Oops...

[rowdyredneck]

As some of you know I purchased a brand new Ruger Super Redhawk .44 mag last month. I've been busy with work so I haven't had alot of shooting time and I've only managed to fire off maybe 30 rounds. Yesterday I had some spare time so I decided to clean it as it was getting powder fouled pretty bad. After cleaning I was inspecting the bore and noticed some very fine scratches on the rifle lands about 1/2 inch from the muzzle. I'm pretty anal about my guns so I've been rather upset after seeing this. My guess is the cleaning rod must have scraped the bore. I was using an aluminum rod which is now in the trash...
The scratches appear across the face of two of the rifling lands and are about 1/8" wide running perpendicular to the rifling lands. They are very minor surface scratches, its not like I gouged into the barrel but I can feel a slight roughness when I slide a pick across them.
Is this worth losing sleep, or am I over reacting? I've always been careful cleaning but this is the first time this has happened. I love this gun and it made me sick to see this.

[inplanotx]

Number one: an aluminum rod is not going to cut steel, unless you used a stainless steel brush or jag tip. If they are not deep, they will not hurt the gun. I would imagine with time, and shooting jacketed bullets, these will go away.

[Country101]

They shouldn't hurt the gun. Sleep well. If you are worried about doing this again, get a bore snake. They are about $15 or so, but they are nice.

[rowdyredneck]

I used an Outers aluminum rod with a plastic tip to pull a few patches through. Since I've been shooting mostly .44 special lead bullets I also made about two or three passes through the bore with a phosphor bronze brush to clean out any lead fouling. I took a picture of the bore (yes, I have way too much time on my hands ) You can see one of the scratches on the middle land in the picture, its about 3/16" from the muzzle. Nothing serious I guess, I just paniced when I first saw it. But I'm going to be very reluctant to take a metal cleaning rod anywhere near my guns from now on.
How well do those bore snakes work for lead and copper fouling? I've seen them before and they look like a good outfit.

[mtnboomer]

In all likelyhood you didn't do it. These are probably machining marks left by the rifling process. A couple of hundred strokes with a snug fitting bore mop saturated with JB's Bore Polish should make them go bye-bye!

[Country101]

They seem to work pretty well. They have a brush made into them so they get the majority of the fouling out with no patches. I wish the brush was a little stiffer(I usually end up with a little fouling left behind at the edges of the grooves), but it does good. I'll take a brush to it occasionally just to get the little that is left over. But it saves a heck of a lot of time and effort when you are constantly cleaning a gun. My 1911 gets cleaned about 2+ times a week when I'm shooting and I get tired of all those patches and switching out tips on a rod. So I end up just dipping the bore brush in some bore cleaner and runnin her though a couple times and I'm good.