Protecting the crown of the barrel
 

So, EVEN WATER ERODES A ROCK,,,,and I want to protect the crown of my handgun barrel. During cleaning, every time the bristle exits the end of the barrel, the rough crimped part of the bristle, drops down and slides across the most important part of the barrel,,the rifling at the crown.

What's a good solution or does anyone make something for this problem?

I know it's soft brass on hard steel but still, with alot of shooting and cleaning it seems it would add up to a problem.

There's a reason that pistol barrels aren't crowned or otherwise milled--the effective accuracy at pistol ranges is much broader than any negative effect of wear on the muzzle would produce. In other words, you can probably never detect any negative effect of wear on a pistol barrel muzzle, so clean away and don't worry about it.

"Pistol barrels are not crowned?"

+1

your gonna rub the rifling smooth sending bullets downrange before you effect the muzzle of a typical off the shelf handgun barrel by cleaning it.

Very rarely are pistol barrels crowned, I have only seen it on some Nighthawk Customs and so forth. Just keep using your brass brush, but stay away from the nylon ones. The nylon bristle are actually harder then the brass.

they can be. most are not due to cost vs accuracy gain (which is nill for most off the shelf non-specialized handgun barrels) the prototype colt pythons were crowned but they looked funny so colt made the barrel muzzle end flat initially purely for asthetic reasons but discovered that it was more accurate that way. you can see the flat muzzle on one here:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_qPtKZj5ZoEI/...0/Python_C.jpg

I have a Rossie M971 that has a crown, shot it a lot, cleaned it a lot and never had an issue. It's a lower end pistol, took it out of the safe to check, the crown looks like new. I haven't shot this pistol for a few years, now that's it's out it's going on the next range trip.

Your cleaning rod should have come with a rod guide to keep it centered in the bore, preventing the steel rod from making contact with the rifling. If not they are available at Brownells or MidwayUSA for $15-$50...

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At a casual glance...
 

One observes S&W revolver barrels are all crowned. The barrel on my Ruger Security Six here on the desk is crowned. Government Model barrels are crowned.

I don't know of any handguns with uncrowned barrels.

Protecting the crown when cleaning is fairly simple; barrels should be cleaned from the chamber end to the muzzle. Revolvers make it complicated, but that's the basic rule. If one must clean from the muzzle, simply be careful when inserting the brush or patch and avoid grinding the cleaning rod against the interior of the bore. The alignment tools made for this are valuable.

A good alternate is to use a bore snake, and begin from the breech end of the barrel.

I guess it's the definition of "crowned"--most barrels are rounded at the end--when I think of "crowned" I think of a recessed cut at the end that puts the end of the rifled portion of the barrel below the outside edge. I've owned many 1911s, never had one with what I would call a true "crowned" barrel, but I'm sure they are out there. This picture from a custom Baretta is what I'd call "crowned":