Hi all,
This may be a dumb question, but I'm slightly concerned so here goes. Today I was cleaning my new PSA upper. I ran a brush through it first and it went really hard, but the gun is brand new and so was the brush so I kind of expected it. Then I tried running a patch through. It went really hard so I made the patch smaller and smaller until I was sure it wasn't too big, but it still went REALLY hard, like enough that I bent my cleaning rod a little. Finally got it out the other end and the plastic patch holder had some rifling grooves in it! Not too deep and not all the way around, only 4 groves, but still. I was shocked and checked what size the holder was supposed to be, sure enough its marked .22, but apparently doesn't fit properly in my 5.56 barrel. My question is, could I have damaged the barrel? I looked at the breach, which is the end I was cleaning from, but I don't really know what I am looking for. The ends of the rifling look very pronounced, almost like the could be bulged, but I think its just where the lands start and I've never really looked at that before. I didn't look at it with a bore light before cleaning so I have no reference point. I don't see how a plastic patch holder could damage the barrel, even if it was kinda forced through, but I've heard that tapping out a bullet from a squib load can, so thats why I'm concerned. What do you all think?