Bore or boring?

[bobdbldr]

Another Question for the geat guru's here. I was wondering if you has a nice old gun ,Handgun in particular with a rough bore maybe not completely shot or rusted out but not good.If you wanted to shoot it. Is there anyone or company that bores them out and maybe chromes the bore, then rebores to original? Has anyone tried this or is it not possible? All I was thinking is that if the bore is then chromed you could shoot it without as much concern of wear. I understand that the internals would still wear, but I think finding or making parts for the workings is doable (although tedious) but the bore is difficult if not impossible to do. I ask this because buying an antique for me, is to shoot it, not thousands of rounds a year, but maybe 150 or 200, just want to preserve as much as I can for the next person to have/ inherit the firearm.
Cheers Bob

 

[H Wally]

Lots of antiques will shoot well with pitted bores, so keep that in mind.

Otherwise, yes, it's possible to bore out and sleeve most barrels. There is a minimum barrel thickness that is needed so the barrel stays strong enough, but other than that you can get most barrels bored out and then a new insert pressed, glued or soldered in. I would strongly suggest Barry at Bits of Pieces in Vancouver to do this work, he's quite affordable and skilled. The downside being that wait times vary between a month and 13 months.

 

[tokguy]

I've got a winchester 94 in 38-55 that has rifling like shadows.
When you clean it you can feel the bore tighten up mid-barrel.
It doesn't squeeze hard enough to burn up 4895 charges.
But it'll shoot deer DRT ( dead right there). You need to tweak what you feed it though.
I got an oversize Lee mold for mine and use pure lead. A little faster burning powder to bump the bullet quickly as opposed to a slower burning powder that is still working midway down the bbl ( gives it a chance to blow-by).