Advice/Help Needed. Pedersoli Penn Rifle Bore

Hello! Been some time since I've used this forum or short some black powder. I do unfortunately need some help. Essentially I went out to the range on June 22nd and brought my Pennsylvania rifle to have some fun with it. I shot a lot of rounds and got it really dirty. Not a big deal ill clean it with hot soapy water like last time. Well basically to cut the long story short I tried to clean it, ran a bunch of hot water through it until most of the gunk was clean. I didn't have any patches on hand so I quickly cut some and went to swab it and it flash rusted. It was pretty bad from my opinion.
Didn't take any pictures but basically this but double if not triple it like it was ORANGE:
So yea pretty bad.

Basically i wasn't able to clean it until it was completely clean only until I didn't see rusty orange. Its just with my living situation I just wasn't able to really be able to be thorough. Some time passed and i went to clean it thoroughly some time last week. This is the results it included bore cleaner:
Not too bad in my opinion.

Now with this little camera I'm able to look inside the entire barrel and there are these yellowish spots throughout it. And looking at the tip of the bore they look like chalky white spots. I went and copper brushed them and they're still there. I was extremely thorough and cleaned it basically till there was nothing but specks left in the barrel. No feeling of snags or bumps when cleaning felt extremely smooth. Ill go ahead and attach pictures from both the camera and from the outside looking into the tip of the bore. Also will mention looking at the entire barrel it looks pristine like this(not my gun but an example) but mine looks like its chrome plated its so shiny but once again with the camera it looks horrible so its weird.
So yea what do you guys think? Is it pitting is it still rust is it just discoloration cause I'm not too sure I'm still very new to muzzle loaders. Here are the pictures of my gun.

No need to use very hot water. but do use WD-40 after you clean. It displaces water. Then gun oil. The next day swab again with WD-40 and re-oil. I'll swear the next time you're at the range and you swab before you load, the patches will come out clean with just oil on them.

My buddy cleans his gun with the famous Murphys oil soap, Alcohol, and Hydrogen Peroxide mixture and oils with 3-in-one-oil and at the next match his first swab patch before loading is orange with rust. I noticed the bore of his rifles are no longer shiny. His bores are probably etched from the cleaning mixture and surface rust.

Bob

Leatherbark said:

No need to use very hot water. but do use WD-40 after you clean. It displaces water. Then gun oil. The next day swab again with WD-40 and re-oil. I'll swear the next time you're at the range and you swab before you load, the patches will come out clean with just oil on them.

My buddy cleans his gun with the famous Murphys oil soap, Alcohol, and Hydrogen Peroxide mixture and oils with 3-in-one-oil and at the next match his first swab patch before loading is orange with rust. I noticed the bore of his rifles are no longer shiny. His bores are probably etched from the cleaning mixture and surface rust.

Bob

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Oh gotcha and I never really heard of those brands before imma try them(if youd recommend). But yea you think that its really just cosmetic stuff from the rusting and the bore cleaner or did I damage the barrel? Its was Hoppe's bore cleaner if that gives any specifics.

The Hoppe's No. 9 Plus black powder bore cleaner is a good cleaner. It has Kerosene in it among other chemicals, but you still must use a protective oil afterwards. No matter what you use, the bore must be oiled for protection. But what is most important is to check the weapon a few days after your initial cleaning by swabbing again with a protective oil. If the rifle is to be stored for a long time, I still swab the bore occasionally to make sure no moisture from the initial cleaning has leached out that might harm the bore. That is why I like WD-40 to displace any harmful rust causing compounds before oiling the bore.

Bob

Does look like surface rust to me in your last pic. I doubt it will affect your shooting in any form, just make sure it doesn’t get worse or start pitting.

My pedersoli MRH had the same issues as yours when I first used hot water to clean it. Every patch would come out orange after running hot water through it. Got it recleaned and oiled after that to prevent surface rust. Switched to just warm water and dawn dish soap and haven’t had any issues since. Just dry it well and apply oil when done and no rust issues the 5+ years I’ve had it.

Find whatever works best for you and your gun. Every bp shooter has their own method that works best for them. Anything that prevents it from rusting when you’re done cleaning is good.

OlMcblumpkin said:

Does look like surface rust to me in your last pic. I doubt it will affect your shooting in any form, just make sure it doesn’t get worse or start pitting.

My pedersoli MRH had the same issues as yours when I first used hot water to clean it. Every patch would come out orange after running hot water through it. Got it recleaned and oiled after that to prevent surface rust. Switched to just warm water and dawn dish soap and haven’t had any issues since. Just dry it well and apply oil when done and no rust issues the 5+ years I’ve had it.

Find whatever works best for you and your gun. Every bp shooter has their own method that works best for them. Anything that prevents it from rusting when you’re done cleaning is good.

Click to expand...

OK gotcha ill just stick with that then. Because I always will clean it until there's absolutely nothing left and will dry patch it thoroughly and oil everything. And this time I used a copper brush and went to town on it brushing it then swabbing back and forth with hoppes bore cleaner then ultimately oiling it. No orange of any kind or any rust only when it first flash rusted. I even swabbed it just now and no rust of any kind it's just those spots. So I'm not sure if thats the rust that caused it or if that's discoloration caused by the bore cleaner or the rust or what exactly. Overall I'm not sure if I actually damaged the barrel a bit and it might het worse or if it's just a visual thing that doesn't affect it.

I did a little experiment awhile back because I used to get flash rust. Whenever I used tap water (we call it city water), there would be flash rust in the bore. But, when I used plain old rainwater from a rain barrel, there was no flash rust.

My theory is that the chemicals in our city water was causing the flash rust. Right or wrong, I only use rainwater to clean muzzleloaders. And if you think about it, hunters of the 18th and 19th centuries used rainwater or creek water.

My .02 cents.