My Cabelas hawken .54 pitting in the grooves?

[Jimbo47]

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

I never considered using .535's because a .530 even with a thin patch where always hard to load.
I have noticed that the .530 loaded a little easier now, so I might have to give them a try.
I think my groups would tighten up to holes touching by using a bench and sandbags, instead of shooting off hand into a stiff wind, but I was more than pleased with the results.
That quote about a gun shooting better than I'm capable of shooting it, would apply I'm sure in my case. :thumbsup:
I would have shot a lot more and tried a little harder, but the wind was pretty rough, and I was just wanting to try and see if my efforts with the JB were worth all the effort.
I can say that they were, so maybe the next trip out I can try and see just how good I can shoot this rifle.
:hatsoff:

 

[mamero]

Deff give them a try. I had the exact same issue with mine. If you search for “Investarm Hawken Shredding Patches” you will see my post here about it. I have 3 of them now and now that I figured them out they are very accurate. One word of caution check that rear sight on them. On two of mine I had to replace them because they moved laterally. TC rear sight is a drop in and works much better than the Investarm piece. I am talkin the adjustable sigh here. Good luck!!

 

[dsayer]

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

I've found the Hornady 535s to be pretty hard to find lately. I talked to someone at Track about this a few weeks ago and apparently some guy ordered 100 boxes or some ridiculous number like that. The gentleman I spoke with said it pretty well wiped out much of the remaining stock and he didn't know when Hornady would cast a new batch.

It was at this point that I purchased a 535 Lee mold and started casting my own.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Pull up a chair it's story time.

Some years back I was given a T/C Hawken that had been left loaded for years....After it was fired..
the projectile was stuck in the barrel and I tried every puller I had and even made one with no luck. I unbreached the barrel and drove out the load....Stuck in the barrel was powder and an old T/C poly patch....The bore looked like a sewer pipe. I cleaned and scrubbed for hours, ruining many brushes.....Still I could not see any rifling and the barrel was still rusty and rough. I soaked it for a week in Kroil just to get the nipple out....Which I'm still using. :shocked2:

Not wanting to give up, I poured muriatic acid down the barrel......Presto!....Rifling.
More cleaning and scrubbing with everything from steel wool to scotch-brite pads and it was ready for a test fire...

The first shots shredded patches so badly they practically disappeared.

More steel wool and then lapping compound. scrub, scrub, scrub.

I even used lapping compound as patch lube.

My groups went from not being able to hit the target in the beginning to pie plates to egg sized.... The gun shoots good enough to hunt deer to fifty yards or hunt squirrels.

I wouldn't recommend that anyone do what I did....But it does illustrate what can be salvaged by a good cleaning.
I only wish I had documented the ordeal.

 

[Howie1968]

At first I was gonna give up on the gun I was highly irritated but lessons learned ive got a better bore light now I'm starting to see a difference, as soon as the rains stop ill go shoot her. I'm gonna keep working on her the rifling is perfect just the grooces right now only one of the grooves appear to be pitted or rusted a half of jar of jb so far ill break out the steel wool again, on a good note I just bought 14 boxes of .54 caliber 430 grain maxis if worse comes to worse

 

[Jimbo47]

Yep, my patches before I started the JP treatment looked like bird feathers.
In fact looking for my spent patch, I saw what looked like those feathers lying in the grass and picked it up and discovered that it was in fact my patch. :haha:
I ordered some .535 round balls from TOW that came as 50 count for $10 and change just a little while ago.
The Hornady balls were out of stock.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Shooting maxi's out of a pitted bore may lead to leading....and that will likely degrade your accuracy quickly....The good news is, lead is fairly easy to remove.

 

[Howie1968]

yes sir mr clyde I found jb does a good job of removing led as well as steel wool

 

[Griz44Mag]

yes sir mr clyde I found jb does a good job of removing led as well as steel wool

Being a lead shooter for many years and casting literally hundreds of thousands of lead bullets over 4 decades, I have settled into using copper Chore boy for the sole purpose of lead removal. Steel wool will remove metal, hence it's effective nature in polishing the inside of a barrel for rust and pitting treatment, but it does remove metal in the process. For just the issue of lead deposition, the copper strands in Chore Boy are softer than the barrel metal, and will cut away the softer lead deposits. Just extract a few fibers of the pad and spiral wrap them around a tight fitting bore mop. If you need a bit of loosing on heavy lead deposits, dampen the bore mop with a mix of water and white vinegar.
Griz

 

[nkbj]

Hey Howie.
Does your .54 Interarms Hawken have a 15/16" x 28" barrel?
I'd fairly well assume that to be the case but wanted to pick your brains.

 

[Howie1968]

yes sir 15/16x28

 

[nkbj]

thanks for the info.
Thinking about picking one up for offhand target shooting. That barrel length (that amount of hang) would be just right for me. It's a fifty right now and might get rebored for hollow bases. But will try it like it is first.