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How clean is your bore?

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Joined
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Shot my 45 Cal yesterday. Came home, bucket of hot soapy water and scrub until clean. Then ran an oil patch down the bore. I picked up a bore scope a week ago. So, I took a look at the bore and took this pic.

All I can say is....don't look down your bore. Just tell yourself it's really clean and well protected!!!


1TPgW60.jpg
 
Shot my 45 Cal yesterday. Came home, bucket of hot soapy water and scrub until clean. Then ran an oil patch down the bore. I picked up a bore scope a week ago. So, I took a look at the bore and took this pic.

All I can say is....don't look down your bore. Just tell yourself it's really clean and well protected!!!


1TPgW60.jpg

After cleaning my rifle I am just like Dainel Boone, Simon Kenton , and all the mountain men I never look down the bore it just causes worry.
 
A Teslong bore scope will show you things in your bore you can't unsee. I have a Bill Large barrel gun that will shoot a tight cloverleaf at 50 yards every time, with my cheap scope looking down the barrel it looks shiny and new.

large barrel.JPG


I didn't take a Teslong picture because it shows a good bit of pitting that I didn't want to see.
 
A Teslong bore scope will show you things in your bore you can't unsee. I have a Bill Large barrel gun that will shoot a tight cloverleaf at 50 yards every time, with my cheap scope looking down the barrel it looks shiny and new.

View attachment 347601

I didn't take a Teslong picture because it shows a good bit of pitting that I didn't want to see.
Is that just a threaded part of the flash hole that was drilled....or is that the liner "poking" its way into the bore?
 
Bore scopes are a double-edged sword. Friend just got one and looked down the barrel of his new unmentionable. Looks like it was rifled with an old plow. All of my barrels from Kibler's looked 1000% better than his high dollar bolt gun does.
 
....

All I can say is....don't look down your bore. Just tell yourself it's really clean and well protected!!!
Just my offhand quick-glance opinion of your pic, but your bore does look a bit rough. That being said, as pointed out above, a borescope can make a bore look worse than it really is. But OTH to do a 180 and take another POV, the bore of my new Rice barrel that came with my Kibler Colonial .58 cal smootbore was rough indeed, and I didn't need any borescope to see that, and so spent some considerable time polishing that bore before I ever shot it. And the results were worth the extra work. IMO that's par for the course these days, and pretty much along with the typical new firearm "break-ins" it's something the new end user has to deal with.
 
SDsmlf......I'm not so sure if it's proud, or just the angle of the photo. I can tell you it pass's the "cotton patch snag test" as I've removed the flash hole liner post dry patch just to check that. This GM barrel is one that I did the drill\tap install of the flash hole liner. I also drilled\tapped and fitted the breech plug. I don't have a lathe so the plug was fit by had with files.

Wiscoaster, just curious but what did you use for the bore polish? This is a 45 caliber GM barrel and it shoots ok. Not near as good as my GM 50 and 54 caliber barrels. I may try some polishing to see if that brings it up to snuff.
 
.45 Caliber Cap Lock Rifle Bore Pictures

I borescoped this rifle which I shot and cleaned in about 2004. I looked at the bore in August of 2024 and saw these light amber stripes in the grooves. I thought it was rust but when I did a through scrubbing of the bore with 4/0 steel wool I found that the amber stripes in the grooves was dried WD-40. WD-40 should not be used as a metal protectant for long term storage but only as a moisture displacement as it was intended to be used.
.45 caliber muzzle loader.JPG
IMG_0001.JPG
 
Shot my 45 Cal yesterday. Came home, bucket of hot soapy water and scrub until clean. Then ran an oil patch down the bore. I picked up a bore scope a week ago. So, I took a look at the bore and took this pic.

All I can say is....don't look down your bore. Just tell yourself it's really clean and well protected!!!


1TPgW60.jpg
I have not had any corrosion using hot soapy water with a tight patch, clear water rinse, WD patch to displace any remaining moisture, dry patch and a Gunzilla patch to protect the bore.
In the field I would clean with spit patches and several tight Gunzilla patches.
 
The rifle in the blue picture has the touchhole drilled into the breech plug, the friend that gave the rifle told me he had a new touchhole liner put in it at Friendship years ago. This is an unusual gun, it can't be taken apart, whoever built it used finishing nails for the pins but left the heads on. I attempted to take a couple of them out, the nail heads took a large chip of wood with them when they came out.

I was going to replace the touch hole liner but found it is stuck in place, I mean really stuck in place, I would have to destroy it to get it out.

This is a fine rifle with a Large barrel and a Roller lock, it is the fastest gun to go off of all my flintlocks, the most accurate as well.

I am no stranger to gun building but this one is best left alone and enjoyed.
 
I shine a small light down to reflect off of a flat faced breech plug that is flat and shiny with no notches or tool marks whatsoever. Yea they are clean and the patches show it.
 

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