.54 rifled bore pitting

[Mike in FL]

I don't intend to sound uppity or like I have lots of money, but a pitted bore in any gun is not something I'd have in the house unless for a thing to hang on the wall. How it got pitted or how to fix it would not bother me because I'd never put time or money in a neglected gun; I'd just get a new rifle when I could. A good man who has more knowledge than I, would strive to save it. I realize lots of folks don't have enough income to be that wasteful, and many others enjoy restoring stuff. In my case it will be a long time before I can afford another gun, but I'd sell it and put the cash away until I could add to it and buy a new one or one without such serious defects. Best of luck. Except for my input, you certainly came to the right place for advice on fixing it.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

I don't intend to sound uppity or like I have lots of money, but a pitted bore in any gun is not something I'd have in the house unless for a thing to hang on the wall. How it got pitted or how to fix it would not bother me because I'd never put time or money in a neglected gun; I'd just get a new rifle when I could. A good man who has more knowledge than I, would strive to save it. I realize lots of folks don't have enough income to be that wasteful, and many others enjoy restoring stuff. In my case it will be a long time before I can afford another gun, but I'd sell it and put the cash away until I could add to it and buy a new one or one without such serious defects. Best of luck. Except for my input, you certainly came to the right place for advice on fixing it.

I agree, I don't buy guns with bad bores, I shoot everything I own.

 

[Phil Coffins]

I inquired a few days ago about rough bores and the answer I got was if a bore is rough enough to grab patches it needs work. I wonder if shooting a few times, maybe patched with scotchbrite would work? Anybody tried, or patch with sandpaper?

Won’t work, the most pressure of the abrasive would be on the lands and top corners of the rifling. That will produce a worn out barrel with the pits in the low spots.

 

[TFoley]

A couple of years back, when looking for a Parker-Hale Whitworth to replace my Parker-Hale Whitworth [long story, not worth recounting], I got offered a BNIB Pattern 58 rifle - plus all the usual goodies, for a really good price. All was well until I put a borelight down the barrel. The entire barrel from about ten inches below the muzzle down as far as the light could reveal was a mass of deep shadowy pits. Short of a Mr Hoyt lining, that bore was never going to polish out, that was a dead cert. I asked the vendor why it might be like that. He confessed that he HAD shot it, just twice, about thirty years back, but had been too busy to give it a clean afterwards, and had simply filled the barrel with hot water, stuck a toothpick in the flash hole, and forgotten about it.....

When you remember that this poor rifle had actually been occupying a slot on his UK Firearms Certificate for all that time, you really have to wonder quite what motivates some folks to take up shooting in the first place. I've help a couple of older guns to recover - not m/l's though, so I can't discuss them - but trust me, it was long hard work with cast lead laps and lapping compound over about a month of evenings to get them looking more or less the way they ought to. In fact, one of them was at the range this morning, and still doing well, in spite of having been made in 1886.

 

[user 34300]

This will do it but the breech plug needs to be pulled so that the lap can be cast at the muzzle and the rod inserted into the breech end. Using a ramrod to do a lapping job is painful and hard on a good rod. It's worth the time to make a rotating tee handled lapping rod that makes the job a whole lot easier. There are several youtube videos on it but I haven't watched any to sort out the good from the bad. Viewer disgression advised.

I make a pilot that screws in the breech plug threads. Yes, this needs to be done form the breech .

Also do not let that lap come out the muzzle when working it. You obviously need it to come out to charge it with grit. I recently found that moose milk works better than oil. High viscosity, ie. oil, is more work to move the lap.

Creating a choke is a good thing. Loading will be easier and accuracy improved.

 

[preuitt1]

Ok, I do appreciate everyone's input on how to deal with this, there are some really good things I had not though of. I do believe I will give it another good cleaning and start with shooting it and see what she does. If that works out, great, if not I guess Mr Hoyt will be contacted for his help. The gun was owned by a old reenactment shooter, he passed, wife held for 7 or so years and then dumped at my local FFL. The wood / outside was taken care of, was excited at the price ($350), so excited I didnt drop a bore light.....lessons learned. So nice, hate to think of it as a wall hanger.......... Thanks again for all the input, yall rock!

 

[user 34300]

There seems to be a sub group of re-enactors who refuse to clean their guns. It is a badge of honor with them. I recently saw an other wise mint perfect Zouave that was left filthy dirty. All I could think was, "what is wrong with this guy".

 

[Urban Coyote]

I wouldn't be too apologetic about paying $350 for a gun like that without dropping a bore light down the tube. That's a darn nice Hawken gun from what I can tell looking at the photos. I may be wrong but that looks like a Long lock and if so I'd be guessing whoever built the gun put other quality parts into it. I'd say the barrel is more than worth a trip to Bobby Hoyt, I used him once and to say I was statified would be an understatement.

Nice Hawken, if your still feeling bad about the deal I've got $350 burning a hole in my pocket. I'd even throw in a drop-in bore light to save you from making such a poor deal again.

 

[WALT53]

I wouldn't be too apologetic about paying $350 for a gun like that without dropping a bore light down the tube. That's a darn nice Hawken gun from what I can tell looking at the photos. I may be wrong but that looks like a Long lock and if so I'd be guessing whoever built the gun put other quality parts into it. I'd say the barrel is more than worth a trip to Bobby Hoyt, I used him once and to say I was statified would be an understatement.

Nice Hawken, if your still feeling bad about the deal I've got $350 burning a hole in my pocket. I'd even throw in a drop-in bore light to save you from making such a poor deal again.

Just shoot it lots and clean it good like said above.

 

[2 shots]

i think that rifle is worth the price even if you put a new barrel on it. but as said clean some and shoot. i would think a rifled barrel would ruin a ball hone bouncing out of the grooves and hitting the edges of the lands.

 

[Phil Coffins]

I had Hoyt do a barrel for me this is how it came back to me.
6250BCEA-F613-435C-B361-47249764AB55 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

 

[preuitt1]

I had Hoyt do a barrel for me this is how it came back to me.
6250BCEA-F613-435C-B361-47249764AB55 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

Wow, thats impressive. I will look him up and see what he can do. Thanks for the picture!
Don

 

[vintovka]

If it will allow reboring to .58 might it shed some weight as well?. I have a dual barrel custom in .45 and ,54 and the weight/handling difference is like night and day. I know this would only be a 3 or 4 caliber change but might be worth it.

 

[Phil Coffins]

I did and he re-sleeved the barrel again, but the second one was better but not good work again. I have dealt with the problem myself.

 

[rich pierce]

The trouble with excess lapping is it rounds everything over eventually. This can result in less grip on the patched ball.

Bobby Hoyt always has more work than he can get to. It’s because nobody else does it at his prices and many customers are happy repeat customers.

You can learn to fresh the rifling on a barrel. I did. It’s a couple days work and requires making hardened cutters; one that perfectly fits the grooves, and another that is as wide or wider than the lands. The rest is not complicated but can be tedious.

 

[Mtman725]

Talk with him he'll make it right. Looks like a dull tooling to me.

 

[bldtrailer]

who cares what it looks like ,it what it shoots like that matters it's not the best looking car that wins the race it's the fastest.

there are thousands of Hoyt barrels out in the world , North south ass. have him reline original rifles and hundreds of CUSTOM flintlock barrels
and only one complaint , not to bad
it's like dry balling it happens
I know of no one else that Trys harder to please his customers than Mr Hoyt and custom barrel at a more than fair price what more could one want
3 rebore barrels and 3 hoyt made barrels and I hope to get another before he departs this world

His customers include Allen Martin , Brad Emig cabin creek muzzleloaders , Bob McBride (black powder Tv)and many others

 

[bldtrailer]

as far as pitting in a barrel shoot it then decide