Firelapping success.........

[Skychief]

FWIW,

Yesterday I took the time to firelap a barrel of a halfstock percussion .36 that has been giving me fits (accuracy-wise). The rifle came to me years ago with signs of neglect in the bore...it was somewhat pitted. Still, the rifle shot well with the loads it liked, but, over time, accuracy really went South. I THINK that with minor pits, they just run deeper and deeper as the rifle is shot.

I had tried seemingly every load combination to include different patch materials and thicknesses, types of lubes, amount of lube, brands and granulations of powder, overpowder wads, etc, etc....

Nothing helped as it constantly threw fliers and just did not shoot tight. I tried to steel wool and scotch brite the bore and spent HOURS bringing a loading rod to and fro :shocked2: . No change.

Yesterday, I felt I had nothing to lose, so off to NAPA I went. I bought a can of valve grinding compound. Using it as a patch lube, I shot 4 shots with 15 grains of 3f. Then it was 2 shots at 20 grains. Next was 2 shots at 25 grains, and finally 2 shots at 30 grains. I had no light left to shoot for groups as night moved in. It took quite a bit of time as I cleaned the bore real well between each shot. Fast forward to today....

The rifle once again will deliver ragged holes at 25 yards, whereas before the treatment, I was darn lucky to get 4" at this short range. Often the groups were larger than that when counting the common fliers out there at 5-8" from center! :shake: :barf:

Anyhow, it worked for MY rifle and I wish I had done it about 400 roundballs ago.

Do I believe that the pits are GONE? Hardly. Yet it loads much smoother and cleaned up like it never had before. To me though the proof is in it's accuracy and I am happy.

Wanted to share this as it MIGHT help someone riding the fence about making this leap as a last avenue to salvaging a barrel. :thumbsup:

Skychief (shade tree gunsmith) :haha:

 

[lonehunter]

What grit valve grinding compound did you use? :v

 

[Skychief]

Good question lonehunter!

I asked the guys at NAPA if it came in different grits and they said "no". :idunno:

Working with it, I can say, it feels like a very light sand....wish I could be more help. If you want the name of it let me know! :thumbsup:

 

[douglas duncan]

why the different powder charges and sequences of shooting.

 

[Skychief]

By the end I wanted to be fairly certain that the ball obturated. I suppose I started out with lighter loads to try to gauge any differences in the way the bore felt while cleaning between shots.

Edited to say, I would say that you could start higher and lower charges as you go, or, keep all the charges the same. Does it matter?..... :idunno:

 

[William O.]

Hey, that is great to hear, I'm glad for you. Post a pic of your tack driver so we can all see that beauty for ourselves. :thumbsup:

 

[paulab]

Chief....I have firelapped a half dozen B.P. ctg. barrels and one M/L barrel. In EVERY CASE, accuracy improved and the barrels cleaned up noticeably easier. Midway USA sells firelapping kits....4 different grades of grit and instructions. Just for the record, I used conicals in the M/L since they have a larger surface in contact with the bore. cheers Paul

 

[OB OBrien]

O'Reilly's sells a small blister pack of valve grinding pastes. It has a fine and a course grit. I used the fine on a wet patch with a range rod to clean up some rust that wouldn't clean up any other way. It worked pretty good.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I have had good success with just a bronse bore brush and a paste of buffing coumpound . and a wooden ramrod ( The coumpound will embed in any material so you don't want to use your regular ramrod ). For extreme cases you can heavily oil the barrel, pour a lead slug and the use the lapping coumpound. I prefer these methods to fire lapping as they give me more control ovet the process. But if fire lapping works for you, use it! :hmm: