Real Avid’s New Sweet Spot

As an industry leader in gun-cleaning products, Real Avid is focused on continually developing new tools, cleaning equipment, and chemicals that upgrade the entire experience. Its corporate DNA leads it to create what it calls “disruptive products that obsolete old thinking, eliminate work arounds, and ultimately define the best tool for the job.” In line with that thinking, it recently unveiled the Bore-Max Speed Clean System, a line of brushes, jags, and patches designed to make bore cleaning a much faster and easier process.

When it considered the design of a new brush, the company took a long look at the bristle configuration. “In order to achieve maximize effectiveness, we found there needed to be an optimal balance between bristle density and bristle flexibility,” says Howard Tripp, Real Avid’s chief innovation officer. “In our testing, we recognized very quickly that having too few bristles was a waste of time. At the same time, too many wouldn’t provide enough flexibility to navigate the lands and grooves of the bore.”

The bristle configuration of the Bore-Max Speed Brush is the result of finding that sweet spot, achieving maximum scrubbing density while retaining enough flexibility to effectively reach down into the lands and grooves, removing more carbon with each pass of the brush and getting maximum results faster.

Nickel-plating, Tripp says, was added to enhance the durability of the brushes. “Phosphor bronze has proven to be an ideal bristle material, with one exception—it reacts poorly to bore solvent. Nickel-electroplating these brushes solved that problem and increased their useful longevity as well.”

By applying some new thinking to an old process, Real Avid has also created a line of jags and patches developed in tandem to be paired for perfect, caliber-specific bore fitment. Sized to account precisely for both the jag diameter and the patch thickness, this combo provides the optimal compression to reach into the lands and grooves thoroughly and consistently.

“The challenge in creating the Speed Clean System was how to get more patch material in the bore, eliminate bunching, and maximizing the effectiveness of each pass-through,” Tripp says. “In looking to develop a minimalist patch shape that would cover the jag completely without any overlap or wasted material, we created a jag-and-patch combo that would fit perfectly into the bore.”

Patch material was also a big consideration in the development of the Speed Clean System. Real Avid selected a synthetic material that has shown superior absorbency over cotton and minimizes the remaining fray and excess solvent in the bore. “We believe the synthetic material simply outperforms cotton,” Tripp says, “The other benefit of using a synthetic material is the ability to create a quilt-like textured surface that is more effective at picking up and trapping crud as it passes through the bore without fraying or dropping lint.”

When Real Avid took a close look at bore surface contact, it believed traditional patches weren’t up to muster. “To get the job done faster, we wanted to limit the number of times it took to run through the bore in order to achieve the desired result, which in this case is a clear patch,” Tripp says. “So, we elongated the jag and eliminated the taper found on traditional jags. Then, we created multiple compression rings along the entire length of the jag. Since we shaped the patch to fit the jag precisely without any wasted overlapping material, we no longer needed to accommodate for the patch bunching and could utilize the entire jag length.”

As a result, with the Speed Jag and Speed Jag Patch you can get the same results with only one pass instead of the usual four passes required with traditional square patches. Think of it as running four or more traditional jag-and-square-patch combinations through the bore at the same time.

“In testing the Real Avid bore-cleaning process, the Speed Jag and Patch combinations took, on average, four to five pass-throughs to achieve a clear bore,” Tripp says. “Traditional jag and square patches took on average of more than 20 pass-throughs to achieve the same results. Those results indicate a significantly faster way to clean a bore with less effort.” (realavid.com)