I bought a 50 caliber Renegade. The bore is pitted enough that when I run a clean patch down the bore, I can feel the roughness of the patch rubbing the bore all the way from end to end, and it is somewhat hard to pull the patch and rod out. With a flashlight, I can see where pieces of the patch have torn off. It looks like snow! A bore butter patch is still rough feeling. There is rifling, but I wonder how well a patched ball, a sabot, or a maxi or Great Plains type bullets will do in the bore. Patches all come out over and over with brown on them no matter if they are clean or treated with bore butter. I guess what I am asking is whether the barrel is done, or can it be bored out to 54 or 58 caliber or what other options I have.
Another Rough Bore Question
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bubba.50
Barefoot Hillbilly
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doesn't sound all that lost to me. scrub it good with some scotch-brite or steel-wool or chore-boy or some such then take it out & shoot it before ya decide it needs anything done to it. lots of people are pleasantly surprised to find their imperfect barrel isn't a lost cause after all.
Mad Professor
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It will always be a PITA to get clean due to the pits. But yes you still need to clean it well.
It may shoot fine but you won't know until you try various loads, just like a good bore.
Consider getting it rebored to a 58 or 62 if it won't shoot. I'd love a 62 rifle or smoothie. Lighter too.
It may shoot fine but you won't know until you try various loads, just like a good bore.
Consider getting it rebored to a 58 or 62 if it won't shoot. I'd love a 62 rifle or smoothie. Lighter too.
Try electrolysis, really works, but don't over do it as advised in this thread;
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/264212/post/1082320/hl//fromsearch/1/
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54ball
62 Cal.
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You can repair that barrel. It depends on how far you want to go.
Non evasive...as mentioned steel wool...scotch brite on a jag.. It has to be really rough not to clean up to be a shooter.
More evasive....lead slug with polishing compound.
As evasive as you can get in the home shop....
Lead slug with a homemade filed steel cutter dovetailed into the lead slug matched to the groove. One groove is cut/traced at a time...shimmed with paper to deepen the cut.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries this was called....(refreshing) When done, likely your rifle will be a .52 or so.
Most don't go this far but it is possible.
I will add if the gun needs refreshing I would be tempted to pull the breech to see if the damage has caused a possible safety issue. When going this far it may better to have a pro re bore it.
Non evasive...as mentioned steel wool...scotch brite on a jag.. It has to be really rough not to clean up to be a shooter.
More evasive....lead slug with polishing compound.
As evasive as you can get in the home shop....
Lead slug with a homemade filed steel cutter dovetailed into the lead slug matched to the groove. One groove is cut/traced at a time...shimmed with paper to deepen the cut.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries this was called....(refreshing) When done, likely your rifle will be a .52 or so.
Most don't go this far but it is possible.
I will add if the gun needs refreshing I would be tempted to pull the breech to see if the damage has caused a possible safety issue. When going this far it may better to have a pro re bore it.
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Had a fifty bore Renegade clean up when rebored to .52. That's how shallow the rifling was.
So, shallow rifling with a sand paper bore, I'd say recycle the barrel into a fresh surface and be done with it. When you wear it out the Renegade barrel is still good to go for another couple or three caliber increases.
Found a .515 diameter ball mold and 450 grain fifty cal bullet mold to paper patch.
Now all I need is to find the time to enjoy it.
So, shallow rifling with a sand paper bore, I'd say recycle the barrel into a fresh surface and be done with it. When you wear it out the Renegade barrel is still good to go for another couple or three caliber increases.
Found a .515 diameter ball mold and 450 grain fifty cal bullet mold to paper patch.
Now all I need is to find the time to enjoy it.
don hepler
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I had a 32 bore and it was ruff as a cobb. I was ready to give up, due to BP building up, and making it difficult to load. I tried some Black MZ sub powder, and now the gun shoots fine and is as accurate as my 36 bore, which is like new bore. I scrubbed it with everything that I could think of, and it wound up rust free, but pitted. Apparently it's spinning the ball, and I guess that's what counts.
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naaa ... don't throw in the towel yet. for just penny's you can work it your own self and see if it will come back.
- as others have recommended ... clean the snot outta it and shoot it to see how it does.
- next try the wool or other abrasives to see if you can bring it in with these and then shoot n see what you have.
- now if it still is a hamster then obtain some valve grinding compound and taking a fairly tight patch ... smear it with the compound and begin with 25 strokes ... now reapply more compound and another 25 strokes ... slowly and evenly down and back out ... now add some more compound and another 25 strokes smoothly ... now end up with yet another coating of compound and another slow 25 even and smooth strokes. this should equal 100 strokes for the first effort.
- now comes the fun part ... cleaning it up. I take a small bucket of water [cold] and dribble in a couple drips of dish washing soap ... now with the nipple removed I begin swabbing the bore with the same even strokes. after 10 or 15 strokes ... remove the first cleaning patch and with a wet clean one do the same 10 or 15 strokes. I do this till the patch comes out perfectly clean.
- remove the soapy water and scrub the bucket clean and add new WARM water and another dollop of soap and have at it again till absolutely no color comes out on the patch.
- now a word of admonition ... this will rust so fast it will make yer head twirl ... so take some very good moisture deleting oil [I use pure ballistol] and swab till pure clean patch's are obtained and a small amount has dribbled thru the nipple hole and testifies to the ballistol being soaked into the bore. let set for a couple hours and dry patch it till it is clean and dry. don't be alarmed if you get rust now ... it is just getting your ballistol into the pores of your new surface. now dress it again with the pure ballistol. you may need to repeat this step a few times till the pores are completely saturated with the ballistol [or another quality oil that will adhere to the pores and bore].
- now take it out and shoot it a few times taking care to note where there is restriction [if any] in the bore ...[might need to do some compound in a specific area or two to smooth it all down]. this seems like harsh treatment and it is BUT ... compare this end product to what you begin with. it does not remove as much from the bore as would seem ... and it makes smooth metal where there were rough spots before.
- not only will you prolly end up with a good shooting barrel ... but now you are giving it the TLC that it is asking for and you will be attached to your rifle more then ever.
good luck with your project rifle. mine came into its own very nicely doing exactly this very procedure.
- as others have recommended ... clean the snot outta it and shoot it to see how it does.
- next try the wool or other abrasives to see if you can bring it in with these and then shoot n see what you have.
- now if it still is a hamster then obtain some valve grinding compound and taking a fairly tight patch ... smear it with the compound and begin with 25 strokes ... now reapply more compound and another 25 strokes ... slowly and evenly down and back out ... now add some more compound and another 25 strokes smoothly ... now end up with yet another coating of compound and another slow 25 even and smooth strokes. this should equal 100 strokes for the first effort.
- now comes the fun part ... cleaning it up. I take a small bucket of water [cold] and dribble in a couple drips of dish washing soap ... now with the nipple removed I begin swabbing the bore with the same even strokes. after 10 or 15 strokes ... remove the first cleaning patch and with a wet clean one do the same 10 or 15 strokes. I do this till the patch comes out perfectly clean.
- remove the soapy water and scrub the bucket clean and add new WARM water and another dollop of soap and have at it again till absolutely no color comes out on the patch.
- now a word of admonition ... this will rust so fast it will make yer head twirl ... so take some very good moisture deleting oil [I use pure ballistol] and swab till pure clean patch's are obtained and a small amount has dribbled thru the nipple hole and testifies to the ballistol being soaked into the bore. let set for a couple hours and dry patch it till it is clean and dry. don't be alarmed if you get rust now ... it is just getting your ballistol into the pores of your new surface. now dress it again with the pure ballistol. you may need to repeat this step a few times till the pores are completely saturated with the ballistol [or another quality oil that will adhere to the pores and bore].
- now take it out and shoot it a few times taking care to note where there is restriction [if any] in the bore ...[might need to do some compound in a specific area or two to smooth it all down]. this seems like harsh treatment and it is BUT ... compare this end product to what you begin with. it does not remove as much from the bore as would seem ... and it makes smooth metal where there were rough spots before.
- not only will you prolly end up with a good shooting barrel ... but now you are giving it the TLC that it is asking for and you will be attached to your rifle more then ever.
good luck with your project rifle. mine came into its own very nicely doing exactly this very procedure.
+1 on Bobby Hoyt. He has done a couple for me. Can't go wrong. :thumbsup:
Dave
Dave
Chances are your smoke pole will certainly make smoke and shoot just fine. However, she'll be a PITA to clean unfortunately. I've got a bore that's 158+ years old and she definitely looks it and even though it looks like a sewer pipe she shoots very well. Allot of people get so wacked out about bore condition it's unbelievable, when in all seriousness the vast majority of those nasty bores shoot extremely well. Take that baby out and make smoke! Just note it will be a pain to clean, but that's just that. My advice would be what's already mentioned above, yet I like to soak the barrel in kroil for about a week, scrub with scotch brite and have fun! :thumbsup:
Tag for reference
Is it necessary to get every last bit of "brown" out of the barrel? Just got back from the range, rinsed thoroughly with warm water, blew it out with compressed air, swabbed three patches soaked with rubbing alcohol, then one patch with a bit of gun oil and finally a dry patch. There is still a hint of brown but faint that just won't seem to completely clear up.
I had the same problem.
You can use an over powder felt wad to clean up your groups. It will get the ball out into the air before the gases come out around the frayed patch. That barrel is rifled poorly for anything but a patched ball.
PD
You can use an over powder felt wad to clean up your groups. It will get the ball out into the air before the gases come out around the frayed patch. That barrel is rifled poorly for anything but a patched ball.
PD
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