Rusty Rifle = Slick Smoothie

[Rusty Old Gunns]

I bought this real pretty .62 rifle a few months ago on the net. Got it for a song (Didn't even have to dance). It's well made, fit and finish is good, great browning job, Siler lock, Oct/round 36' bbl, real pretty turtle front sight, brass tacks. Just a handsome old (maybe 8 years) gun.

Thought I'd tweak up a load and give it to my son in Michigan for a deer gun. He never owned a flinter, so I thought I'd get him hooked.

The previous owner told me that he had only fired it a few times, but the owner before him had not cleaned it much and the bore was a little rusty.

Well ... finally got it to the range. First round dead on at 35 yards! But, when I loaded the patched ball, it sounded like I was grinding coffee. The rust is so bad, it ripped up the patch on the way down(recovered patches).The patern started to spread and balls started to wander. (And we know that theres nothing worse then... well, never nind).

SOooo... what's better than a .62 cal rusty ole rifle? How about a 16 gauge shiny smoothie, aye?

Now all I need is a gunsmith in the Lake George, NY area to bore it out. Anyone have anyone in mind? Any suggestions?

 

[subknave]

Why not get it rerifled? Make the bore a bit larger but all you need to do is go down past the rust and pitting. You could also just try to polish it up well and see how the lands look.
If you want it as a smoothbore it shouldn't be that dificult just finding someone with the tools to do it.

 

[Russianblood]

I'm sure with enough scrubbing and solvents, you can get that barrel shooting great again. I've cleaned up military surplus rifle barrels that you could barely see thru and managed to get decent groups with it.

Steel wool, kroil oil and JB Bore Paste should clean it up fairly well. Plus, the more you shoot it, the cleaner it will become.

 

[musketman]

Now all I need is a gunsmith in the Lake George, NY area to bore it out. Anyone have anyone in mind? Any suggestions?

There is a gunsmith only 12.4 miles away from Lake George...

Mac Gregor's Gun Shop
1180 Glens Falls Mountain Rd
Lake Luzerne, NY 12846
(518) 761-6864

If that don't pan out, have a barrel lapping party, call all of your friends over and let them each take 500 strokes at the barrel with the lapping compound while you take turns telling stories and open a few cold ones... (of soda pop, don't get excited) :haha:

 

[J.D.]

Try scrubbing the bore with a green scrubbie, the green scouring pads available in any local store.

Cut a 2 inch, or so, strip off one end, wrap the strip tightly around a rod tipped with a 45-50 cal jag, for use in a 62. The scrubbie should be a tight fit, but loose enough that it won't get stuck. Oil the bore liberally, and scrub the snot out of it, but don't over do it.

I might be a good idea to remove the scrubbie every so often and clean the rust out of the bore and the scrubbie, or just replace the piece on the jag after removing the worst of the rust from the bore.

If the bore is still rough, lapping a coupla hundred strokes with 180 grit compound on a lead lap might be in order. Finish lapping with another coupla hundred strokes with 320 grit.

DO NOT use valve grinding comound, it's too course, and NOT consistent in grit size.

The problem with reaming that barrel smooth will be finding someone with a correct diameter reamer.

The probabliity of finding a gunsmith that can merely remove the rifling is slim to none, since that would require an expensive one of a kind reamer. A smith MIGHT be able to ream your barrel to 16ga/66cal, IF the barrel walls are thick enough, AND IF dovetails for sights and underlugs aren't cut too deep.

Cleaning this barrel up, installing a liner, or replacement are probably the only feasible options. Relining the barrel is about as expensive as replacement, but may be an option to replacement if the external contour of the barrel is not a standard contour.
J.D.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've used the scrubbies. Even better are the metal polishing pads on the same material. They are available in different grits. I'm not sure if they're from 3M, but my local Ace Hardware had them. Don't get too aggressive or you will get a hybrid rifled smoothbore.

A pitted bore is not necesssarily inacurate (as mentioned). I've got an old Mosin-Nagant with a bore that looks like a golfball turned inside out and it shoots very well.

If you can get it smoothe enough with the abrasive pads that the patches hold together you may be fine. And, after all, you never have to worry about finding a little rust in the bore. :winking:

I'd also check into having the rifling freshened out. Somewhere recently I can across a do-it-yourself method, but you have to have the ability to form and harden a cutter of precisely the same width/profile as the current rifling.