Rusty Bores?

[silly goose]

New to muzzleloading, in fact don't even have one yet.  May be able to pick one up locally that hasn't been shown much love.  Whats the best technique for cleaning up a neglected bore?  I haven't seen it yet, just been told the bore has rust.  Thanks for any help.

[DennyRoark]

I would start out with 0000 steel wool heavily oiled or solvent. Depending on how dirty it was left, it will take a lot of patches to get most of the rust/crud out. Or hot water with DAWN dish soap in a bucket.  Remove the nipple and put the breech end in the bucket and go to town with the ramrod/jag.  Use A drop-in bore light for inspection.  You cant see much with a look-in.  The drop in back lights it well.  If the grooves are pitted some, it will probably shoot well.  If the lands are pitted and parts of them seem to be missing, move on...Hope this helps.

[Range Rider]

I think there must be a millon ways to clean a rusty bore in a M/L rifle. Over the years I have tried most of them.  The facts are that a pitted bore in a M/L cannot be over come.  The bores must be clean and smooth to shoot properly. The right thing to do is buy a good rifle with a clean smooth bore. Then keep it clean and smooth.  I have seen more B/P shooters quit black powder due to starting with one of these bargains.  There is a reason that these rusty guns show up on the used gun market.  Don't be fooled by this low hanging fruit, buy a good rifle to start with.

RR

[silly goose]

Point taken.  Thanks for the advice, I must be maturing, cause I'm going to follow it. 

[coyotejoe]

Range Rider makes a good point but I would add one exception. It is not difficult nor terribly expensive to rebarrel a muzzleloader. Any good BP gunsmith should be able to replace a barrel for about $200 total. Some rifles, notably T/C, will accept "drop-in" barrels from Green Mountain, no gunsmithing required. Then too, there are a number of barrel makers who can rebore and rifle a barrel to the next larger standard caliber for about $100. So if you can get a rusty barreled rifle cheap enough it may be worth while, perhaps even a bargain.

[Rickk]

With a round ball, a Green Mountain barrel will outshoot a T/C barrel any day of the week.

If the stock and lock are perfect, but the barrel is in poor shape, use the bad barrel as a negotiating point and try to get it dirt cheap.

Swap off to a Green Mountain 1-72 twist barrel and be prepared to shoot well under 2" grounds at 100 yards with the right load and decent sights.

[Winter Hawk]

Before doing anything other than thoroughly cleaning it, I would suggest shooting it.  I have heard of absolutely terrible barrels which, somehow, still shot a perfectly good group.  If it is just surface rust and not badly pitted you are that much ahead.  Then you can make a decision on what you want to do if it really does shoot badly.  Replace the barrel, get it bored out, or (probably cheaper still) having a liner installed.

-WH-

[darkgael]

I have to add my .02 to this discussion.
"I have heard of absolutely terrible barrels which, somehow, still shot a perfectly good group."
I can believe that. Two examples....I have a little British Bulldog pistol that I picked up at auction. The barrel was and is so terribly pitted that the rifling is barely visible and then only in spots. I did the steel wool thing with various grades. I soaked it in Evapo-Rust. I did the steel wool again. It should not shoot, the bore is damaged but, y'know that little gun puts all of it's shots right where it is pointed at five yards - about as far as one would expect to shoot a little .38 Short. No tumbling either.
Number two: I also have a third hand (at least) Lyman GPR, a flint gun in .50 caliber.  The bore has pits in it; that is the way it came. NOT horrible but they are there. The gun NEVER gives me a clean patch when I'm done shooting. You name the cleaning method, I've probably tried it. Twenty, thirty patches...there's always some grime.
Point? That rifle gives me 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards anytime I try.
Do clean up the barrel the best way that you can and give it a good test before selling it out as lost.
Pete

[nw_hunter]

New to muzzleloading, in fact don't even have one yet.  May be able to pick one up locally that hasn't been shown much love.  Whats the best technique for cleaning up a neglected bore?  I haven't seen it yet, just been told the bore has rust.  Thanks for any help.

I use mild abrasives with fine steel wool. One that works good for me is, brass bore brush, with wool wrapped around it, and tooth paste.If the barrel will not shoot a group, Make a smoothbore out of it.Best of both worlds that way .
Shoots Roundball, and lead shot.

[bub524]

The only way you will know how it shoots is to shoot it. I've had pitted barrels that shot just as good as a new one. Depends on how bad it is. Don't buy a junk gun with the idea of rebarreling it cheap. Most T/C's used go for $250 used on the average. A new barrel, IF you can find one,
will cost about $200+. Then you have $450 in a gun, even with the new barrel, that is only going to be worth $350. Green Mountain is occupied at the moment with a big govt. contract for machine gun barrels. They won't be making "hobby" barrels until late '11 if then.
If the price is right buy the rifle, clean it and shoot it. See what happens. Maybe you can find a used barrel for cheap.

[JBlk]

I don't know if it will work on a bore or not, but real turpentine is one of the best rust busters that I have found.I purchased an old IJ shotgun from gun brokers that had the ejector frozen with rust.I tried to use a punch to free it, but only managed to mar the hardened ejector shaft.After soaking the injector in a can of turpentine for a couple of weeks the ejector broke loose with a light tap on the punch.The down side of the project was that all of the bluing was removed to the bare steel of the barrel to the dept of the turpentine.