Thread: Cleaning old barrels

Having trouble getting a lever action to shoot well and the inside of the barrel looks like a sewer pipe,scrubbed it with a copper brush and some oil ,also tried scrubbing with some autosol but still no luck with accuracy,any tips on the best way to clean it up?thanks.

The crown is where i would look at

I used a foam cleaner worked well think it was called Gunslick, Sweets works pretty good on copper Kroil is another good product gets under the fouling and lifts it up

Copper is unlikely to be a problem, @Huk has outlined the main cause of "shoots like shit" issues. Pitting from rust especially at the muzzle could be it.
It may help to show a target, or describe the groups as well.

It sounds fucked, so scrub with scotch bright patches, or even fire lap. Can't do any harm at this stage. If that doesn't work re-barrel. You could re-crown but probably just waisting money.

Had the crown done but doesn’t seem to have made much difference.how do you fire lap?

Best group I can get is 4in @ 40 m,nice triangle group tho,then as Powder increased so did the group size up till 33g 2206h gave about 8in group,still nice triangle shape tho!29g of Powder was the best.

What is it

A few questions
Are the holes in the target round or slightly oval?
Have you slugged the barrel (run a lead plug through it) and measrured it and measured freebore ( push a projectile in from the breech end till it engages the rifling then measure the distance to the muzzle with a cleaning rod, tap the bullet out and chamber a preferably dummy round then remeasure. The difference is the freebore)?
That might show whats up

Fire lapping is shooting either a plug of valve grinding compound or a lead slug rolled in the stuff. Its great for removing stuff and getting a shiny bore but does not a lot for barrel life and wont remove pitting.

You can treat with acid to remove rust etc, I have some at home but cannot remember the name of it. Brings them up a treat! I find the name

Winchester model 94 in 30-30,holes are round so no keyholing,not slugged and being a lever action it’s hard to check the free bore,.

Ha ha, change the sights, I couldnt hit a flock of barns at 40 yards with mine, got a lyman 66 and it now does 2moa. Not saying thats true for your one but may be worth considering.

citric acid maybe?

Not looking to keep throwing money at it at the moment,have already had crown done, stripped the old varnish off and oiled the stock,bedded the rear of the action so everything is tight,been thru 2 different box’s of factory loads at $40 a box and bought a set of dies,loaded a couple dozen different loads and still no luck,have a hi viz front sight fitted too.maybe it’s time to move it on and just use the .44,action is smooth and everything is nice and tight on the 30-30 though and it is such a nice fitting gun..