My dad inherited a near mint S&W model 19 from brother inlaw years ago. He never shot it. Now with a lot of indoor time on my hand I took it out to clean it. It has some pretty good lead deposits in the barrel. Checking the ammo that came with it I could see why. Does anyone have a non aggresive way of cleaning it out. I would hate to wreck the finish as it is really nice. Thanks and I hope everyone is doing well. KC

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I've had luck with Cleaning Solvents, that specifically address Lead removal. (Hoppes makes one).

Properly fitting bronze brushes, cleaning jags & patches, used with an effective solvent, should remove the lead deposits.

It can take a bit of elbow grease and followup cleanings, a few days apart, to remove all leading.

Thanks B. R.: I will start with your idea and go at it slowly. I had read that the early .357 non jacketed ammo was notorious for leading barrels. Here's proof of that! There was only 6 rounds used out of the box and it looks like the slugs were a lot lighter when they left the barrel then when they were first put in.

You can also try shooting some jacketed bullets through the gun which will help to clean out a lot of the lead. Then, use good cleaning methods.

There are some old cleaning jags that are made with small circular pieces of copper or brass screening that you push through the bore that do a quite nice job at cleaning the lead out without damaging the bore. These were called Lewis Lead Removers and I have used them. They are still available today:

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The old way to easily and quite effectively remove all lead without elbow grease was to plug the forcing cone end of the bore with a cork and fill the bore with mercury. The mercury would amalgamate with the lead and totally remove it all.

But, this was an old way that is NOT done today because of the known toxicity of mercury. I mention this because old gun magazines frequently mention this method used by many.

Don't do this, though. Just interesting to hear of how well it worked and how ignorant we were years ago about unknown dangers.

Good luck. I have removed lead from my revolvers for 40 years with a lot of good lead removing solutions and lots of brushing. It'll work!

Thanks: I never heard about using mercury to remove lead. Given the toxicity of mercury probably not a good idea. Years ago my friend had a device from outers that used electricity and some solution to clean barrels. I think it was more for copper removal than lead. I will try the elbow grease method.

For heavy deposits like you have there copper wool like from a Chore Boy scrubbing pad wrapped around  a bore brush will remove it without damaging the bore. Works like the old Lewis Lead Remover did. For a lead wash Kroil will creep under it to help brush it out. 

With 'lead' bullets, the alloy and 'lube' is the problem and the solution.

Some brands of ammo give no problem and cleanup is very easy.

I have shot a fair amount of Fiochi .357 magnum ammo, with Lead Projectiles, in revolvers and in a Marlin '1894' carbine, with Ballard style rifling. Cleaning has been easy.

I had heavy leading with .44 Special Winchester-Western 'Cowboy' loads in a Marlin with Ballard rifling. It took all the fun out of shooting that carbine. Things should have been easy, but, cleaning was not.

I have found my model 1911's in .45 a.c.p. very easy to clean.
I shoot mainly reloads that use pre-lubed 200 grain "wad-cutters" of various commercial brands (swagged and poured).

Thanks Mavt for the chore boy idea. I had some at home and they worked like a charm. The bore looks like new. I will keep a piece of the chore boy in with the other cleaning tools.
         Thanks again, KC

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mavt wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2020 at 2:54pm:

For heavy deposits like you have there copper wool like from a Chore Boy scrubbing pad wrapped around  a bore brush will remove it without damaging the bore. Works like the old Lewis Lead Remover did. For a lead wash Kroil will creep under it to help brush it out.

^^^
This, worked like a charm.