How much rust is dangerous?

I

instrumentek

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Hi;
I have a friend that asked me to look at repairing and refinishing some rifles that he had. I have no issue with the repair and removing the rust but my question is; will the rifle still be safe to shoot (accuracy aside) after the rust is cleaned off. The chamber looks clean, and i can not see any large pitting on the inside. Thanks for any advice




 
That's just surface rust. No big deal. Any of it in the barrel likely won't affect accuracy either. There are reports of frosted barrels(Frost being the beginning of rust) that shoot just fine. I'd re-crown that barrel after checking the headspace. Looks kind of rough.
Pitting in the chamber is another issue. Brass doing what brass does, it causes the worst firearm headache you'll ever have. Brass expand into the pit and creates extraction issues you can't fix.
 
'Frosted' barrels have not just started to rust, they have permanent light pitting throughout, common in well used ex military firearms that fired significant amounts of corrosive ammunition. I have several frosted bores that still shoot decently. As long as there are no deep pits caused by the rust the damage is largely cosmetic. Some pretty sewer pipe looking bores can be brought back to life with patient cleaning. If the rust generally wipes off with oil and possibly extra fine steel wool it should be safe.
 
instrumentek said:
ok thanks
Click to expand...

Take a look at the dimensions of the lightweight barrels out there. Far thinner than that.

You can safely remove quite a lot of material from the outside of the barrel, far more than would be required to clean up any pitting for a refinish, in any case, without getting to the point where it is unsafe.

If anything, I would suggest that guys that knew not what they did, when drilling holes near the chamber, (scope mounting) are a bigger risk, more worth watching out for.

Scrub the barrel and have a go with it at the range before writing it off as a loss. Some pretty horrific pitting has proven to not affect accuracy as much as would have been thought. Try it and see.

Steel wool and oil to start with. Sandpaper and bluing solution, if you don't like the way it looks after the steel wool scrub. Or degrease and spray it with guncote or similar paint finish.

Cheers
Trev
 
Like the guys say, scrub ER up, clean it as best as you can and take it to the range and burn some powder in it. If the inside of the barrel doesn't clean up good or shoots bad accuracy wise, you could always try lapping the barrel, but I wouldn't over do it. I'd do it a little at a time, clean it out, then try a few more rounds, and see if your accuracy Improves.
 
An interesting question. Barrels are always thickest where they join the receiver and typically taper off to the muzzle. Pressure is highest at the chamber and can be 20% or less of that at the muzzle. Look at how thin the 1911 handgun barrel is, and people safely shoot 460 Rowland and 45-08 at about 40K psi from them.

All said, it depends on where and how deep the pitting is, and the OP's gun has only cosmetic damage.
 
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