Is this barrel "clean" to you?

[Tim Johnson]

 

[Trevor2]

That barrel looks pitted to me!

 

[mike243]

looks dirty,i see no pits ,clean you might see 1 but bumps is dirt

 

[Tim Johnson]

This was taken after I scrubbed it with hot soapy water and a brush for about 10 mins. Dried it and used some #13 bore cleaner and this was the best I could get it.

 

[meat hunter]

Looks like it might be fubared

 

[Trevor2]

This was taken after I scrubbed it with hot soapy water and a brush for about 10 mins. Dried it and used some #13 bore cleaner and this was the best I could get it.

Doesnt look good thats for sure. Did you run a dry cloth through it till it came out clean?

 

[Rut-N-Strut]

Use some montana x-treme bore solvent. That stuff is great

 

[tnfirefighter]

Try Butch's bore shine

 

[FrontierGander]

Looks like the back of a fat girls thigh.

May still shot ok but dont expect a whole lot. JB Bore paste will help smooth things out but one the pitting is there, its theres for life.

 

[knightrider]

looks rough to me

 

[TennesseeJed]

Looks pitted to me, how does it shoot? I've got a Hawken with a pitted bore and it still shoots fantastic.

What twist is that, looks fast?

 

[Bow Hunter]

Try shooting it a couple of times and then clean it right away.

 

[Wobblyshot1]

perchlorate...

 

[Arse]

Looks like the back of a fat girls thigh.

May still shot ok but dont expect a whole lot. JB Bore paste will help smooth things out but one the pitting is there, its theres for life.

+1 for the JB's Bore Paste.

 

[Tim Johnson]

Looks pitted to me, how does it shoot? I've got a Hawken with a pitted bore and it still shoots fantastic.

What twist is that, looks fast?

It seems to shoot fine to me. Long story short, my house flooded May 2nd last year and it got all my guns. Can't seem to get this one clean. It is a CVA Optima magnum 1:28 twist. I thought about ordering another barrel but have decided against it.

 

[Cy]

Looks pitted to me, too. 10 minutes w/ soapy water and a brush should have removed all traces of powder fouling. May be a classic case of "shot it and forgot to clean it last year".

You really can't judge the damage until you shoot some groups. A little pitting is not necessarily the disaster in a ML that it is in a centerfire. In a centerfire, copper jacket material builds up fast in the pits, and the fast velocities rip the bullet jackets. The accuracy problems associated with pitting are due to the damaged bullets. If you're shooting sabots, your bullet will not be damaged by bore pitting, since the bullet doesn't ever touch the barrel...only the sabot does.

But you will pick up plastic fouling and increased powder residue fouling, which will make that second shot harder to load, and you may see a loss of accuracy as the plastic fouling increases over the shot string (hot water won't remove the plastic fouling...you'll need to clean that out w/ something like Hoppes...like cleaning a shotgun barrel).

JB's is good stuff, but I've only used it to remove extreme copper fouling in centerfires. It's not designed to remove barrel material, and there's a real possibility that you'll damage the barrel crown if you start running the rod in and out, over and over, trying to "polish" the barrel.

If it was me, I would shoot the thing just like you always do and see how it does. It's going to be harder to clean from now on, but it may not shoot any differently that it always has.

 

[Tim Johnson]

I am shooting 245 grain Powerbelts with 100 grains of Pyrodex.

 

[Cy]

I didn't see your post about the flooding. Sorry to hear that.

I'm not sure how the powerbelts work...seems like they have a plastic something on the bottom of them, too.

Bottom line, IMO, is that if the rifle is shooting well over a 3 shot string, you're good to go. Even if it leads up a little, a good brushing will probably take care of it.

BTW, I grew up in Gallatin...sure is a different place than it was in 1960!

 

[Tim Johnson]

BTW, I grew up in Gallatin...sure is a different place than it was in 1960! [/quote]

I can't get over how much it has changed in the 10 years I have lived there!

 

[Rubberduck270]

May try hitting it with some Rust Eater on your bore brush and scrub the $h*t out of it. If there is any rust left after that I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure to swab it good with oil each year before you put it up.