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New Englander rusty barrel?

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elbow

32 Cal.
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Aug 3, 2009
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Bought a New Englander 50 cal for $50. Wood stock but the barrel is rusty inside and you cant see rifling on the end of the barrel very well.I cleaned it and wire brushed it and cleaned it again.Dont know if it will shoot Lee REALS well well see.I did shoot three at 25 yards but not farther. Anyone have experience with a rusty bore like this? Will they still shoot? Or did I waste $50.00?
 
I have not yet found an old rusty TC barrel that would not clean up enough to shoot good. The only one that I have scrapped had a bulge in it. I shoot prb, thus more variables to work with. YMMV
 
I bought a 32 Cherokee, with a rusted barrel. It never cleaned up like I'd hoped. I tried to load it with 3f BP, but the pitting caused it to build up, making it difficult to load. I tried some Black MZ powder, and now the rifle shoots fine. The Black MZ powder, leaves very little residue, and with it packed tight, it actually shot better groups than my 36 Seneca, with a perfect barrel.
 
The edit feature is found in the Blue Line Options, bottom left side of your post,, it's available for 15 minutes for non-paid members.
Here's the resize feature available. http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/229538/
Pay attention, Claude can only make things available for people to use. We try, but None of us can lead folks around by the hand.
If your not comfortable,, by all means leave.
 
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elbow said:
Bought a New Englander 50 cal for $50. Wood stock but the barrel is rusty inside and you cant see rifling on the end of the barrel very well.I cleaned it and wire brushed it and cleaned it again.Dont know if it will shoot Lee REALS well well see.I did shoot three at 25 yards but not farther. Anyone have experience with a rusty bore like this? Will they still shoot? Or did I waste $50.00?


Get an "under sized" bore bush so that it will not get stuck in the bore when it bottoms out.
Go to the grocery store and get a box of "Chore Boy: Ultimate Scrubbers, Pure Copper won't rust or splinter pads, 2 come in a box.

Tear off some of the pad and wrap the fibers around the bore brush and spray with WD40 and commence to cleaning out the rust. Add more fibers as needed and more WD40 until clean.

This will work, I have salvaged numerous guns with Chore Boy pads.
 
with only 50 bucks invested it is a cannadate for a rebore . either smooth or rifled. bobby hoyt is ur man. 75 for a smoothbore, 125 for a rifled one.
 
PyroBlack said:
PyroBlack said:
Got evapo-rust.com and you want the liquid product there. Follow directions and lots of bore brushing / lots of patches.

I made a spelling error above (got - instead of get.
No editing-options on free board posts here?
No way to import avatars from my home computer picture folder and resize them for use here?

I do believe I made a mistake registering here. I will cease my membership here and please delete my membership info in my profile.

if that's yer feelin' remember that old sayin' about the door & yer butt :doh: .
 
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elbow said:
Bought a New Englander 50 cal for $50. Wood stock but the barrel is rusty inside and you cant see rifling on the end of the barrel very well.I cleaned it and wire brushed it and cleaned it again.Dont know if it will shoot Lee REALS well well see.I did shoot three at 25 yards but not farther. Anyone have experience with a rusty bore like this? Will they still shoot? Or did I waste $50.00?

Worst case you can still get your money out of the parts that are left that are still good. Even the barrel would be worth something to someone.

It really depends on how rusty, rusty is when you get it cleaned up. I've hears of some people getting them to still shoot surprisingly well. It also depends on how well you need it to shoot. Targets, plinker or for hunting. A mixture of molasses and water will dissolve rust also. about 1/7 and plug the barrel and sit for several days. It will eat the bluing off also if you get it on and leave it long term but if your gun is that rusty, probably not much of a concern. Good luck!
 
I had the same thing happen to me bought a new Englander for 50 bucks from a pawn shop barrel was bad rusted. But I will say this barrels are out there to be had for this rifle I bought a brand new unfired barrel for a hundred bucks great little rifle no and only in 150 dollars and could double my money if I ever decide to sell it. the barrels are out there and cheap unless you want a 12 ga. barrel those are a little pricey.
 
Funny..even unbelievable but i had a "rusty NE'er" find today myself. Immediately i thought of this thread and thought "how ironic".

I'm a plumber and when at a home working today i was ask to check out a strange odor in the kitchen sinks cabinet. I looked all around and saw nothing and ask to be shown the basement so i could make sure there were no leakages or issues under the floor. As i walked across the basement i saw a gun leaning against the cement block wall, half covered by a gun sock. I jumped some clutter and made my way to it..it was a New Englander. Only the bottom half of the gun was uncovered and i saw the engraved name on the barrel. I saw rust covering the lock and nipple area and the buttplate was absolutely scaled over rust red from years on a basement concrete floor. The buttstock looked excellent and all i can think is it was shot without cleaning and set in the basement possibly decades ago..untouched since. The serial number is ingrained in my head .. 1173. I put it down and checked out the area under the sink, no issues and i went back upstairs. Spoke to the homeowner and after explaining that i found no issues and mentioned the rifle. I told her i collected such guns and would gladly buy it from them before it rusted away completely.. she said she had no idea it was there and would ask her husband about it...the subject was kinda dropped as i went on about the plumbing issue.. ended up leaving and not till i left did i think about what that rifle was..the shotty i think. Was far too light to be the .50..have had both and i know the 12ga version well..am familar with it and even though i didn't ever see much of the barrel itself i'm fairly sure it was the shotgun. I didn't see or feel a rear sight..it was very light..it had to be the shotgun, silently rusting away in a basement off Belvedere dr in Big City N.C...

I shoulda taken a pic just for the fun of proving the story but in light of my failure to do that i'll definitely be calling the homeowner in a couple days to ask if it was possibly up for sale. In spite of the rust i'll offer 50...100...150..maybe even more if i can see it again first, look closer at the rust damage and check out the barrel. Kinda neat this happened today...have procured only one other muzzleloader from a client after 20 years of day to day in various customers homes...if i'm lucky this will be my 2nd. Will surely post if so with pics , wish me luck. :v
 
Clean it and shoot it. If it dosen't hold group to your satisfaction, have it bored to 12ga and buy a replacement rifled barrel. I have a 12ga New Englander barrel and it is a gas to hunt turkeys with it, althugh I admit I have not used it to much since I got my SxS's.
 
Got to get my hands on it first, am going to call the homeowner next week and do another "inspection" of their sink plumbing...while there i'm gonna check out what barrel is under the gunsock and make them an offer. At the very least i'll snap a few pics to prove to a friend of mine that the "find" is a real one.
Sorry elbow for getting offtopic on your thread, :v
 
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