A normal bore brush with copper or brass bristles shouldn't have been able to actually dig in and damage the steel barrel.

[BlueSmoke]

Here is my observation.

I've noticed the swirl marks from the burning of the smokeless powder ...especially on high humidity days and interior wet barrel situations.

At one point I accidentialy drug my barrel in the snow and ended up putting 6" of snow in my barrel.

Once I cleaned the snow out..... the interior of the barrel was still wet.

The powder burning from firing shell made the interior of the barrel look smooth and an almost paisley pattern appeared on the shiny interior of the barrel.

A good cleaning post shooting session removed the residue just fine.