# brass or nylon?



## 8Eric6 (May 9, 2010)

so ive always used a nylon bore brush for my monthly checks and a brass bore brush after shooting. But should I be scared to use brass on my Sig p226? Just really want to take care of my sig it was expensive


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

As long as you don't shoot lead a nylon brush is fine. Just use a little copper cleaner now and then. Leads a different deal altogether. :smt033


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## Packard (Aug 24, 2010)

Steel (the barrel of your gun) is a harder material than brass and so the brass will not harm or wear out your barrel.

It is sort of like trying to scratch a sheet of glass with your fingernail. It won't happen.

What can happen is you can have abrasive residue in the barrel and the scrubbing action can cause some wear.

Also impurities in the lead in bullets could cause wear (not the lead itself which is softer than even the brass).

Do not use a stainless steel brush as it can scratch some barrels.


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

The bore brushes I normaly find on the shelf are not brass. They are either Nylon, stainless steel or bronze.

Brass is to soft for use as a bore brush.

Bronze has been in use longer than I have lived which is quite a long time. If they damaged barrels they would not be the dominant type in use today.


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## 8Eric6 (May 9, 2010)

TOF said:


> The bore brushes I normaly find on the shelf are not brass. They are either Nylon, stainless steel or bronze.
> 
> Brass is to soft for use as a bore brush.
> 
> Bronze has been in use longer than I have lived which is quite a long time. If they damaged barrels they would not be the dominant type in use today.


bronze eh? learn something new everyday, always thought was brass. Only reason I asked was I was told not to use the bronze brush in my Glock.


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## Packard (Aug 24, 2010)

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.

There are several alloys of bronze (usually with phosphor) that are "spring temper"; brass can be work-hardened to some extent but never to the level of spring temper.

Bronze can also be made extremely hard (but very brittle) and it is used for is lubricity in tooling and for its non-sparking traits for high risk flamability situations.

Bronze and brass are of similar color frequently and I don't get all pedantic about the distinction unless it is important to the discussion. Most bronze bore brushes are made with phosphor bronze bristles attached to a brass twisted wire core.

But in any case the bristles of the bronze are softer than the hard steel of the barrel's interior. 

I don't know the rockwell of the barrels' interior so I cannot be sure if the stainless steel (also spring temper) is hard enough to scratch the barrel. It is hard enough to sractch mild steel however.


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