Thread: Bore Rust?

Does it shoot ?

I clean after every shoot, and jb bore polish every box of reloaded rounds

Still seems to. I'll keep using it till it doesn't.

as some have said on the forum the acid test is what does it shoot like - if its acceptable then just use it -if the severe corrosion is only muzzle end then perhaps a little of barrel and recrown job - I can see a reasonable rifling edge from the last photo so all may not be lost -but solvent solvent solvent cant beat it -I have always carried a pull thru out in the scrub and if I suspect moisture may have got in then a dry rag thru - when I was culling we ran our 308 barrels with a very very thin trace of oil in barrel - did not effect accuracy- but with our .222 or .270 no way one can do that -

Not that I know much about this but I wonder if abut of JBs bore paste or Autosol would shine it up a bit. Ive got a mint Parker hale that had a patch of rust just inside the muzzle when I bought it. I polished the shit out of it and it shoots mint. Mine had been stored for that long the recoil pad was crumbling and perished and obviously it had been a bit damp at the muzzle.

More importantly, does it still shoot well?

My 308 barrel got a rust spot in it about 25 years ago when I spent a week in shite wet weather in a tiny tent in the Kaimanawas. Had given it a clean and oil the last time I had used it, and I left on the trip with it still oiled but it still rusted.

Now whenever I leave it for a long time, despite whatever anti corrosion brew I store it with, it'll come out brown with the first pull through prior to doing a resight in before heading off on a hunt.

It still shoots 19mm groups.

Problem with rust pitting in the bore is it will cause fouling (particularly copper) after a few shots which is detrimental to accuracy.....OK if the shots are few, but a competition barrel shooting strings is toast if it is pitted....! And as @XR500 noted it will continue to rust despite having oil on it.

One could try and convert the rust (iron oxide) to iron phosphate by treating with phosphoric acid, but that will only stop further rusting, not fouling.....!

It really needs to be fully cleaned back to clean metal and then assessed properly - a bore scope through the thing not just by eye at the muzzle. Quite often you can find areas against the lands where there is a deep skinny crevice which is very much less than ideal. As others have suggested, it would pay to have a good look at storage and use and see where the improvements can be made as something that often happens at times like this is the owner goes back out the other way and starts doing damage to the borein an attempt to stop any further damage...

JBs or Autosol will make a barrel very "shiny" for someone looking down the bore with their naked eye but will do nothing for proper corrosion patches. It takes prolonged scrubbing with either abrasive to cut even a tenth of a thou off the surface and corrosion pits would be over a thou deep. Most lands are only 2-4 thou high so you'd need to chop out all the rifling to fully get rid of significant corrosion divots.

Thanks fir the advice so far.

There’s definitely a moisture problem in the safe. Damp air and big temperature changes. I’ve bought some desiccants to help the problem. What has everyone found to be the best way to mitigate humidity/moisture in their safes?

Originally Posted by Magnetite

Thanks fir the advice so far.

There’s definitely a moisture problem in the safe. Damp air and big temperature changes. I’ve bought some desiccants to help the problem. What has everyone found to be the best way to mitigate humidity/moisture in their safes?

I keep a container of Damprid in the back corner of my safe. Change it at saturation point which may be six monthly. You will be horrified how much water it pulls out.

If there is an issue with corrosion and/or minor pitting, wap a bore brush through it and a dry patch and then shoot the thing. Give it a good workout with the cheapest ammo your can source - a good hundy rounds is a start. Take it to the range and do with it what god and nature intended, you won't hurt it. After that, fully clean it and then see what it looks like. More often than not, a lot of the stuff we see by the naked eye doesn't survive a decent workout.

I shoot BP rifles with lead projectiles, the barrel starts with rifling goes bald and finished with a bit more rifling. We shoot off hand and accuracy seems to stay near enough for short range gongs

Silica gel.

Buy some autosol metal polish
Put a we bit on a clean patch and run it up and down 30-40 times
Wont remove the pitting but it will give the barrel a very light lap i do it every 500 rounds or so
Just to remove any tiny Imperfections also do it to a new barrel before shooting for the 1st time

Make sure you get all the autosol out of the barrel