I recently recieved my father's hunting rifle of the last 35 years. It began as an CVA mountain rifle that had a Siler lock and a Sharon barrel replacing the original parts. I remember it as beinga fine piece and when I took it out last week it would still put a round ball where I pointed it. The problem is that there has occured, very light pitting in the last 8 inches toward the muzzle. When shooting, it requires more frequent cleaning and tends to tear up pillow ticking patches. Is it practical to have the bore freshed out to .52 calibre? Would it help to lapp the bore and leave it at .5? Or should I just call well enough alone and use it as is?
rough bore trouble
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- Last Post 01 October 2012
That's one of those subjective questions. All the options you mentioned make sense. I have a CVA Mountain Rifle that shoots way past it's pricerange, wouldn't sell it or change it, but my bore is good(I'm a fanatical cleaner and greaser). A .52 would be very nice for a hunting rifle, but the cost may be more than the gun is worth on the open market. Since it's a family heirloom though maybe money is secondary. If it was mine I'd clean it up as much as possible and live with it, due to the sentimental value. Then just shoot it on special occasions and take advantage of your excuse to buy another Hawken!:coonskin: tt :taz:
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Right now, using a .490 ball, .014 cotton patch and 55 gr of Graf FFF BP I can get it to shoot two inch groups at 50 yards. I can be content with that as it would suffice for any occasion I can forsee. I have an old ParkerHale 1858 that will do that at 100 but it is so dog gone heavy. I guess it will stay as is for now.
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Before you make any irreversible changes to the Sharon bbl., why not try a thicker patch? Keep everthing the same, but try a .018” patch as you may be pleasantly surprised. If accuracy doesn't improve, then consider having the bbl. “freshed out."
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Lapping is definitely an option, or even a good scrubbing with steel wool and oil. All that is necessary is to remove the rough edges.
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Recently, I found valve lapping compound made by Clover at the local mechanic's shop. He gave it to me for free. A patch on a cleaning rod soaked down with it polishes pretty good. Got 500 grit and I know they make finer and coarser grades. Good way to go.
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I'm thinking along the same lines. I have some Clover in 600 grit. Lapping the bore should reduce the need for cleaning and should definitely keep the patches from tearing. Coat the bore first with any oil/ATF/Ed's Red, take a .45 bore brush, put 2 or 3 patches around it, so you get a fit, coat the last one with some fine lapping compoud, and work it back and forth over the rough area. It should clean up fine.
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I'm thinking along the same lines. I have some Clover in 600 grit. Lapping the bore should reduce the need for cleaning and should definitely keep the patches from tearing. Coat the bore first with any oil/ATF/Ed's Red, take a .45 bore brush, put 2 or 3 patches around it, so you get a fit, coat the last one with some fine lapping compoud, and work it back and forth over the rough area. It should clean up fine.
rw, If you do as DB, et al have suggested, make sure you use a muzzle guard to ensure your cleaning rod is centered in the bore. However, I'd still recommend using a thicker patch before and after lapping.
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I bought a TC New Englander .50 barrel to go with my 12 ga. It was a screamin' deal but the catch was it's got a really rough bore. Pitted pretty good, I knew that up front and got it just to see if I could get it to shoot. Plan B was to have it rebored but now that I'm seeing prices that's unlikely. The only abrasive goop I had on hand was Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound so I went to it with the goop on a GI patch over a nylon brush. It did clean out the crud and maybe smoothed out a few snags, but of course the pits remain. Range testing today at 50 yards with the Firesights on it I got 4 shots into 3” with Hornady 385 gr. Great Plains HPHB bullets over 70 gr. of 2f. They went in a little too easy I think. I'll try the PRB with a thick patch idea next, and cast up some Lee REAL bullets for it too. These barrels had shallow grooves to begin with but the old dog still wants to shoot, even in such neglected condition. It's already at least as good or better accuracy than a .69 ball in the 12 ga. barrel so I'm ahead there.
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I bought a TC New Englander .50 barrel to go with my 12 ga. It was a screamin' deal but the catch was it's got a really rough bore. Pitted pretty good, I knew that up front and got it just to see if I could get it to shoot. Plan B was to have it rebored but now that I'm seeing prices that's unlikely. The only abrasive goop I had on hand was Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound so I went to it with the goop on a GI patch over a nylon brush. It did clean out the crud and maybe smoothed out a few snags, but of course the pits remain. Range testing today at 50 yards with the Firesights on it I got 4 shots into 3” with Hornady 385 gr. Great Plains HPHB bullets over 70 gr. of 2f. They went in a little too easy I think. I'll try the PRB with a thick patch idea next, and cast up some Lee REAL bullets for it too. These barrels had shallow grooves to begin with but the old dog still wants to shoot, even in such neglected condition. It's already at least as good or better accuracy than a .69 ball in the 12 ga. barrel so I'm ahead there.
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I bought a TC New Englander .50 barrel to go with my 12 ga. It was a screamin' deal but the catch was it's got a really rough bore. Pitted pretty good, I knew that up front and got it just to see if I could get it to shoot. Plan B was to have it rebored but now that I'm seeing prices that's unlikely. The only abrasive goop I had on hand was Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound so I went to it with the goop on a GI patch over a nylon brush. It did clean out the crud and maybe smoothed out a few snags, but of course the pits remain. Range testing today at 50 yards with the Firesights on it I got 4 shots into 3” with Hornady 385 gr. Great Plains HPHB bullets over 70 gr. of 2f. They went in a little too easy I think. I'll try the PRB with a thick patch idea next, and cast up some Lee REAL bullets for it too. These barrels had shallow grooves to begin with but the old dog still wants to shoot, even in such neglected condition. It's already at least as good or better accuracy than a .69 ball in the 12 ga. barrel so I'm ahead there.
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I bought a TC New Englander .50 barrel to go with my 12 ga. It was a screamin' deal but the catch was it's got a really rough bore. Pitted pretty good, I knew that up front and got it just to see if I could get it to shoot. Plan B was to have it rebored but now that I'm seeing prices that's unlikely. The only abrasive goop I had on hand was Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound so I went to it with the goop on a GI patch over a nylon brush. It did clean out the crud and maybe smoothed out a few snags, but of course the pits remain. Range testing today at 50 yards with the Firesights on it I got 4 shots into 3” with Hornady 385 gr. Great Plains HPHB bullets over 70 gr. of 2f. They went in a little too easy I think. I'll try the PRB with a thick patch idea next, and cast up some Lee REAL bullets for it too. These barrels had shallow grooves to begin with but the old dog still wants to shoot, even in such neglected condition. It's already at least as good or better accuracy than a .69 ball in the 12 ga. barrel so I'm ahead there.
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I bought a TC New Englander .50 barrel to go with my 12 ga. It was a screamin' deal but the catch was it's got a really rough bore. Pitted pretty good, I knew that up front and got it just to see if I could get it to shoot. Plan B was to have it rebored but now that I'm seeing prices that's unlikely. The only abrasive goop I had on hand was Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound so I went to it with the goop on a GI patch over a nylon brush. It did clean out the crud and maybe smoothed out a few snags, but of course the pits remain. Range testing today at 50 yards with the Firesights on it I got 4 shots into 3” with Hornady 385 gr. Great Plains HPHB bullets over 70 gr. of 2f. They went in a little too easy I think. I'll try the PRB with a thick patch idea next, and cast up some Lee REAL bullets for it too. These barrels had shallow grooves to begin with but the old dog still wants to shoot, even in such neglected condition. It's already at least as good or better accuracy than a .69 ball in the 12 ga. barrel so I'm ahead there.
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I would try a ticker patch and experiment with a slicker lube on the patch before I did any thing else. There is a guy named Bobby Hoyt that does cut new rifling in barrels reasonable too I've heard, don't what reasonable is? I have his number somewhere if you wuld like it.
Richard
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Robert:
It's difficult to say without a ML bore light and then looking down the bore but if the pitting is as you say, But before thinking of more drastic alteratives, this is what I would do first.
Get some 0000 steel wool and a good bronze bore brush. Oil the bore and wrap a swatch of the steel wool tightly around the brush so that it fits tightly in the muzzle. Oil the brush as well. Then work the brush back and forth a few times in the rough spot as well as completely down the bore a little. The 0000 steel wool is fine enough to just polish and not hurt the bore. And all you want to do, is to take the sharp edges off of the pitting. It's also good to do this with a bore guide in order to keep the rod true with the bore.
This can also be done with a jag and the MMM synthetic steel wool pads and well as a lead lap. However the above is the simplest. This maybe all that it will take to stop the bore from fouling and tearing the patch.
While building ML's over the years, I have used the above along with lead lapping,depending on ther situation, to cure patch tearing in used as well as new barrels.
And, when finished, swab or flush the bore out well. with solvent or paint thinner or somesuch.
RD
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