My Cabelas hawken .54 pitting in the grooves?

[Howie1968]

last year I bought a cabelas Hawken .54 from TOW (great company) I just had a normal rifle bore light. this last week I ordered one that you dropped down the barrel. to my surprise in the grooves it appears to be pitting or slight rust. when I received the rifle it appeared barely shot so I ran a couple barricade soaked pa5tches down the bore and wham I see what looks to be pitting. ive used a bronze brush a bronze brush wrapped with steel whool its still there. I have never shot this rifle.
my questions should I shoot conicals out of this gun, would it tear the patches up trying to shoot it like that? with this will it be able to obtain good enough to shoot accurately for hunting to 50 yards? the bore shines good the lands look fine just the grooves I'm worried about

 

[Zonie]

Just looking at the picture it appears to be more of a discoloration or surface rust than it does to be actual pitting.
Then again, you are there looking at the actual gun and I'm looking at a picture of a shiny green light reflection.

The best way to find out if there is a problem is to buy some non-lubed patches or some close weave .015-.018 thick cotton patching, some .530 or .535 diameter balls and grease the patches, load them with a ball over 75-80 grains of powder and shoot it.

Have someone watch so you can recover the fired patches.
If they look good, your in business.

If they are cut or ripped, shoot another 15-20 shots and check the fired patches.

I suspect that after doing this and cleaning the bore, most, if not all of the "pitting" will disappear.

 

[mooman76]

I thought I had some pitting in a T/C carbine I have. After scrubbing and scrubbing I finally determined the bore was blued and it i just some of the bluing that was removed some how.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Eyes lie....
Those bore lights are a bane upon those who don't know what they are looking at.

I use other methods to determine bore condition..
Condition of cleaning patch
Condition of shooting patch
Accuracy
Feel when cleaning or loading.

If any of these indicators prove positive then use a light to confirm.

 

[Howie1968]

Thank you men, ill look at all that closely will give me a good reason to shoot

 

[Grimord]

If you know someone with an endoscope, use it to check out your barrel. I bought one on line for less than $50 and used it to check the barrels on my rifles. I was amazed at what I saw. Alittle pitting should not affect accuracy, but you want to nip it in the bud.

 

[dsayer]

The best way to find out if there is a problem is to buy some non-lubed patches or some close weave .015-.018 thick cotton patching, some .530 or .535 diameter balls and grease the patches, load them with a ball over 75-80 grains of powder and shoot it.

This is exactly right. Go shoot her! My Cabela's rifle tends to like a thin patch (0.010) with a cast 535 ball though. :thumbsup:

The real question is how have you had this rifle a year without shooting it??

 

[Dr5x]

The rifle had been cleaned with hot soapy water but notas clean as it should have been, When the corrosive residue mixes with a bit of water and given a little time, you will get pitting.
There isa an almost waterless cleaning method that should prevent that.

The only way to see if your barrel will handle patched round ball is to go to the range and see what happens, I doubt you''ll have any trouble.

Dutcj Schoultz

 

[kurts]

Put some JB BORE PASTE on your patches with your lube and shoot it, slick the bore right up.

 

[Mr. Troll]

I shoot all of my rifles regularly during the "not winter". Once a month I take each one and run a couple or oil patches through it. I do the same thing with my revolvers. No rust in anything. A little prevention will stop it from happening. Now go out and shoot the thing.

 

[Howie1968]

Because I mainly hunt and my 4 other .54s get the nod, I need to get her in the mix

 

[Howie1968]

I just ordered this for my .54 Hawken hopefully this is the right one

 

[Jimbo47]

That's the one.

You might try using patch material instead of cotton cleaning patches, 010 or 015. I don't think an 018 you will be able to get down the bore on a jag.
The patch material is tougher, and fits a little more snug on a cleaning jag than the cotton patch does.

 

[Jimbo47]

When you put the patch material on the jag, don't put any oil or anything but the DRY patch on the jag, and then run it down the barrel slowly back and forth, and if there are any rough spots you should be able to feel them as the jag runs over them. (oiling the patch you may not feel the rough spots)
It will give you a starting point, then follow the directions on the jar, and if the bore feels completely smooth top to bottom, then you probably don't have to run the JB patch too many times to smooth everything out.

 

[Howie1968]

Thank you sir, ill do that

 

[Jimbo47]

I've had my Cabela's Hawken .54 caliber since the early nineties and I shoot the Hornady conical with great success, but a PRB is much more fun and economical, but my rifle never liked them, but shot the conical great.
My barrel has always been free of rust and pitting, as I never neglected my rifle since day one, and it never did shoot a PRB as well as the conicals, and ripped patches, so you may have one of those barrels as well.
I'll just say that my barrel left a lot to be desired as for quality in how is was rifled.
I've recently been doing the JB thing with my rifle trying to get one rough spot smoothed out that has been ripping patches, and effecting my PRB accuracy.
I've always used the conical when I get serious and want to kill a deer as it works well. :thumbsup:
Maybe if I had spent more time on this forum (note post count) I would have tried the JB Paste route a lot sooner, but I'm a hunter and use what works. :rotf:

 

[Howie1968]

Jimbo, I myself am also a hunter I have 4 other 54s that I hunt with I got this from Track of the wolf on a great deal I got it through it in my safe I will also try conicals as I manly use conicals in all of my 54s one I have a green mountain 32 inch barrel with a 1-66 twist its my roundball hunting gun. I should have my jb this week but I may go fire some conicals in the mean time, I'm gonna scrub my bore with jb and put some on a patch and shoot it some also

 

[Jimbo47]

I'd like to give you a range report from this morning.
After working my barrel with the JB paste for the second time after scrubbing and putting more elbow grease into the chore I used up almost half the jar figuring I had nothing to lose.
It paid off this morning shooting 60 grains under a 015 patch and .530 round ball using TOW Mink oil patch lightly lubed.
I had three shots shooting sitting, offhand, with a gusty north wind to 30 mph at 45 yards into a 3" group.
Best news was I found my patches and I was stunned that they were in good enough shape to use over.
My rifle always shredded them beyond recognition and the first round of JB use they ripped, leaving 3/4 of a patch with the last round of JB use giving me fully whole patches.
I couldn't have believed that I could have salvaged my rifle to accurately shoot PRB without shredding/tearing patches, but hey, saved me having to buy a round ball specific gun....at least for the near future! :rotf:

I'd like to say without this forum and reading all the remedies on this forum by Dutch and others I'd probably retired that rifle to only shoot conicals without ever knowing how good it could be....Thankyou all! :bow:

 

[Howie1968]

thanks for the report. I used almost a half jar yesterday my next step is shooting my hawken. that is very encouraging

 

[mamero]

Try 535’s if you can get your hands on some. I bet you will find that grouping even tighter.