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Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner

Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner

Cleanliness is next to godliness, especially when it comes to keeping any firearm performing as it should do. With a rifle, it’s essential to maintain accuracy; for a shotgun, it is essential to keep the bore and chamber fouling free and chokes pristine.

Pull through bore snakes are fine and so are traditional rigid rod systems that use detachable, alternating heads of bristles or wool mops. Well, now there’s an alternative and clever system that sorts out all your shotgun cleaning woes and combines both brush and mop in one and with the advantage it can be drill mounted for really stubborn fouling or wad debris.

Magic

The Magic Bore cleaning kit is a new and ideal cleaning item for shotgun barrels in one go and is available as a hand-held, or drill driven option. It is the brain-child of Mike Bartlett. There are two rod sizes, one extralong at 40-inches and the other 24-inches long. They both have a phosphor bronze brush at the end, with the shaft wrapped in a cleaning material. These items are consumables and can be replaced.

An aluminium handle has a push-fit, plastic bush to protect the gun and no metal parts touch the gun. The brush has a plastic cap, so semi-autos can be cleaned without disassembly without damaging the bolt face.

The drill kit model has a hexagon metal rod that fits all 13mm drill chucks and at slow speeds allows a really good clean with the appropriate cleaning solution. A novel and good barrel cleaning system for shotgun users. Price is £45 for the drill kit and £60 for the hand kit for 12- and 20-bore.

Deep invasion

The Magic Bore website has three excellent tuition videos, that will take you through the cleaning procedure but here’s the gist. Spray or drop cleaning fluid into the bore as normal; next, place a cleaning patch covering the chamber end of the barrel and push the handheld rod tipped with brush down the barrel. This starts the initial spread and loosening of the fouling (very well I may add) ready for the next stage, it also means the brush and mop will last longer and be more effective.

Next, rod through the barrel as normal, several times per barrel if a double, about six times if a semi, pump or single; if you have an Akkar three barrel, x3! This will loosen and remove nearly all the lead, steel scraps, and wad debris from the barrel. Make sure that the phosphor bronze brush exits totally from the bore, so as not to reverse the bristles. If the wad plastic build-up is really bad, then you can rod from the muzzle end so the bristles act here first.

Getting heavy

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What I really like is that all the parts are interchangeable and available as spares. You can also remove the rod and bristle and attach the bristle end directly to the handle only. This means that choke cleaning is as simple as rodding in the gun with short strokes or removing the choke and hand holding them and cleaning out of the gun; either way, it’s very effective and will have those chokes squeaky clean.

Consumable items are rods that are £10 each, bristles i.e. phospur bronze are £8 each. These are big brushes and heavy duty, so not your normal brushes and no guarantee is made for using inferior products. The brush is 120mm long and configured i.e. spiralled to the inner rod, to provide maximum cleaning effect.

This is not just a long rod and long mop on a stick. Mike has spent a lot of time trialling, testing and perfecting the system that may look simpler than it actually works.

The aluminium handle is designed to last a lifetime, the rubber shield in front of the handle is here to protect your gun’s chamber or muzzles. The mop is designed to work with any cleaning fluid and will not degrade from their use, only excessive brushing. Then, as with any cleaning system, you can simply replace and have a new high-performance cleaning kit again, better than constantly replacing bristles, brushes and mops on standard cleaning kits.

Drill to thrill

The shorter drill kit is equally good, as it has the same bristle and mop technology but with a hexagonal metal 13mm drill bit sized fitment. You have a large plastic cup in front of the drill fitment, so that the gun is totally protected from the drill. You need to use the drill bit version at a slow speed, 100rpm obviously, but its extra torque from the handheld brush really does remove that embedded plastic wad fouling and lead around the forcing cones, really impressive. Remember, only drill in the forward motion and then pull the brush out and repeat otherwise the brush will distort, no-brainer really; also, the barrels might get hot with the use of the drill, so use a towel to protect hands.

Conclusion

I shoot a lot of buck shot and slugs and these sabotted 12-gauges really foul the bore. The Magic Bore certainly makes cleaning a breeze, the more I use it the more I depend on it.

It ate all the fouling from a heavily used, fully rifled Savage 12g slug and Winchester SXP pump barrel. I like the quality of the units and the ability to replace all the components is good and the materials used superior to a lot of standard cleaning kit. I had the 12-gauge set and a 20-gauge is available. There is also now a ‘Field Kit’ that comes as two sections, so that it’s even more portable.

Forget the initial price, as this is a premium item and you will not regret the purchase, only problem is any misses out in the field cannot be attributed to a dirty bore!

  • Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner - image {image:count}

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  • Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Magic Bore Barrel Cleaner - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

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features

  • Model: Magic Bore Shotgun Barrel Cleaner
  • Price: Handheld £60, Drill Kit £45, Field Kit £65
  • Contact: Magic Bore www.magicbore.co.uk
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