Last week, I saw an ad for a used TC Omega muzzleloader. It was the blued barrel version, not the Z5. It looked good from the outside, but upon closer examination, there was significant, albeit superficial rust in the bore. After negotiating the price down, I went home with my new toy.
Cleaning took a whole evening, and change! The first 12 patches, with soapy water, came out full of rust. I then switched to a bronze brush wrapped in steel wool and oil, and finished with patches soaked with G96, until I got a clean patch. Upon examination with a bore camera, the rifling is sharp, but there is some light pitting in the grooves.
After installing a scope, I took it to the range tonight, hoping for the best. I loaded 45 cal. 300 gr. Hornady SST bullets, with a 50 cal. black MMP sabot, on top of 110 volumetric grains of BH 209 and a Federal 209A primer. (That is my usual load in my TC encore) After adjusting the scope, I shot a 3 shot group. Lo and behold, it was well under 1 MOA.
Bottomline: rusty muzzleloaders can be salvaged, and accuracy does not necessarily suffer.
What is your own experience of how corrosion/pitting affect accuracy?
Cleaning took a whole evening, and change! The first 12 patches, with soapy water, came out full of rust. I then switched to a bronze brush wrapped in steel wool and oil, and finished with patches soaked with G96, until I got a clean patch. Upon examination with a bore camera, the rifling is sharp, but there is some light pitting in the grooves.
After installing a scope, I took it to the range tonight, hoping for the best. I loaded 45 cal. 300 gr. Hornady SST bullets, with a 50 cal. black MMP sabot, on top of 110 volumetric grains of BH 209 and a Federal 209A primer. (That is my usual load in my TC encore) After adjusting the scope, I shot a 3 shot group. Lo and behold, it was well under 1 MOA.
Bottomline: rusty muzzleloaders can be salvaged, and accuracy does not necessarily suffer.
What is your own experience of how corrosion/pitting affect accuracy?
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