Barrel Rust from corrosive ammo...

R

R.B.

New member
Rating - 100%
13   0   0
Location
Independent Republic of Alberta
Hi, There.

I have a Mosin Nagant with a really rusty barrel.

The metal is just fine on the outside, however the inside is all covered with rust, etc.

It looks like the rifle was shot fair bit with corrosive ammo, as the barrel is very gummed up and you can feel how rough it is when pulling a cleaning patch through.

How would one treat corroded barrels ?

Is it possible to smooth such a barrel ?

Would they be even safe to shoot ???

Thanks in advance.

R.B.
 
Give it a good cleaning untill the patches come out mostly clean. This may take several hours if you've got a particularly bad case! I had a mosin like this. After you've cleaned the crap out of it, get some chrome polish paste, or brasso, and scrub the barrel with that for a few passes. It should polish out some of the rust. So long as the lands(raised part of the rifling) are still prominant, it should shoot alright. Frosting in the grooves isn't as big a deal as many make it out to be, at least in how it affects shootability. Have fun!
 
If I may suggest, clean her with oil only for starters and see how the patches come out. The modern cleaning fluids are designed primarily for three things: copper, lead and nitro residue. It would be a waste of fluid at first.
 
Hoppes is pretty good at removing rust. Problem with pitted bores is they foul like a son of a ##### after only a few rounds, then shots are all over the place.
 
I have cleaned out a rusty bore in a Moisin-Nagant using a fairly tight-fitting plug made of EXTRA FINE steel wool, drove that down the bore from the muzzle toward the breech, took a whack of rust out of it, ran a second one down. Got the red rust out this way then went at it with a regular bronze brush and bore cleaner and, believe it or not, if you can catch it quick enough (which means while the rust is still close enough to the surface that it hasn't eaten pits in your bore), you can actually restore some of these to service WITH decent accuracy.

Don't give up yet. Work at it, you just might surprise yourself!

If you end up with pitting, then is the time for more drastic solutions, but I find that often the steel-wool-plug solution can save a barrel.

Good luck.
 
Last spring I bought a rifle that hadn't been used in 35 years. When I went to clean it the bore looked rough and patches with solvent didn't do anything. Then I had a hunch that it might just be dried oil or grease so I cleaned it with a patch and brake cleaner. A few passes and it looked like new.

Worth a try.
 
Hi

If you want to eliminate the heavy lifting part and have time on your hands:

Plug the barrel and fill it with what ever motor oil you have sitting around in the garage. Dump the stuff once a day for a couple of days. After that attack it with the cleaning stuff.

On the other extreme. JB bore paste does a pretty good job on crud filled barrels.

Bob
 
I clean sewer pipe bores with Breakfree CLP, then use brass brush in-between cleanings. After removing all the crud that I can, I take it to the range and shoot 10 rounds, then back to the cleaning bench for repreat. After that, one more trip to the range for another 10 rounds. My range is 200yards from my house.

I shoot corrosive ammo, so when I clean after shooting, I remove the bolt, stand the rifle on its muzzle on a folded towel, and fill the bore with Windex. Swab with a patch, then Windex soak, then swab with patch, and THEN a final cleaning with CLP.

Works for me.
 
Hi

If you want to take care of corrosive residue, Sweet's 7.62 will neutralize the stuff pretty well. Original formula Windex (with ammonia) *not* the new improved stuff also works. Either one will work faster / better if you hit the rifle while it's sill warm at the range.

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom