Freebie Barrel in Bad shape - What to do???

[Rafsob]

A friend of mine gave me an Investarms barrel in .50 cal. It looks great on the outside, but he says it is pitted in the bore. It is one of those chrome lined bores. I shot a light down the bore and it looks dark.

I will try to clean it and look again, but is there anything I can do to make this barrel a shooter? I ain't a cheap guy, but if I can get this barrel to shoot instead of buying a new barrrel would be nice.

Any ideas??? :surrender:

 

[George Holton]

Start with the green pad and some light cutting oil , gently gently catchee elephant. good luck. Bob

 

[Pork Chop]

If it is the short barrel, it should be chrome. All of the longer ones I have seen were not. Clean it and see! Some folks have used PB Blaster, but I am told that it may affect the bluing. I would scrub the snot out of it with a bronze brush and see what happens.

 

[roundball]

I've been shocked at how well barrels shoot even when they're ugly inside...IMO, unless there are a lot of lareg pits and they are so deep that there is blowby, I bet it'll shoot as good as you can shoot it.

Worse case, if there is a litle blowby as the PRB travels over a bad pit, start using oxyoke wonderwads under the PRB so there will be better sealing.....ie: as the PRB moves over a pit, the wad will still be sealing behind it and by the time the wad gets to the pit the PRB will be past it and sealing in front of it.

 

[Rafsob]

If it is the short barrel, it should be chrome. All of the longer ones I have seen were not. Clean it and see! Some folks have used PB Blaster, but I am told that it may affect the bluing. I would scrub the snot out of it with a bronze brush and see what happens.

I have the short bareel on my Cabela's Hawkin Hunter Carbine. This barrel is the longer barrel, 29 or so inches.

My friend said it will shoot conicals fine, but doesn't do well with PRBs. I am really inteested in shooting PRBs though. I will try cleaning it first and see where I stand. Next, I will use the green pad with Blue Wonder and scrub as needed.

Thanks for the replys. :thumbsup:

 

[Desert Ratxx]

You also might want to try some fine steel wool on a cleaning jag with some oil.

 

[lockjaw]

...i have an old moroku kentucky rifle that has the worst pitting...it's a tack driver ...go figure...i'd clean it good with some green scotchbrite and shoot :shocked2: :shocked2: :shocked2:

 

[gmww]

I've been shocked at how well barrels shoot even when they're ugly inside...IMO, unless there are a lot of lareg pits and they are so deep that there is blowby, I bet it'll shoot as good as you can shoot it.

Worse case, if there is a litle blowby as the PRB travels over a bad pit, start using oxyoke wonderwads under the PRB so there will be better sealing.....ie: as the PRB moves over a pit, the wad will still be sealing behind it and by the time the wad gets to the pit the PRB will be past it and sealing in front of it.

What he said! See how she shoots you might be surprised. If you have to clean it out, I like the J-B bore shine from Brownells. Its a paste and works very well. :hatsoff:

 

[Jac Spring]

A chromed bore that's pitted... hmmm.

You may just have a very badly fouled barrel there.

Interesting to see what you find when you give it a good scrubbing.

I don't have any experience with ml chromed bores, but I do with military chromed bores and they can take some abuse - a lot of shooting with high vel jacketed bullets and corrosive primer salts before they give in.

 

[Rat Trapper]

My TC Hawken 54 cal barrel was pitted when I got it. I worked on the bore with some JB paste and got what I could out of it. The barrel shoots very well. I think the pitting bothers the shooter more than the shot.

 

[Bubba45]

After getting it cleaned up ,if it is still rough you may want to try a lead lap poured of wheel wieght or babbit metal with varied grits of clover paste.

 

[roundball]

I agree...we're raised on the notion that a bore must be like a mirror...anything less surely must be bad...and I'm the same way...keep my bores lkike a mirror, but in reality, I've personally shot a couple of used barrels that at first I thought were trashed, but they shot fine.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I'd give it a whack with a slightly oversized 20 ga. heavy-duty brush and the best rust remover the hardware store has to offer. Wear a ratty shirt and a good pair of goggles and scrub like heck, being sure to twist the range rod enough to keep the brush on the rod. Put a bore light down the barrel after a good rinse and see what you got!

Then clean and treat with what ever you normally would. Take it to the range and shoot the crap out of it and let us know how she behaves!

Good luck with the freebie,

Dave

 

[Shifty]

Rafsob, This will work just fine=put a 32cal zag on your cleaning rod ,cut a 1"x3" pieace of green scotch brite pad wrap it tightly around jag insert into barrel by twisting &pushing then put water into barrel (not oil) push in & out carefully don't let the jag come all the way out of the barrel until after about 100 strokes then remove from barrel then clean as usual then take it out to the range shoot it and enjoy ! Shifty