
“C’mon, you don’t need a chamber brush. A bore brush’ll do fine. It’s just a way for Brownells to sell ya more cleaning stuff.” That’s what “they” say on the Internet… But is it true? Do you need a dedicated brush designed to clean the chamber of your gun? Let’s find out what Caleb and Steve have to say! The truth is, cleaning the bore but not cleaning all the gunk out of your pistol’s / rifle’s / shotgun’s / revolver’s chamber is basically leaving the cleaning job half done. The chamber does just as much work as the bore, and you’ll pay a price down the line for a cruddy chamber: extraction problems, failures to feed, and more.
Chamber cleaning is particularly important on a gun like the AR-15, where the bolt lugs lock into recesses behind the chamber. The AR-15 needs a specialized chamber brush, but on ANY gun – even those that shoot straight-walled cartridges – the chamber is a larger diameter than the bore. So the bore brush’s bristles aren’t long enough to properly scrub the chamber. Hence the need for a special chamber brush.
If you shoot shorter cartridges in your revolver (for example, .38 Special in a .357 Magnum gun), you’ll encounter another problem, which Steve explains for us. Special note about .22 rimfire guns: the bore and the chamber ARE the same diameter, so for those guns the bore brush WILL clean the chamber, too.
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My partner has a Best of the West built 6.5 PRC, and keeps having spent shells hang up in the chamber, bolt closes hard most of the time and sometimes has to almost pound the bolt to extract the empty round, scoped the chamber and it looks very rough, not cleaned or polished, like my guns or their chambers, Any ideas, could it be a bad bored chamber? HELP You always have great info and ideas. 👍👍
came across the issue of a minor obstruction in the chamber causing a 0.4moa group to blow out into a 0.8 group for 15 rounds before clearing. It wasnt till i examined the cases that i could see a slight polish in one location to all the case that shot poorly.
i had no idea what a chamber brush was till this happened. (no kit i ever had, included a chamber brush)
I’ve been cleaning Guns for a long time and I’ve never known about a chamber brush. It looks like it would get fouled up and like you shouldn’t pull it all the way through the barrel. Is that what you do is you just push it or pull it through the entire barrel? Do you twist it at all while it’s in the chamber or do you push it just straight through? Thank you!
Thirty years ago, I replaced my AR chamber brushes with a 90° polymer dental pick and a slim brass bristled brush for getting the recess and behind the locking lugs. They were far more effective at getting the job done. For the chamber itself, a .30 cal bore brush works for me.
Steel bristles is that safe for the lugs chambers
Caleb needs to switch to a matte hair clay instead of a glossy pomade…. Keep the identical hairstyle just different product and he would look so much better.
When I clean my ARs, I hook up thr chamber brush to a power drill and go to town, always comes out spic and span!
40 years of shooting here, several 100 round a month rotating through a dozen hand guns and rifles, never used a chamber brush. Over 19k rounds through my beretta 92f i have had since 1988. No issues.
Never, Never, Never use a steel core brush!
I have and use a chamber brush for my AR-15, but I have never heard of or see chamber brushes for my bolt actions like my 270Win bolt action. I of course due use bore brushes to clean the bores of my bolt action rifles. Are chamber brushes really used for standard hunting rifles?
for chambers not butts
Military just use more bark clean
I had always cleaned guns with bore brushes, followed by patches, etc but had never heard of a chamber brush until I wanted something to clean my AR’s star chamber better.
Coincidently, around that time I got a 590A1 that was like brand new but had been sitting for 25yrs. It had a problem extracting so I put a bore brush on a cordless drill/driver and ran it through the chamber until it worked smoothly again.
Next was a Remington 514 22 that wouldn’t extract certain ammo.. gave it the same treatment: now you can flip the bolt up and it will eject a round.
10/22
Was having a mess of problems…deep cleaned the chamber!
⬆️ This is why I don’t understand people that don’t clean their guns
Funny thing, I never saw a chamber brush in my m16 cleaning kit. We had to use picks… all day long… own a couple of carbon chamber tools as even my civi one didn't come with it… weird.
One more reason to buy an AK.
I just use a 12gauge brush for my ARs.
A small area of the gun and often overlooked, unfortunately, and the fact you guys put out simple, to the point videos to help newbies (like myself) develop good habits with simple but important ideas is appreciated.
Nice video, but I don’t intend to use a chamber brush like that again. Seriously, I really prefer the Iosso one with the blue plastic bristles. Brownells seems to only have them in a pack with other brushes. Iosso item 19122 (2 pack of just chamber brushes) is one of the few shooting related items I really like that I don’t see on Brownells.
Your gun dirty ?! Clean it !!
I always clean my chamber but never used the brush. I use other tools and cleaners etc.
It's amazing how many people don't clean the chamber.
On thing you didn't mention. A good chamber brush does not spin on its handle. Putting the attachment on your bore rod is almost useless because you can't turn it in your chamber. A dedicated chamber rod saves time and effort.
Nice tip, gentlemen 💪🇺🇸💪
The comment about pristine bore brushes in the Army was interesting to me. When I was in, that was just about the most used item in a cleaning hit, along with CLP, baby wipes, and scrapers.
A well maintained bore and an egregious amount of CLP will keep that thing running for longer than I would have ever thought.
I use a chamber brush the way I learned it push up and down, pushing and turn it around and push out. Never had a problem with my bolt locking up or even brass sticking
I never knew people were not cleaning their chambers. We had a guy who kept getting stuck casings, he had never cleaned his chamber on his AR.
What about cleaning a chamber with just a solvent-soaked rag? There is usually not that much dirt in a chamber.
I use correct size bore brush and oversized brush on drill for chamber and acetone. Action separated from stock or grips.
So I just set the brush down next to a disassemble barrel …?
Plot twist, there's cold piss in those mugs they're drinking from
I’ve never not used a chamber brush. Didn’t know people ever considered it unnecessary.
"Not in a creepy way," almost killed me Lol
I always liked bore snakes.
I have not ever seen a chamber brush for sale. Nor did i know they even existed.
Getting that crud ring in the revolver chamber from shooting shorter rounds can be a stinker, sometimes even beyond the powers of the chamber brush.
One thing that works is taking a full-length fired case (say, .357 Magnum) and putting a little extra bell on the mouth, and using that for sort of a round scraper. My old Model 19 just wouldn't come clean any other way.
My Astra Cub 22 short pistol needs one. I don't have one so I use a toothpick to clean the shoulder area of the chamber right before the barrel. If it gets dirty the gun will not cycle properly.
Thanks.