Rust Remover in a Neglected Bore

[GaCop]

What is the best mixture ratio for ATF and Acetone, 50/50? I picked up a neglected TC Hawken, 50 cal, at a local pawn shop yesterday for a good price "out the door. The bore needs some TLC. I've brushed it with an under sized bronze brush wrapped with steel wool but it looks like there's still a bit of corrosion in there that I'd like to eliminate.

I was completely shocked when I got it home and started cleaning the barrel, it still had a BP charge but no ball/bullet!?

Tom

 

[flahipneck]

This worked great for me. http://www.evapo-rust.com/

 

[GaCop]

This worked great for me. http://www.evapo-rust.com/[/quote]


Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Tom

 

[Eljay]

Evapo Rust works great, just be aware it also removes bluing, browning, anything like that. But if you plug one end of a barrel (nipple/vent in this case) and fill it up and let it soak for an hour or so you'll find a good chunk of the rust inside has transformed into a loose black powdery material. Repeat as needed, possibly with a longer soak.

 

[cynthialee]

feed molases, not the stuff in the market, but the stuff you get at the feed store

Make a 1:8 dilution with water. Plug up the barrel and fill it with the liquid. Leave it for a couple days then come back and clean it out. Your bore will come out clean and rust free.

Last barrel bore I did that to came out looking like it was just out of the factory.

 

[bpd303]

You can't beat Kano Kroil for killing rust. Soak a patch with it and swab the barrel good and let it sit overnight then clean patches until they come out clean. If it's not pitted use ISSO GunBrite to polish the bore...if pitted try fire lapping.

Never heard of molasses before. I'll have to try it.

 

[necchi]

but it looks like there's still a bit of corrosion in there that I'd like to eliminate.

...if pitted try fire lapping.

Well now you guy's are getting to the meat of it.

Removing rust can be done with any number of ways.
But rust causes corrosion and pitting and short of a rebore to remove the damaged metal your not going to do anything to remove the damage.

The good news is many pitted barrels shoot just fine, they are tougher to clean, and you do have to be extra vigilante to keep rust at bay once it's started.
Just clean the rust and scale out till a patch comes out clean and call it good or re-bore it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

feed molases, not the stuff in the market, but the stuff you get at the feed store

Make a 1:8 dilution with water. Plug up the barrel and fill it with the liquid. Leave it for a couple days then come back and clean it out. Your bore will come out clean and rust free.

Last barrel bore I did that to came out looking like it was just out of the factory.

That's a new one. Nebber heerd of thet before.
Interesting.

 

[George T.]

I managed a gun store for 5 years and there are two things that will remove both external rust and internal. They are P B-Blaster available at Auto Zone and Tractor Supply here in Texas. The other necessary item is Time. Given enough time the PB will loosen the rust. It may take three or foue days but wet the bore a couple of times a day. About day two use 0000 steel wool apply it. Use several strokes and you will see the rust melt away slowly and you will do so without doing further damage to the bore.

At that point you can see if polishing is required. JB bore lapping paste will do a good job. It has been my experience if it needs more aggressive compond like valve grinding paste it may well be new barrel time! Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Geo. T.

 

[GaCop]

I managed a gun store for 5 years and there are two things that will remove both external rust and internal. They are P B-Blaster available at Auto Zone and Tractor Supply here in Texas. The other necessary item is Time. Given enough time the PB will loosen the rust. It may take three or foue days but wet the bore a couple of times a day. About day two use 0000 steel wool apply it. Use several strokes and you will see the rust melt away slowly and you will do so without doing further damage to the bore.

At that point you can see if polishing is required. JB bore lapping paste will do a good job. It has been my experience if it needs more aggressive compond like valve grinding paste it may well be new barrel time! Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Geo. T.

Thanks for all the advice. There is light pitting that I can see but I figure if I stick with PRB's that won't be much of an an issue. I have been using PB Blaster with the 4/0 steel wool wrapped around a .45 bronze bore brush to do the initial cleaning along with an application of J&B bore paste.

Next was warm soapy water which removed a lot of crud from the powder charge left in the barrel. Patches are coming out white now, I just want to be sure I get all the rust. Push come to shove, I could always rebarrel it with a Green Mountain 50 cal barrel. I'll hold off on any rebuild decisions until after I shoot it some.

Tom

 

[Tinker2]

feed molases, not the stuff in the market, but the stuff you get at the feed store

Make a 1:8 dilution with water. Plug up the barrel and fill it with the liquid. Leave it for a couple days then come back and clean it out. Your bore will come out clean and rust free.

Last barrel bore I did that to came out looking like it was just out of the factory.

Yes, works great, (molasses) I use that a lot. Will remove blue too.

OR.

I also use a battery charger and washing soda. Do that outside it creates hydrogen gas.

They will remove rust, the pit will still be there but no rust.



William Alexander

 

[necchi]

I also use a battery charger and washing soda. Do that outside it creates hydrogen gas.

Ah Electrolysis, it works. http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/264212/post/1082320/hl//fromsearch/1/
Jerry Huddleson and Birddog point out a few things in that thread too.
There is a time limit or you'll actually begin removing the good metal of the bore.
If your going to try it do a little research on line, there's a ton of videos and tips.

I went on to finish that rifle and pass it on, it turned into a decent shooter. The gal that received it (Sharon) won a few matches the day she got it.

 

[GaCop]

I managed a gun store for 5 years and there are two things that will remove both external rust and internal. They are P B-Blaster available at Auto Zone and Tractor Supply here in Texas. The other necessary item is Time. Given enough time the PB will loosen the rust. It may take three or foue days but wet the bore a couple of times a day. About day two use 0000 steel wool apply it. Use several strokes and you will see the rust melt away slowly and you will do so without doing further damage to the bore.

At that point you can see if polishing is required. JB bore lapping paste will do a good job. It has been my experience if it needs more aggressive compond like valve grinding paste it may well be new barrel time! Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Geo. T.

Thanks for all the advice. There is light pitting that I can see but I figure if I stick with PRB's that won't be much of an an issue. I have been using PB Blaster with the 4/0 steel wool wrapped around a .45 bronze bore brush to do the initial cleaning along with an application of J&B bore paste.

Next was warm soapy water which removed a lot of crud from the powder charge left in the barrel. Patches are coming out white now, I just want to be sure I get all the rust. Push come to shove, I could always rebarrel it with a Green Mountain 50 cal barrel. I'll hold off on any rebuild decisions until after I shoot it some.

Tom

Between PB Blaster and Evapo-Rust, the bore is looking excellent (can't say that about the exterior bluing). I don't see any pitting. Today's a range trip so I'll find out how it shoots.

Tom

 

[GaCop]

I managed a gun store for 5 years and there are two things that will remove both external rust and internal. They are P B-Blaster available at Auto Zone and Tractor Supply here in Texas. The other necessary item is Time. Given enough time the PB will loosen the rust. It may take three or foue days but wet the bore a couple of times a day. About day two use 0000 steel wool apply it. Use several strokes and you will see the rust melt away slowly and you will do so without doing further damage to the bore.

At that point you can see if polishing is required. JB bore lapping paste will do a good job. It has been my experience if it needs more aggressive compond like valve grinding paste it may well be new barrel time! Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Geo. T.

Thanks for all the advice. There is light pitting that I can see but I figure if I stick with PRB's that won't be much of an an issue. I have been using PB Blaster with the 4/0 steel wool wrapped around a .45 bronze bore brush to do the initial cleaning along with an application of J&B bore paste.

Next was warm soapy water which removed a lot of crud from the powder charge left in the barrel. Patches are coming out white now, I just want to be sure I get all the rust. Push come to shove, I could always rebarrel it with a Green Mountain 50 cal barrel. I'll hold off on any rebuild decisions until after I shoot it some.

Tom

Between PB Blaster and Evapo-Rust, the bore is looking excellent (can't say that about the exterior bluing). I don't see any pitting. Today's a range trip so I'll find out how it shoots.

Tom

Well, the range trip did not go well. Seems a .490" RB (cast) with .018" ticking patch needs a sledgehammer to seat the ball. Using a plain cotton patch with the same ball, seating was easy but the patches are shredded when fired. I was using 65, 70 and 80 grains of FFFg T-7 with a lubed OP wad. Patches were lubed with ballistol.

I shot at 60 yards after getting on the paper and "accuracy" was no better than 6" to 8". Even with the rear sight lowered as much as it would go and the windage a far left as possible, the balls were still impacting approximately 2" above and 3" right of POA. Nothing grouped well, shotguns shoot better groups then this TC Hawken. Seems I need a patch thickness in the .016" area in stronger than plain cotton denim or drill. I will also be trying some TC Maxi-balls in the near future. :idunno:

 

[Dphar]

I managed a gun store for 5 years and there are two things that will remove both external rust and internal. They are P B-Blaster available at Auto Zone and Tractor Supply here in Texas. The other necessary item is Time. Given enough time the PB will loosen the rust. It may take three or foue days but wet the bore a couple of times a day. About day two use 0000 steel wool apply it. Use several strokes and you will see the rust melt away slowly and you will do so without doing further damage to the bore.

At that point you can see if polishing is required. JB bore lapping paste will do a good job. It has been my experience if it needs more aggressive compond like valve grinding paste it may well be new barrel time! Good luck and let me know how it goes.
Geo. T.

In a pitted barrel JB is useless. It takes a LOT of time (all day essentially) and strokes to move much metal even with 280 grit in a lead lap but this followed by 600 grit for a polish will often restore a barrel. But lapping requires debreeching since the lapping should not be done from the muzzle unless its then cut back a couple of inches afterwards.
If its pitted past lapping its basically trash since it will be very difficult to clean. Probably used with Chlorate powder and undoubtedly the fouling is still eating away in the old pits.
I bet pits are visible at the muzzle if they are carefully looked for.
I would clean with hot water and soap, flash rusting is the least of the problem. If done well with a LOT of water it should get the fouling out of the pits. Then dry and dose with something like PB Blaster for a few days.
Now try pulling the breech. This needs to be done to determine if the breech has been dangerously damaged by corrosion. Yeah this is worst case but it HAS happened.
Pulling the breech will also reveal how badly the parts are really pitted. If the dovetails are not too deep there are people that can recut the barrel to a larger caliber if there are no "crawdad holes" that are too deep.

Dan

 

[George T.]

Your right about the pits. That is why I suggested JB boar paste. I figured that the rust needs to go to see what is left of the bore.

It sounds like it looks OK but first range trip was a bummer. I know the feeling. I have a musket that shreads the 015's but still shoots pretty good. It loads real hard with .018's but only gains a littlt in accuracy.

It sounds as though he is OK with the .490's and just need to juggle the patche thickness. Geo. T.

 

[GaCop]

Your right about the pits. That is why I suggested JB boar paste. I figured that the rust needs to go to see what is left of the bore.

It sounds like it looks OK but first range trip was a bummer. I know the feeling. I have a musket that shreads the 015's but still shoots pretty good. It loads real hard with .018's but only gains a littlt in accuracy.

It sounds as though he is OK with the .490's and just need to juggle the patch thickness. Geo. T.

My bore actually looks very good, I don't notice any pitting after using the PB Blaster and Evapo-Rust. With .015" patching shredding, I can't see any reason to go to a .495" ball, do you? Would the larger ball seal better and stop the patch shredding?

I'm also concerned with the poor accuracy and the factory sights being maxed out to the left and lowest setting yet it still shoots high and right.

Tom

 

[George T.]

Is your front sight centered or off set in the wrong direction. I just bought a rifle and had to move the rear sight a ways from center. When I got it home I noticed that the front sight was adjusted from center. I centered it and was able
to move the rear back to very near center. I was glad for you that the bore has no pitts! Geo. T.

 

[GaCop]

Is your front sight centered or off set in the wrong direction. I just bought a rifle and had to move the rear sight a ways from center. When I got it home I noticed that the front sight was adjusted from center. I centered it and was able
to move the rear back to very near center. I was glad for you that the bore has no pitts! Geo. T.

No, thats the weird thing, the front sight is centered. Guess I'll have to adjust the front sight the opposite direction so I can center the rear sight leaf.

Off to the range today to play with my 54 cal Investarms and some Maxi-Balls. The TC is shelved for a while.

Tom

 

[Archie]

New colerain barrel $175.00
Install your old breech plug, underlug, sights and rod pipes.
Drop it in the sweat box to brown or even blue it and you took care of all that corrosion and pitting. :wink: