Is it time for the steel wool?

[Barney]

Can't figure this one out. When shooting my Cabelas sporterized .54 with prb, I was getting some cuts in the patches. Shot about 50 or so round balls out of it. Figgered some conicals might help wear down the lands a bit. Shot 20 buffalo bullets out of it.

After cleaning I always swab with bore butter. Cut the center right out of the cleaning patch :shocked2: like it made it worse than it was.

So, is it time to run the steel wool through it.

 

[bpbrs]

Stop hitting the breech plug bottom with your jag. :nono:

I don't care for steel wool inside "anything". It leaves little specks that turn to rust.

Clover Lapping compound is best.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Green 3M abrasive pad, cut a strip, wrap tightly onto hickory wiping stick jag end for tight bore fit, oil lightly, insert and go to work.

 

[Barney]

O.K. just tried swabbing 3/4 way down the barrel, 10 passes up and down, patch shredded.

 

[dmills]

Lapping compound will fix that. Is that a new rifle?

I'll PT you some instructions.

 

[gmww]

New barrel? If you've only got 50 rounds through it, shoot another 150 and see if it continues. Also J-B Bore paste is a nice mild compound from Brownells. Good luck.

 

[Barney]

I'll surely shoot it more before I do anything major. What I can't figger out is why it's shredding patches worse after shooting the conicals.

 

[Charly_the_rebel]

Rost has eating up parts of the sharp edges of your Lands and grooves.
Thats the basic problem.

And because a patched round ball just touching the Land-Groove-area with a tiny circle around the Patch and ball , it just takes out only a little of the rost -damaged area at a time.
A conical Ball's Surface will touch land and grooves of its full length... and because of this ( and the raised resistance ) it takes out much more destroyed material out of the rost-damaged areas of your barrel.

Kill those rost-ditches with oiled steel wool.
First grade should be 000 , then work with 0000 and end wool-work with grade 00000.
Then clean Barrel very good !
Then take your Ram-rod, attach a thick patch, witch is covered with a fine metalpolish-paste.
Up and down inside the barrel about 15 times.
repeat this about 5 times.
Then apply finer Polish-paste on Patch and once more give the son ofa gun 5 times of 15 rams up and down.
After you are done, clean your barrel like you never did before !
If the last cleaning-patch comes out in the same way as it was going into the barrel ( Clean and in no way damaged ) it will be okay.
The attach Gunoil on a patch and shelter your barrel in this way of moisture and new rosting.

 

[gmww]

The only reason I ask if it's a new barrel is because if it is, it should be broken in. My latest new barrel in .45 cal. was cutting patches too. After the break in of about 150-200 patched round balls, I no longer get the cut patches.

I'd hold off on doing anything aggressive until you can at least determine that it's just not a new barrel break in issue. Good luck. :v

 

[Barney]

I'd consider it new. was a christmas gift from the wife :thumbsup: As soon as it warms up a little it shouldn't take long to hit the 200 shots.

Wouldn't you think conicals would wear the edges down faster than prb though?

 

[roundball]

Wouldn't you think conicals would wear the edges down faster than prb though?

Good question...If I had to flip a coin, I'd think that tight patched ball would polish the edges faster than soft lead...but that's just my feeling about it.

I had a new TC .45cal barrel which shreded patches until I'd run a couple hundred PRBs through it.

When my .58cal GM barrel was new, the ends of the rifling at the muzzle were sharp and cut a half dozen little slices in the patch at short starter time...couple hundred rounds later it no longer does that.

Not putting down the polishing advice at all...if it was me, I'd shoot 2-3 boxes of balls through it first and see if it shows signs of settling down before trying all the bore polishing steps...just my .02 cents.