Patch cutting

[StanD]

Hi
About a year ago I bought a Great Plains Rifle from my brother’s widow. I submitted a post about the twist rate last week, this is the same rifle but a different matter. He must have been shooting conicals because when I first got it there was a lot of leading in the barrel. I worked for a long time removing the lead with various solvents, brushes, etc. then decided that patched balls should eventually clean the rest out. I never shot it until about two weeks ago and since ran over 70 rounds through it. Using a bore light the lands are bright but the grooves look like they have machine marks in them. I’m also finding that the patches are badly cut. I have been shooting 70 gr. 2F using .015 patches. What can be done to smooth out the bore to eliminate patch cutting. Thank you.
Stan

 

[necchi]

Keep shooting, they usually smooth out enough around 150 shot's.
Some folks fret over it and scrub the barrel with various compounds even steel wool on a jag, But I prefer to shoot'm in.
These are normal looking patches out of a GM barrel after about 500 shot's, there are still some marks from the lands but this barrel is a tack driver as it is, there is no issue that needs to be improved.

 

[StanD]

necchi
I guess I can do that OK. It was nice at the range today by 10:0am but it’s been below freezing in the early morning. I have a peep sight on back order from Lyman so I won’t work up a load for this rifle until I get it. Actually with tri-focals I can see the back sight, the front sight and the target quite well, I just can’t see all three at the same time. Peep sights makes it so much better. I’ll cast up a bunch of balls and start running them through and hope it smooth’s out. Thanks
Stan

 

[fearless51]

Stan, Where are you located? I'm in Spokane and shoot at the Spokane Rifle Club at least three days a week. I'd agree that shooting will clean out the barrel eventually but there are some excellent lead removers that I have used on pistol barrels. You can get a cloth made by Birchwood Casey that is simply called "Lead Remover", mind you it is abrasive but not so much that you need to be concerned about wearing any appreciable amount off your barrel. I cut the cloth into a patch that will easily cover the jag and saturate it with Barnes CR-10 another lead remover with a heavy ammonia content. Run that patch up and down in the bore and check to see what you get on the patch, you should see alot of black residue and the occaisonal silvery piece of lead that is removed from the sharp angle of the rifling, unless you have round bottomed system like a Colrain barrel. That stuff works wonders on leaded or copper coated rifling. I spent hours scrubbing an old Model 70 barrel that looked as if it had never been cleaned before I got a patch to come out clean without the greenness of copper. Give it a try...something else to consider in another case tjeu were dealing with a gun that kept blowing patches they pulled the breech plug and lapped the barrel with very light 200grit lapping compound, you gotta use common sense and take it easy too much of anything aint good.

 

[StanD]

Hi Kinman
I’m in Wenatchee. I’ll take a look tomorrow for some Birchwood Casey. Surprisingly things are pretty limited here unless you’re looking for a black rifle or swat gear. This is definitely not muzzleloader country , well maybe a few 50 cal. inlines. Not counting Wal-Mart or Bi Mart we have 4 stores that sell firearms and I haven’t seen a side lock rifle in any of them for over 10 years. I thought about using lapping compound but figured that was probably more aggressive than I want to be. The Birchwood Casey cloth sounds good, think I’ll give that a try along with more shooting.. Thanks
Stan

 

[Andyd]

How about High Mountain Hunting Supply? I myself have not been to their store in a few years But I hear their adds on the radio. I would think you could get good cleaning solvents from them.

 

[StanD]

Survivor
Yes High Mountain has a pretty good store, they sell fishing gear, archery tackle, and firearms. But the handful of muzzleloader stuff would fit in a grocery bag. They take in guns on consignment so occasionally a black powder firearm will hit the shelf. I picked up a Ruger Old Army there a couple of years ago. This just isn’t muzzleloader country compared to your side of the mountains. I have to shop online for most of my accessories. There is no black powder available at all in Wenatchee. We used to get it at White Elephant in Spokane. I don’t know if they still have it or not. We’re supposed to get a Sportsman’s Warehouse here. Don’t know what that will do for the blackpowder shooters.
Stan

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

When I finished my 50 caliber GPR kit and I ran a clean patch down the barrel it came back up with cuts. So I took a 45 caliber brush wrapped some 0000 steel wool around it oiled the bore and the brush thoroughly and ran it up and down the bore 20 times. Cleaned the oil out of the bore and found that was enough so my cleaning patches came out whole and uncut. After firing 130 rounds through the rifle the groups started to tighten up and no cut patches. In doing the smoothing with the steel wool do as little as you can. If after running the steel wool the first time I had found that the cleaning patches were still getting cut I would have done again but kept the number of strokes to under 20 before seeing if I still was getting cut patches. I just wanted to get rid of any large burrs and the rest I wanted to shoot out.

 

[Billnpatti]

You can go to an auto parts store or a machine shop and get some valve lapping compound. It is finer than valve grinding compound so don't mix them up. Put some valve lapping compound on a tight fitting patch and use it to polish your bore. Be sure to polish evenly the whole length of the bore. don't pump the patch in one spot, but run it up and down the whole length of the bore with each stroke. Be sure to have a bore guide on your rod to protect your muzzle. You don't want your rod with valve lapping compound on it rubbing on your muzzle. You can damage it and then have to have it re-crowned. I have found that about 100 strokes will smooth the sharp edges of the lands and smooth out the machine marks in the grooves. Flush your bore thoroughly to remove all traces of the lapping compound before shooting it. Since you have a borescope, you can examine the bore as you work to see exactly when you have it sufficiently polished. Once you have it polished, you will have no more cut patches.

 

[StanD]

Hi
I used 0000 steel wool when I was working on the leading. I was hoping shooting patched round balls would eventually smooth things out. I’m not sure how many shots were fired through this thing before I got it but he had full boxes of round balls left and several partial boxes of conicals of various types so I assume he gave up on patched round balls. I know he didn’t like using round balls for hunting and after he got the inline it was all sabots. Anyway I will look into using lapping compound. I thought I had some in the garage but if I do I can’t find it. I looked for some Birchwood Casey cloth at High Mountain today but they didn’t have any. Thank you all
Stan

 

[ohio ramrod]

In addition to using a bore guide I highly recommend using a "disposable" rod when lapping. The compound will embed into the rod and then leave you with a rod that will wear your bore. :hmm: