FUBAR'd Fifty Cal ? Can it be brought back to life ?

So, went up to Brownells site and read this "Learning Lesson" on rusty bores. ht tps://www.brownells.com/aspx/learn/learndetail.aspx?lid=10705 I do have that stainless steel sponge here, 080-000-321, so tried it in that 7x57 bore. Wrapped up a section of it like the article shows - did half dozen passes. It definitely did slice off a bunch of crap from the tops of the lands - still lots of crud in the grooves. Ran a couple patches with RB-17 gel and left it soaking. My plan is to try to flush and get clean patches coming out as is, then go in with bore scope to assess what is going on.
 
Potashminer said:
So, went up to Brownells site and read this "Learning Lesson" on rusty bores. ht tps://www.brownells.com/aspx/learn/learndetail.aspx?lid=10705 I do have that stainless steel sponge here, 080-000-321, so tried it in that 7x57 bore. Wrapped up a section of it like the article shows - did half dozen passes. It definitely did slice off a bunch of crap from the tops of the lands - still lots of crud in the grooves. Ran a couple patches with RB-17 gel and left it soaking. My plan is to try to flush and get clean patches coming out as is, then go in with bore scope to assess what is going on.
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haha - I made some stainless steel wool by accident on the lathe the other night... used it to strip a bench top - worked great :)
 
infideleggwelder said:
How did the evaporust work out for you?
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Still have the barrel soaking in it, using an old plastic mortar tube to sit the barrel in the solution. It's not very tall so I had to flip the barrel around to get the other half coated. Going to give it until the morning but ti does look a lot better already will post some pics once I've had a chance to clean it up.
 
Devlin said:
Still have the barrel soaking in it, using an old plastic mortar tube to sit the barrel in the solution. It's not very tall so I had to flip the barrel around to get the other half coated. Going to give it until the morning but ti does look a lot better already will post some pics once I've had a chance to clean it up.
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Honestly, from the pics early on, I'd say finish the cleaning and treatments. Shoot it. It's not that bad. You may be quite surprised at how serviceable it is.
 
Here's some pics after the evaporust did it's thing on the barrel apologies for the picture quality tough to get a decent shot down the barrel with phone. I'm pretty impressed with how it came out. Hope to get out and shoot it next weekend.



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Muzzle End View
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Breach End View
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It's done..... not expensive for a new one, and the .50cal isnt dead, who says?? Clean it after firing, will last decades....Popular, alot of ML shooters where I live, dont live and hunt. 50 cal lives
 
I have seen a lot worse. I have a 43 Mauser that is pretty bad at the chamber end but almost perfect at the muzzle. I decided to shoot it and was surprised to see a 1 1/2 inch 3 shot group at a 100 m. Try it and it may surprise you with decent accuracy.
 
Two kinds of people... replace the barrel or just shoot it... or, those who get out of the shower to pee and those who don't.
Not to hard to guess which group follows which philosophy.
The 'Old School Charcoal burners' know that it doesn't have to be a virgin bore, things happen...shoot it and see how it does.
The in-line crowd seems more particular.
Is there a compartment on them in-lines that you can carry 'Wet Wipes' in case you have to pee in the woods? Maybe a USB port so you can recharge your Vape, lol. cou:
I can't say I've met someone in person who admitted they own an inline...weird.
 
That bore looks good enough to my eye. Take it out, see how it does, then move on one way or the other. I've got milsurps with less rifling than that that can still hit desert plates at 200yd's, which is enough for a hunt.

My first hunt was with a Savage 340 30-30 that you could put a live round in the muzzle and the round would go in right to the case. That rifle will still hit a hockey puck at 150yds offhand, whenever you ask it to. I wouldn't hesitate to take it out after deer again.
 
again try JB bore paste mix some on a patch with some Kroil and go to town, up and down ...wax on wax ......off final clean ...looky look go and load and shoot.
 
I resurrected a Gonic a few years back. You are well on the way, looks good(ish). After the chemicals, don't be afraid to use some abrasives on a tight fitting cloth patch.

I didn't use chemicals, didn't think of that to be honest. But I did use lapping compound, (valve grinding compound), and was able to get it smooth enough to shoot. I took the old girl hunting and harvested a nice little buck, one shot.

I later bough another Gonic, same model only in nice shape. It does shoot a bit more accurately, as expected.

Realistically, accuracy is the probably the one thing that will suffer. In my case my groups were decent, the better Gonic shot better groups. In the rusty Gonic I shot sabots and RB, no problems with either.

You're fortunate, my Gonic doesn't have a removable breech plug. It's a real propitiatory odd ball ML. It would have been nice to push a patch all the way through.

Kroil and JB, a good fine tune finish. JB to polish, Kroil to clean. Mine is way beyond such fine tuning.

I have a $2 Chinese bore camera, this is what's inside my barrel. It's been used after the initial resurrection, app 50 rounds. I clean it as usual, and it always weeps a bit of rust. It's as good as it will ever be.

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Nitro
 
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I had a friend give me a SKS that was far worse than that. Took me several hours with oil and steel wool on a cleaning rod to even clean it up a bit. After I had got the gas system to function again and the bore somewhat clean I took it to the range. Surprisingly it would stack five shots through a ragged hole at 50 yards, most accurate SKS I have ever seen. I gave it back to him and he still shoots it once and a while.
 
Metal rescue from CDN Tire will remove any rust heavy or otherwise and will not hurt the metal. Not sure what it will do to bluing though. We just soaked an absolutely ruined rusty antique carburetor in it and it came out 100% rust free and every screw freed up. I am impressed with it. No scrubbing at all either. Bet if you plug that bore and fill with Metal rescue and let sit overnight and rinse every spec of rust will be gone. That bore doesn't look so bad since you brushed it. i think it will clean up and shoot fine.
Al
 
Devlin said:
Here's some pics after the evaporust did it's thing on the barrel apologies for the picture quality tough to get a decent shot down the barrel with phone. I'm pretty impressed with how it came out. Hope to get out and shoot it next weekend.



w27IDRw.jpg


Muzzle End View
b2K4ix6.jpg


Breach End View
iXcb3fO.jpg
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Shoot it, clean it well, see how it runs as it is.

Seen pictures of new barrels that looked worse.

If the lack of 'shiny' bothers you, do some reading about how to pour and use a lead lap in the barrel. Valve grinding paste, JB Bore Paste, whatever. Yeah, it might change the bore size. Whatever. Use thicker patches, or live with it.
Clean and shiny bores are easier to clean and foul up slower. But they either shoot, or they don't, and it doesn't usually make a bunch of difference, if it's shooting well enough.

If it still has grooves, it ain't dead yet!
 
That looks pristine compared to the roached .54 Great Plains rifle I brought back to life. Mine had way more pitting. I just oil the crap out of it after a shoot. Then I clean it out with alcohol on the day I'm going shooting and sometimes I win a ribbon! I don't buy into the 'season' the bore with only natural products. It's a gun, not a frying pan.
 
Chumlee Bumsnag said:
That looks pristine compared to the roached .54 Great Plains rifle I brought back to life. Mine had way more pitting. I just oil the crap out of it after a shoot. Then I clean it out with alcohol on the day I'm going shooting and sometimes I win a ribbon! I don't buy into the 'season' the bore with only natural products. It's a gun, not a frying pan.
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Well there are enough people that would argue that firing 10 Rounds of commercial Military Surplus Ammo... Does not remove the salts from the barrel. Well, if 10 rounds at about 35000 PSI won't remove the salt from the previously fired corrosive rounds ... Well then seasoning the bore on a black powder makes sense
 
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