Been scrubbing a barrel for the last month!

Tinman204

Tinman204

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So for the last month I've been scrubbing the barrel off of a Turk Mauser I bought. I started with solvent, then went to bore foam and the switched back and forth.

Well 2 brushes and 300 or so patches later she's almost clean!!!! Yippee!!!!!
Just thought I post some before and after pics, simply because I'm so happy that is FINALLY COMING CLEAN. It was so dirty that my bore light barely reflected to the muzzle when inserted directly into the breach.

It's amazing how fowled a barrel can be. When got the gun in the mail, the first thing I did was check the bore. The rifling was there but faintly. Now it's sharp with shiney lands and almost shiney grooves!!!!

Before:
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After:
F52F90EA-A07F-46A5-BF1A-73D94DB6FA2B-179-00000216911EF291.jpg
 
I feel your pain. I have the same duties on several occasions with old rifles of unknown origin or use. If it was really bad, I would plug the muzzle and fill it with heavy bore solvent to let it sit. Eventually they will come out clean.
 
I had a similar problem with a vet bring back Gew 98 I received. I got her from the grandson of the veteran who brought her back from WW1 and was told she had been in the grandfather's basement since being brought back. Least to the say, the bore was heavily fouled. I was unable to see any lands and it looked like a 6 or 7mm bore.

I can't recall how many patches it took but I do remember ending up with a couple piles full of black and red patches.

After a good two weeks, I got her to the point where I could see the lands and grooves and scrubbing with a bore brush and patches weren't doing anything more so I hand loaded 5 light rounds for 8mm mauser and used these during her first shooting a week later. It helped as the bullets were able to finish scrubbing out the bore that which I could not remove.

After the range, I scrubbed her again and was amazed to see that the bore was brought back to life. Its not beautiful, but she can shoot now.

Since then, she is one of my more accurate Gewehr 98s.

Presently, I am doing the same procedure for a Mosin M91 with a stubborn dark bore that doesn't seem to want to clean up.
 
I have a Steyer Mannlicher with the same problem. I have stainless steel bore brush's that I'm gonna use one of these day's.
What's a good bore cleaner the leave in for a couple day's?
 
I used hoppe's elite bore foam. It worked pretty well, spay in let it foam and then leave it over night. This bore was so bad I thought I may have bought a wall hanger instead if a shooter. But with some work and the bore foam it not too bad at all.

I'm going to try shooting it this weekend and hopefully some bullets will clean the last of the crap out.
 
Recently had that problem with my SVT40 that just wouldnt come clean and it took a whole lot of scrubbing and a good hundred patches. For me it was from the v-max bullets I used because the patches were coming out blue from the copper as I had the same thing with my HMR and I thought they'd never come out white.
 
I bought an Enfield sporter that was cheap because it was described as having a "drainpipe " rusty bore and I was interested in it as an early Savage, turned out after some scrubbing and hard work that the bore is actually not too bad! Amazing how many people sell dirty guns, or just assume they are rusty scrap!
 
Yeah I have to agree. My no1 mk3 was sold to me with a nasty barrel. After 3 nights of cleaning it ended up being an almost perfect barrel.

I hope this will turn out to be the same, I really love the old Turk Mauser.
 
To save on the scrubbing I have taken the handle off a cleaning rod and put it in my cordless drill (brass brush). Round and round back and forth saves a lot of elbow grease!
 
I had the same problem with an M1903 Remington. I used a extra-fine grit polishing compound mixed with Hoppes into a light slurry then applied with an brass bore brush. Scrubbed back and forth for about two to three minutes, dipping the brush into the slurry every third or fourth pass, then followed with solvent soaked patches. It took nearly 15 patches to get a clean one...the bore improved. I should note, that this was very messy and best not to be done in the kitchen. It took about five or six sessions of the above to completely clean the bore, after which it looked great, I should note that IO changed out the brush on the second operation. There was no loss in sharpness to the rifling and the grooves were clean. A trip to the range with my pet load for the 30-06 and it turned in a nice 2 1/4" group. A bit more tuning on the rifle and the groups shrank, though not a huge amount. Subsequent cleaning showed just normal fouling nothing out of the ordinary. Prior to the operation the gun would never produce a clean patch...they always came out dirty. Plus the groups prior were about 4 inches average.
 
That's an interesting method, I may try such a mixture on my next seassion of cleaning. I'm very anxious to shoot the old Turk, accuracy was less then stellar upon initial testing.

Once I get the barrel sorted out, a bedding job will be in order. I think it would be fun to have a gun that looks well used (which this one does) but shoots well. The fact that this gun is a Turkish Mauser makes the project even more fun as a lot of people discredit them, even though among collectors that have them they're known for being able to shoot.
 
As has been posted above, I once ran out of patience with a LB No. 4 I was working on and shot 3 rounds through it. Shooting the rifle got the bore a lot cleaner than a week of soaking and scrubbing. If I get a stubborn one again I'll follow the same procedure. Soak and scrub for a few days. Fire some rounds. Soak and scrub. Repeat until shiny.
 
22short said:
To save on the scrubbing I have taken the handle off a cleaning rod and put it in my cordless drill (brass brush). Round and round back and forth saves a lot of elbow grease!
Click to expand...

While this might seem a good idea, it can leave fine marks in your bore and cut down the sharp edges of the rifling. Even the brass will pick up grit, dirt, glaze from firing, etc., and this acts like an abrasive. Pushing this crud forwards or backwards in a bore will keep any marks parallel to the bore, but rotating it in a bore at 90 degrees to the rifling can easily give your rifling rounded edges.

TINMAN204. It looks like you learned something from your Sunday visit. SMELLIE and I "told you so."Laugh2 Maybe on your next visit, we might even give you some instructions on how to lap a bore. We both enjoyed the visit from you and your Lady.

.
 
I usually just take a brush out when shooting. Fire, scrub, repeat. The heat really helps clean it out. I did this with a SVT that had a less than stellar bore and it came out as a very good bore afterwards.
 
buffdog said:
While this might seem a good idea, it can leave fine marks in your bore and cut down the sharp edges of the rifling. Even the brass will pick up grit, dirt, glaze from firing, etc., and this acts like an abrasive. Pushing this crud forwards or backwards in a bore will keep any marks parallel to the bore, but rotating it in a bore at 90 degrees to the rifling can easily give your rifling rounded edges.

TINMAN204. It looks like you learned something from your Sunday visit. SMELLIE and I "told you so."Laugh2 Maybe on your next visit, we might even give you some instructions on how to lap a bore. We both enjoyed the visit from you and your Lady.

.
Click to expand...

I learned so much that day! I'd been scrubbing that barrel since the day it arrived but really wasn't making much progress. When Smellie took the bolt out to check the bore and proclaimed "THAT BORE'S FILTHY!!!" I was a little embarrassed!! I spend probably 5 evenings scrubbing and shot it in between that. It was at the point that the crap in there wasn't coming off on the patches. I like my guns clean and in proper working order and having one with a dirty bore was bothering me!!!

Buffdog, thank you sir a leave in bore foam was just the ticket! I'm going to have to bundle up and brave the out doors today, I need to put some bullets through her and then keep polishing.

Next time I come by to see you guys I may bring a notepad and take notes! There was so much information flying around I was having a hard time absorbing it all!!!
 
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