polishing out a bore?

[DennyRoark]

Thought I got a steal on a T/C .45 Hawkin Kit gun.  After a thorough scrubbing, I have realized that the barrel was never blued or browned, but it has developed a nice grey patina.  Looking at the nipple area, I doubt that this gun was fired more that 10 times.  Absolutley no pitting there.  The problem showed up when I tried to shoot it.  Loading T/C Maxi-hunters, it felt like I was pushing the bullet across fine grit sand paper.  The lands are near perfect, but the grooves are rough.  There is not really any major pitting, they just look rusty when cleaned and a lot of very small pitting is noticable.  I think this could be polished out.  I did use some stainless compound on it, but I don't want to cut down the lands.  Just looking for other opinions before I start trying to save it.  The stock on this rifle is awesome for a kit, showing 60+% figure.  If worse comes to worse, it will sure make a nice wall hanger after some light refinishing.  IMHO, this gun was never finished and the bore rusted after it got cleaned and put away, but someone kept the outside well oiled over the years.  Thanks in advance for all input.
Denny

[clodbuster]

I'd start out by getting a patch material of the thickness that allows you to get a ball down bore without pounding and do some shooting and cleaning followed by more of same, then take a look-see at the bore.
Just might polish out.  I always go for easy first.

[yooper77]

How does the barrel shoot?

I have never heard of finishing the bore.

Are you saying the barrel donest have a blue finish to it on the outside and the bore rusted after you stored it away?

If the barrel needs to be blued, cold bluing never looks good enough for me and hot bluing is pricey.

I would shop around for a used 50 caliber replacement barrel on the auction sites.

yooper77

[quickdtoo]

I haven't done it, but my best friend used fine valve grinding compound on PRBs to clean up a rusty bore on a $5 garage sale TC Hawken barrel, it shot extremely well after not a lot of shooting.  He just used the compound for patch lube, if it's not as rough as his was, a finer abrasive like Flitz or other metal polish would be less aggressive.

Another method would be to lap the bore using a lead slug cast on the end of a steel rod while in the bore, then use lapping compound. The muzzle may need to be recrowned or just touched up, either due to the rusty bore or the lapping process, although in a muzzleloader barrel, using a muzzle guard on the rod can help a lot.

http://yarchive.net/gun/barrel/lapping.html

http://www.bulletswage.com/prcbl.htm

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,137636.msg1098534621.html#msg1098534621

As for the outside of the barrel, I'd probably brown it instead of blue, although I have used Brownell's Oxpho-blue creme very sucessfully, it's easy to use, while it isn't as nice as hot blue, it provides a very acceptable finish that's much nicer than any other cold blue I've used.

Tim

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1108&title=OXPHO-BLUE~%20CREME

[Buckskins & Black Powder]

If the barrel doesnt shoot accurate you can buy yourself a nice GM barrel for it and drop that into the stock.

[captchee]

 you can also do whats call fire lapping.
 this is done with yoyur conical . imply  mix in the valave grinding compount into the lube that you have in the righs of the Mxie hunters .
 fire it , clean , fire , clean . normaly only takes about 3 shots to lap the bore 

[coyotejoe]

I've tried without much success to lap out pitted bores, lots of work for little reward. I would second the suggestion to just get a Green Mountain drop-in replacement barrel, you can choose a slow twist deep groove barrel for roundballs or a fast twist shallow groove for conicals. Since it seems you already have a bunch of "bullet shooters", why not try out a roundball gun, less recoil, less expensive to shoot and lots of fun.

[mcgiiver]

You're not going to wear down the lands by lapping, they will just get polished. I would go with the suggestion to shoot it using patched round balls and valve grinding compound as a patch lube. I would try Flitz polish first, see how that does as a patch lube then go to honing compound, maybe 1200 grit or 800 grit first. The problem with lapping the barrel is you must protect the muzzle from rod wear, pretty hard to do unless you religiously use a muzzle guard.
 I have lapped out a horribly pitted Mauser barrel that now shoots great. I mean it looks like the surface of the moon, it does foul, but I just polish it out a again.

[DennyRoark]

Thanks for the sugestions, folks...I think I am going to use patched round balls and valve grinding compound.  Inbedding in a maxi is out, as just the 3 bullets I shot leaded out the barrel so bad it took about 4 hours total to get most of it out and I think the leading would tend to inhibit the lapping.  I really want to stay with the 45 caliber and GM doesn't make one in 1:48.  I built my first one from a kit back when it took about 80 hours just to draw file the barrel.  It served me well and killed several deer back when there weren't many around here.  Time and constant use finally caught up with it.  Each of the listed ML's were sold to pay for the next one.  Was hoping to hunt with it in 3 weeks, but now I kinda doubt it, so it will be my winter project.  Have never browned a barrel but am going to try, and am looking forward to redoing the stock that whoever owned it just whiskered, stained and varnished.  It really does have as much figure as the two Cougars I have seen.  Again, thanks and I will post about success or lack of later.

[captchee]

 danny , there are other barrel companies  then GM .
I myself use GM seldom anymore .
 go to  the Gun works . they   have oregon  barrels  who also makes  drop in barrels for TC and Lyman in the twist you want . In fact they will rifle a barrel to any twist you request and the rifling you request .
 they make very good barrles  IMO much better then GM .
 they do cost more but  un like GM their barrels are  built from solid stock  and you options are unlimited .

The Gun works Muzzleloading Emproium
http://www.thegunworks.com/GunIndex.cfm

Oregon Barrel Company is a speciality barrel making company. If you need something that is not listed on the web site, contact us for a price quote. Please Note: Some of these barrels are in stock but some will need to be made. Allow 90 days for delivery time.
Using solid bar stock, with cut riflings and finished with a crowned muzzle, the 15/16" Drop-In Rifle barrel is up to 35" long and is designed for Thompson Center and Lyman rifles. It comes in the white, requiring either blueing or browning, with nipple, thimbles, and fitted breech plug. The price does NOT include sights or ramrod. .45 caliber.When Ordering: Specify barrel length, twist, depth of riflings, placement of dovetails and make and model of gun

Oh and as to the leading , Fire lapping works great  with a conical . i have done it on many a center fire as well .
 but as another said . it will not do much good if the pitting is very deep. in wich case  whay you need is to have it  the rifling freshened . i have had oregon barrel  do this as well . however that was some time  and im not sure they still do that .
 but they do have the barrel you want , in the caliber you want and in the twist you want , all as a drop in

[longcaribiner]

valve grinding compound is a bit coarse for polishing a bore.  There was once a car finishing compound from dupont.  it came in containers like hand rubbed car wax.  there was a red paste that was very coarsely abrasive and white polishing compound that was very fine.  I'd try the white polishing compound.

[captchee]

valve compounds come in alot of diffrent grits .
 believ it or not  i at one time used tooth paste , that old crest  would leave a baby but smooth finish .
 many of the  barrel hones  commonly used today  are much more agressive then a meduim blue VGC

[Frank46]

Just to add to what longcarabiner said. Dupont makes two grades of polishing compound for cars. The first is an agressive reddish colored rubbing compound that is used for messed up car finishes. The second is a white polishing compound to be used after the red compound or on finishes that aren't bad. I've used both to polish
out the bores of rifle barrels that were not in the best of condition or were heavily fouled with both copper and powder fouling. In fact I make up a small mix of the red or white compounds laced with my favorite bore cleaner hoppe's #9. Patches will come out blacker than a coal mine. The red stuff will remove very fine rust and its suprising how well a barrel will respond to the use of these compounds. After all they are used on cars. I've used it on the boat years ago and works well on fiberglass as well. try it, what have you got to loose. Frank

[jd45]

BB455, is that a Buick or Pontiac SD455 in your avitar? 'Scuse me for being curious, & thanx. jd45

[jd45]

Or maybe...............no, it couldn't be a big chevy.........they're 454s. jd45

[DennyRoark]

Well, this bore polished out acceptably with coarse automotive polishing compound, but some rounding of the lands did occur.  Due to the continuing roughness of the grooves, it will never be a maxi-ball shooter.  20 years ago, when I used to shoot competitions, I used to use a .445 Hornaday swaged round ball with .015 Ox-Yoke All Day Wonder Patches over 60 grains of Goex FFFG.  Now I can't find those patches any more.  Accuracy in this barrel is not that good with .440 balls and .015 oiled patch.  Anybody know of a stash of the old Ox-Yokes around?  Although I don't think this load would kill a deer at more than 50 yd.s, It won me a lot of bacon and pork chops over the years and was a joy to shoot.  Thanks in advance and also for all of your thoughts on this problem.
Denny

[Idaho Ron]

Cap, Have you did any shooting with the Oregon barrels in a fast twist? I went to the web page and while they do cost more a guy can get anything he wants. It would be interesting to see how a 1-18 twist 45 cal 32" long would do. Ron

[captchee]

 ya ron i have one but its a 36 inch barrel , wide rifling .
 Im sending you a pm