A barrel full of rust.
- Thread starter tigrr
- Start date
BlackPowderBurner
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- the chesterfield
Hot water is step one, kroil, bore brushes, jb bore paste, patches and patience are your friend.
VanIsleCam
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
This.
I fully agree with this but the result will be a frosty bore with tiny, shallow pits that may or may not shoot well.
If you're talking about a Garand bore, it will have plenty of company.
There used to be a product available to clean up frosty bores. It consisted of a half dozen cast bullet that had grinding compound of different grits impregnated into their surfaces. They usually worked but they did wear the bores.
If it's a Garand and the owner wants to fix it back to as new, it will require a new barrel, which are available from Criterion.
About 30 years ago, I loaned my P35 Inglis Hi Power to a fellow to use in milsurp matches. I was away for six months at the time
and got the pistol back around 9 months after loaning it to him.
He used it for two matches, then put it in the safe and forgot all about it until I asked him to bring it back.
He was shocked and badly embarrassed when he returned the pistol.
There was a ring of rust around the muzzle and on the face of the slide, as well as all the way back to the chamber and breech face.
He was given a bunch of surplus 9mm ammo and decided to go cheap, using it at the matches.
He had never used corrosive ammo and had no idea what he had.
To be brief, the barrel was badly pitted and the slide was difficult to take off.
I tried to find a surplus NOS barrel, which had been available previously. No luck.
Spoke with a couple of REMEs I knew at the time and found out they were using Belgian made barrels as replacements, because the Inglis replacement barrels were all used up.
That's what's in the pistol now and it shoots very well.
The fellow I loaned the pistol to ducked out on his promise to pay for the replacement barrel. I haven't seen or heard from him since.
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I purchased a 98 from a friend's estate. It is all matching, WW2 rifle, made in Austria. A gorgeous rifle, but he was too sick to look after it. It was rusted up in the barrel. I brushed, cleaned, brushed more, cleaned more. I finally accepted that it was going to be that way for ever, so I took it out and fired a batch of cupro-nickle rounds through it, took it home a gave it a couple more good sessions of brushing, etc. It now has good, strong rifling, but is pitted. It still shoots okay. I only shoot it offhand, using Yugo milsurp ammo. I give it a good brushing and run some linen patches through, using a good dose of FLUID FILM as the last patch. I hang a tag "Clean before shooting" on it so I remember to clean the FLUID FILM out. Best I can do.
Skip the broiling water. Use CLR. It will clean up all the rust. Plug the bore..pour CLR, let stand 5 minutes, brush, patches.
Repeat until patch come out clean. Make sure the CLR do not touch the blue of the gun.
You can also use it on a patch but it will take longer.
Repeat until patch come out clean. Make sure the CLR do not touch the blue of the gun.
You can also use it on a patch but it will take longer.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
CLR will for sure do a number on any bluing that it makes contact with!!! Bluing is rust - what removes rust also removes blueing - if not removing blueing, is not removing rust either. I have worked on several old ones here - WWI and earlier - pretty much as above - penetrating oil soaks, many brushes worn out, many overnight soaks with foaming WipeOut - comes out blue at first - then does not, then blue starts again - as if going through layers. Likely looking at days and days of work - soaking mostly - then bore scope shows multiple pits from every place that was rusted. Some shoot just fine, for military WWI aged guns. Not going to ever get it back to pristine new looking when viewed with a scope. Only way to get back to shiny bright steel is to make that bore larger - even then, some pits go surprisingly "deep".
If you are dealing with a rifle that is a semi, then likely a good idea to have the barrel pulled - so have clear access into rear of the barrel. Seems to work okay for bolt actions to leave on the action - I made up a funnel with long spout to pour stuff into the chamber end, with barrel pointed down while held in a padded jaw vise - might be possible to make "goose neck" tube to flush, but I prefer to run brushes in from chamber end, not from muzzle end.
For OP - just start now with ANY cleaning - patches with a true bore cleaner, a bore brush - then, more patches. Leave to soak with something that is not going to corrode the barrel steel - preferably something that will work to get into or under that rust - like penetrating oil. Depending how bad, can be like battling through layers, as more gets loosened - really no "quick easy way" that I know of to clean out a truly rusted bore in one session. I will agree with earlier posts - is somewhat amazing how much gets moving with just a bit of dish soap in boiling hot water - pour about a litre or more down the bore and then use brush, for a start. Lots of those "corrosive" primers left a form of salt residue in the bore - that "salt" will attract molecules of water from the air - so that boiling hot water does dissolve and flush those salts. As a former potash mining guy, I can pretty much guarantee that any oil based stuff will NOT dissolve salts...
If you are dealing with a rifle that is a semi, then likely a good idea to have the barrel pulled - so have clear access into rear of the barrel. Seems to work okay for bolt actions to leave on the action - I made up a funnel with long spout to pour stuff into the chamber end, with barrel pointed down while held in a padded jaw vise - might be possible to make "goose neck" tube to flush, but I prefer to run brushes in from chamber end, not from muzzle end.
For OP - just start now with ANY cleaning - patches with a true bore cleaner, a bore brush - then, more patches. Leave to soak with something that is not going to corrode the barrel steel - preferably something that will work to get into or under that rust - like penetrating oil. Depending how bad, can be like battling through layers, as more gets loosened - really no "quick easy way" that I know of to clean out a truly rusted bore in one session. I will agree with earlier posts - is somewhat amazing how much gets moving with just a bit of dish soap in boiling hot water - pour about a litre or more down the bore and then use brush, for a start. Lots of those "corrosive" primers left a form of salt residue in the bore - that "salt" will attract molecules of water from the air - so that boiling hot water does dissolve and flush those salts. As a former potash mining guy, I can pretty much guarantee that any oil based stuff will NOT dissolve salts...
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Well first thing I did was oil the crap out of it and send a few patches through.(Before posting)
Then after reading all the post I boiled the kettle and dumped 1.75 liters of boiling water all through that gun. I removed the wood first.
Then I used an oversized brush and scrubbed and scrubbed that bore. After 5 back and fourths with the brush I ran a couple of well oiled patches through.
I did the well oiled brush thing 5 times. Then the patch thing 5 times. My borescope says it was mainly surface rust but reloading and shooting will tell the tale.
I still have a bit of rust in the chamber but it is small compared to what I saw in the barrel.
The ammo was head stamped TW 42.
The gun was a very nice Remington Woods Master in 30-06. Was.
I have all the polishing compound if needed. It was for rocks but it is very fine.
Oh yes thank you for all the replies!!
Then after reading all the post I boiled the kettle and dumped 1.75 liters of boiling water all through that gun. I removed the wood first.
Then I used an oversized brush and scrubbed and scrubbed that bore. After 5 back and fourths with the brush I ran a couple of well oiled patches through.
I did the well oiled brush thing 5 times. Then the patch thing 5 times. My borescope says it was mainly surface rust but reloading and shooting will tell the tale.
I still have a bit of rust in the chamber but it is small compared to what I saw in the barrel.
The ammo was head stamped TW 42.
The gun was a very nice Remington Woods Master in 30-06. Was.
I have all the polishing compound if needed. It was for rocks but it is very fine.
Oh yes thank you for all the replies!!
redbirddog
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Maple Syrup land Ontario
Cry
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Yep - to maybe put in context - you said 5 x back and forth - I was thinking 100 x back and forth over several sessions - at least 3 changes of bore brush - was a VERY grunged up rusty bore that I was dealing with - a made-in-1896 Ludw. Leowe Mauser from Second Boer War. And this one was recovered enough to be able to go "bang", I think. Yours sounds not as nasty - so a good chance that simply shooting it and continuing to keep it clean with good bore cleaners will get you all that is possible to get from it. Sometimes, just some time for the stuff to soak will loosen up more of it. I never was able to get "all" of it in one sitting - sometimes get lots more to come out days later... I have to constantly remind myself about dirty patches - if the crap is on the patch, it is not in the bore any longer. So, it is nice to finally get to clean, wet patches coming out - except often get dirty ones, again, a couple days later...
Kinda want the chamber walls as shiny like a mirror as you can get it - rust in chamber often leads to difficulties extracting fired cases - so be aware of that...
Kinda want the chamber walls as shiny like a mirror as you can get it - rust in chamber often leads to difficulties extracting fired cases - so be aware of that...
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A look with the bore scope shows a pretty clean bore. I will stick a cleaning rod down the bore and attach a 45acp ss brush to it and pull it back and polish the chamber some. Maybe with a drill. The first shell chambered was a 2X4 forced extraction, so I know the chamber needs attention.
I will learn how to take and save pictures with my bore scope soon. The first look was brown and fuzzy. Now not so bad.
My oversized brush went in and out of that barrel at least 100 times. I can see left over copper on some lands, but its staying there.
Thankfully it won't be a lamp.
I will learn how to take and save pictures with my bore scope soon. The first look was brown and fuzzy. Now not so bad.
My oversized brush went in and out of that barrel at least 100 times. I can see left over copper on some lands, but its staying there.
Thankfully it won't be a lamp.
