Dark Bore???

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JacquesT

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Can anyone explain what is and what cause dark bores...I read on adds ''dark bore but no pitting''...I have myself a Spanish K98 that has been reblued...is the bore dark cause it was soaked in the bluing solution??...can this dark bore condition be improved? and how? How does this dark bore condition affect shooting?...precision?
Thanks
 
JacquesT said:
Can anyone explain what is and what cause dark bores...I read on adds ''dark bore but no pitting''...I have myself a Spanish K98 that has been reblued...is the bore dark cause it was soaked in the bluing solution??...can this dark bore condition be improved? and how? How does this dark bore condition affect shooting?...precision?
Thanks
Click to expand...

A dark bore is either blued inside and still shiny (doubtful) or it's pitted. If the seller says no pitting, he likely means no large rust pits. A bore can be sharp and dark at the same time, but the dark descriptor means there is micro-piting throughout, or that it's heavily fouled and the owner can't/won't clean it.

When a bore is described as "Dark" in an ad, I assume it means HEAVILY pitted, but hope to find a sharp and micro-pitted bore. If it's just fouled, then that's a hue bonus :)

I prefer to say either "pitted" (ie large rust pits), "frosted" (some micro-pitting, but otherwise sharp) or "shiny" (possibly some wear, but no pitting at all). Sadly, there is no widely followed nomenclature for these things on exchange forums.

Perhaps you can e-mail the seller for a better description ;)
 
PS: Some pristing bores shoot poorly and some heavily pitted bores still shoot like a house on fire until they foul up.

I wouldn;t draw many conclusions about accuracy based on how much rust a bore does or does not have evidence of.
 
"...soaked in the bluing solution..." Nope. A dark bore usually had some rusting issues at some time. Sometimes it's caused by corrosively primed ammo.
Mind you, your's may not have been prepared properly before it was blued. Done correctly, a cast bullet gets lightly taped into the muzzle and a spent case is put into the chamber before it gets blued. A blued bore won't matter. Nor will most other finishes.
If it's rust or bluing(bluing is a controlled rust process), stop up the muzzle with a rubber cork or cast bullet and fill the barrel with a rust remover and leave it there for half an hour or so. Then, after disposing of the chemicals properly, clean it as per normal. This doesn't always bring a barrel back to clean shiny steel, but it helps.
 
Actually, blueing the bore isn't a bad idea. If anything, it would help season the bore. All the major commercial producers blue the bore and nearly all milsurp rifles had blued bores when new. A few hundred rounds through the bore along with some cleaning solution will eventually wash it out anyhow. I nthe meantime it doesn't affect anything.

On the other hand, you DON'T want to parkerize a bore as it is a textured finish. Blueing is as smooth as the surface was before it was blued ;)

Another tidbit is that when looking down a blued vs. unblued bore, you can't tell which is which. All you see is the light reflecting off smooth surfaces if the bore is in nice shape ;)

99.9% of the time, someone advertising a dark bore is advertising a bore with micro-pitting, not a blued tube ;)
 
Are there any good bore cleaners/de-gunkers out there?

I've got a P-14 with a ton of fouling in it, and I only want to pass a bore brush though it so many times. It keeps coming out black and I've used CLP and Nitro-Bore solvent... and it just keeps coming.
 
Consider something that ets copper like "Hoppes Benchrest Copper". Leave it in the bore overnight and let the solution work before wiping out. Hoppes Elite Bore Gel is also good and works best if you leave it in a few hours.

I also like Outers Foaming Bore Cleaner, though it's more expensive. Works fast and easy though.
 
Consider building yourself an electric bore cleaner. It electrochemically reduces all of those layers of copper and nickel buildup, with powder fouling between. Lots of ideas over on surplusrifle.com
 
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