The carbon burn rings on the front of revolver cylinders is a very unique type of fouling. Solvents, brass brushes, razor blades and scrubbing will do almost nothing to remove the fouling and in fact will make the burn rings worse next time you fire the gun. The reason for that is the amount of heat and pressure that the carbon is being baked onto the cylinder with. If you try to scrub, scratch, gouge or scrape the cylinder trying to get it off, all you are doing is making a more textured surface for the carbon to adhere to next time you fire it. Think of scuffing up metal before you paint it, a rough but clean surface makes the paint adhere better, same thing with carbon fouling and your revolver cylinder.
There are only 2 real ways to remove this type of fowling. 1. use firm pressure and scrub thoroughly with a Birchwood Casey lead remover cloth. These are kind of old technology and hard to find sometimes but they are a very well kept secret. It will remove most of the burn rings but still leave some. If you want to totally remove it, go to step 2. 2. Put a good amount of a steel polish like flitz or simicrome on a felt polishing wheel on your dremel and polish it all off. Keep polishing until the front of the cylinder is clean and shiny.
These steps will remove the burn rings but your efforts will be in vein next time you fire the gun more than few times. My advice is just to clean your revolver normally, using a nylon toothbrush and your choice of cleaner all over the gun and then a brass bore brush for the cylinders and barrel as you normally would. Don't worry about the burn rings on the front of the cylinder. They wont affect accuracy or reliability in any way and pretty much any revolver that has ever been fired more than a few times will have the carbon rings. If it really bothers you, clean what you can off with the Birchwood Casey lead remover cloth and call it a day.
Happy Shooting!
There are only 2 real ways to remove this type of fowling. 1. use firm pressure and scrub thoroughly with a Birchwood Casey lead remover cloth. These are kind of old technology and hard to find sometimes but they are a very well kept secret. It will remove most of the burn rings but still leave some. If you want to totally remove it, go to step 2. 2. Put a good amount of a steel polish like flitz or simicrome on a felt polishing wheel on your dremel and polish it all off. Keep polishing until the front of the cylinder is clean and shiny.
These steps will remove the burn rings but your efforts will be in vein next time you fire the gun more than few times. My advice is just to clean your revolver normally, using a nylon toothbrush and your choice of cleaner all over the gun and then a brass bore brush for the cylinders and barrel as you normally would. Don't worry about the burn rings on the front of the cylinder. They wont affect accuracy or reliability in any way and pretty much any revolver that has ever been fired more than a few times will have the carbon rings. If it really bothers you, clean what you can off with the Birchwood Casey lead remover cloth and call it a day.
Happy Shooting!