Light pitting in shotgun barrel.

manbearpig

manbearpig

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i purchased a shotgun barrel on the EE a while back. i had no use for it at the time so it was given a thorough inside-out coat of gun grease and put away in a bag in my cabinet.
serves me right for not examining it thoroughly at the time, but i just gave it a good cleaning now and noticed some pitting about halfway down the barrel. its definitely more than 'frosting', but as far as pitting goes it seems pretty light. 90% the bore itself has a mirror shine otherwise.

so the question for the shotty gurus is:
in a shotgun barrel is this even a problem? should i not worry about it at all?

or is there some simple way to polish a shotgun bore?
 
Same as you would polish the chamber? Fine steel wool wrapped around a bronze bore brush. Then mount the cleaning rod in a power drill. Use some oil and away you go. ??????

If its very light I'd say its not a problem but I don't know that for sure.

And are you sure its pitting and not plastic deposits from the wads?
 
In a shotgun I don't really see how light pitting/frosting would affect anything. The wads and shot cups are made of such a soft material that I just don't see it being an issue.
 
GIGGIDY said:
And are you sure its pitting and not plastic deposits from the wads?
Click to expand...

100% positive its pitting. i will try to take a pic.
initially i thought it was some dirt, and that it just needed to be cleaned more thoroughly -- but a dozen passes with Butch's Bore Shine and its still there, and there is some rust-coloring on my cleaning patch.

i should be pissed off, but i really cant be since it is 100% my own fault that i didnt thoroughly examine and clean the thing when i got it. there is no way it got that way while stored in my home, since its dehumidified and any gun/part thats stored gets a coating of gun grease inside and out. so it was there before.

lesson learned - and hopefully someone reading this will learn from it too. when you buy something used, immediately examine it thoroughly. im sure if id have caught it at the time i could have just sent it back, too late now. only person i have to blame is myself.
 
Just making sure, my Fabarm liked to hold on to small melted pieces of wad in a particular section of the barrel. Until I realized what it was I thought it was pitting.
 
anyone know where i can find a flex-hone like this in Canada?
www.shootingtimes.com/gunsmithing/0406/index.html
www.flex-hone.com/brushes.php?c2=6

interesting article as well, although with undamaged factory barrels, id be tempted to leave well enough alone.
 
i just looked over another 870 Express i bought off the EE a couple weeks ago, and it has the exact same light pitting in the exact same place on the barrel.
its inside the bore right where the magazine ring is silver-soldered onto the barrel. FFS.

*edit:
since these are on the same exact spot on two separate remington express guns, i wonder if it has to do with the fact that the barrel was heated at that exact spot to sweat the mag ring on... perhaps it made it more susceptible to corrosion?

anyways, i actually wore out two bronze phosphor brushes and got the rust out and the bores shiny to my satisfaction. next time i head to the states ill order both a 12 and 20 gauge set of flex-hones and polish all my shotguns up to a mirror shine. a Canadian dealer charges $154 for each of the shotgun flex-hones, and theyre $34 at midway USA (which will only ship to the US). dont even get me started on Canadian pricing :mad:
FLEX_HON_B.jpg


if anyone is curious how i got the rust out, i took out the chokes, and plugged the muzzles with a cork. i then sprayed the inside of the bores generously with CLR (being careful not to get it on the exterior finish - however i did notice that the CLR did not harm the 870 Express finish at all. i would not do this on a Wingmaster, however) while rotating it to get it coated with the foaming CLR crap, and let it stand for a bit. after about 10 minutes i scrubbed vigorously with a bronze phosphor bore brush (with the cork and the CLR still in the barrel). i rinsed the barrels out, then scrubbed them out again with dish soap and hot water until the water running out of them was crystal clear. rinsed them again, then did a few passes with Butch's Bore Shine until the patches ran through clean, then coated them inside and out with gun oil.
this works a lot faster than just doing pass after pass after pass with a bore brush or patches - i know this because thats what i tried first :(

i can still see the faintest signs of pitting, but only because i know where to look. the bore hones will clean up the rest when i get around to doing them. i think ill get a chamber hone as well and clean up the chamber of my 12.5" Dlask which is pretty roughly machined.
its 1am and i just finished. what a #%@$ty way to spend a friday night :(
 
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Light pits are no problem, I have used
lots of old guns over the years with major pits
and never have had a problem.
I use a bore bush, poor one, and wind some steel wool
around it and some light and a high speed drill and have at it.
 
what really suprised me is that unless you start attacking the pits with a brush, they dont really give off any rust.

i mean running some oily patches through to keep the barrel from rusting, i didnt notice anything. its only after i started scrubbing the barrel with a bronze phosphor brush that i noticed it, and a lot of rust colored stuff came out - its suprising how much.

so i guess a tip for people: when you buy a used barrel, dont just give it a quick oiling, break out the brushes and see whats really in there.
 
a Canadian dealer charges $154 for each of the shotgun flex-hones, and theyre $34 at midway USA (which will only ship to the US). dont even get me started on Canadian pricing
Click to expand...

Double check that. Brownells $150 odd is for the hone set, 3 brushes & oil. Individual hones are around $50-60 ea, oil $15 or so.
 
I have a couple suggestions - "Flex-Hone" is a trade name. Try asking for the generic alternative. Also, try the stores that supply machine shops. Fastenal, Acklands-Granger, Clagary Fastener etc. Also your local International Tool distributor might be able to point you in the right direction.

If you PM me with a reminder (and the dimensions) during the week I can talk to the guy who does our engine work and find out where he gets his.
 
manbearpig said:
is there some simple way to polish a shotgun bore?
Click to expand...

Take a bun of fine steel wool, un ravel it, take a length of threaded rod, (in sure some other rod will work good to) put it on the end and let it wind up so that its not going to spin on the end, put the rod in the chuck of a drill, use the drill on a slow speed and feed it into the chamber and let it spin while stroking it inside the barrel, and i also washed it out with wd40 while "honing" it with the aparatus you just made.

This way it wont take any metal away from the inside of the barrel and it will shine like chrome.

I done this with a single shot, but if ya wanna do it with a pump, just take the barrel off.
 
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