How much pitting is too much?

Hi all,
I’ve recently brought a cheapish elibar 12g sxs from the local H&F, in the store with with the crappy lighting I thought the barrels were in good condition, But now a few weeks later I’ve noticed some pitting down the r/h barrel to me it looks pretty nasty but I thought I’d get some more opinions, I’ve shot about 5 rounds of Olympic blues through it so barley any use, and I ont think that sort of pitting oils form that quickly but I dunno.

Thanks

Hopefully I’ve attached some photos if not please let me know

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Clean out the rust first so that you can see the extent of the pitting.

did you clean it after use?? you might be surprised how much of whats shown dissapears with a decent clean...as for how much is too much..as long as its still safe,keep using it. shotguns are pretty low tech/low pressure and tolerate allsorts.

You’ve both hit the nail on the head there, working it with the bore brush for a few minutes and most of it seems to of cleaned out, going to keep working it to see if it will all clean out,
Feeling a little bit stupid now, I had only run a oiled rag down it when I was finished, had a family member over for show and tell and they pointed out it looked pitted so had a bit of a panic lol,

Thank you for helping out a noob :)

lesson learnt.....shoot,clean then store it safely away clean dry and lightly oiled...... good result.

Even just squirt inox or wd40 down the barrels will keep corrosion away.
Push it out before you use it next though.

It pretty much all cleaned out, few little darker patches left that don’t seem to want to come out,
maybe the cause of the fouling building up around that area?
The other barrel was shiny and had no fouling after shooting so I’m not too sure

NEXT time you shoot it,clean it soon as get home...dont sweat about a wee pitt patch,geez Ive shot some shockers over the years with no issues at all... its only got to hold the pressure in and let the shot go past after all...its just a tube.

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Originally Posted by NAKED_GOOSE

You’ve both hit the nail on the head there, working it with the bore brush for a few minutes and most of it seems to of cleaned out, going to keep working it to see if it will all clean out,
Feeling a little bit stupid now, I had only run a oiled rag down it when I was finished, had a family member over for show and tell and they pointed out it looked pitted so had a bit of a panic lol,

Thank you for helping out a noob :)

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You didn't know so you asked and now you can carry on shooting with confidence.
That was far from been a stupid question, We were all new to this at some stage and nobody knows everything. although some on here seem to be close.

jesus those photos would have me woried if you say its fouling rather than pitting thank christ for that.
id be loath to fire anything heavy thru it tho

eibar......spanish internal hammer double trigger..origonally half and full choked..great guns,have shot one heck of a lot of game with one.

Put a soft bronze brush on a push rod . Then attach it to a cordless drill.lubricate well and work up and down .I've cleaned many barrels this way .no need to over work ot let the brush do the work.then use same principle amd polish it up with a mop end .

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Originally Posted by Quackers

Put a soft bronze brush on a push rod . Then attach it to a cordless drill.lubricate well and work up and down .I've cleaned many barrels this way .no need to over work ot let the brush do the work.then use same principle amd polish it up with a mop end .

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Don't use an abrasive like autosol or JB paste.
You will end up with visible rings. Had a gunsmith do that to one of my guns.

Yeah some crc wd40 or some engine oil.nothing that has a abrasive compound .

That reminds me I haven't cleaned my shotgun since last duck season

TO-DO list tomorrow:
Get beer
Clean Shotgun

Heres your reminder to clean that shotgun :)

I had read its common to not clean the barrels for a couple hundred shells at a time, I do wonder if thats for more quality built guns rather than mine...
Not the end of the world to clean after an outing I guess, good habit to form as im planning to run some BP once I get my hands on some.

One of the boresnakes makes this a super quick and painless job.... tell you one thing for nothing..go shoot along salty water will teach you to clean your gun....TWICE....once when get home and again 3-4 days later..the red stuff shows up anywhere you missed first time around....really ups your game.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

One of the boresnakes makes this a super quick and painless job.... tell you one thing for nothing..go shoot along salty water will teach you to clean your gun....TWICE....once when get home and again 3-4 days later..the red stuff shows up anywhere you missed first time around....really ups your game.

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true that
i left my remmy 870 in the gun bag overnight after a rough wheather trip to ellesmere
jesus what a mess next morning .
thankfuly it all cleaned off

thats the one time a can of wd40 type stuff will save your bacon...spray the crap out of it and leave it muzzle down in corner overnight..safe and secured inside locked premises where you still are of course ....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

thats the one time a can of wd40 type stuff will save your bacon...spray the crap out of it and leave it muzzle down in corner overnight..safe and secured inside locked premises where you still are of course ....

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i always leave mine with a light coat of rem oil anyway thats why i think it cleaned up so well
but jesus rem oils darer now than f...kin eggs

looks like plastic/powder fowling :-) I use kero to get as much out aspossible before shifting to costlier chemicals.

But yeah reminds me must clean the shotty..

shot some antiques "alot" worse than that over the years they shot just fine. the clays agreed with me.
as the others said and you found out most of that will clean out

What I’ve noticed is that it seems to come back the same each time I take it out of the safe, doesn’t seem to matter how much I scrub it then oil it, about all I can come up with is that there’s a patch that’s worn down there that gathers fouling/corrosion, I guess I’ll find out how bad it is when I switch to BP
granted I’m in a 100 year old house that’s pretty much always wet so I’m sure that isn’t helping

My old man says a bit of pitting puts some spin on the charge:thumbsup:.

I think it would have to be very excessive to be unsafe. Most pitting that people worry about is just cosmetic.

Ill put up a pic of my old SXS, I would love to shoot it but the pitting is much worse and I fear for my fingers if the barrels were to open up.

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The clean barrel is the L/H side,
the nasty looking one is the R/H,

marked, C.G Bonehill, Birmingham.
late 1800's to very early 1900's IRRC from the stamps,
never proofed for nitro,
I feel that would be too much pitting, I suppose I could always strap it to a post with a stout charge of BP and some long string :roll:
it has been relegated to wall hanger (well more of a shelf sitter I guess)

give it the same cleaning treatment....you may be surprised.

Now that you mention it I think I will,
Never really bothered cleaning it as it was given to me in this condition, granted the putter barrels aren’t to flash either, no pattern left to the steel twist just patchy blueing/corrosion marks

Could be a little side project to try and bring some of the lister back to the barrels

Did clean up a fair bit, still loads of pitting though, might consider have a gunsmith look over it but I think given the overall condition its probably not really safe to be anything other than a wall hanger, I suppose it could be possible to sleeve the barrels but most likely worth more than the gun to do that, wonder how a sub bore insert would play out, anyways.
I just realised that the photos are rather rubbish this time around, pitting is pretty much in the first 1/8th of the barrel (would that be the forcing cone?) and a patch at the end which of the barrels which could be cut out I suppose.

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Use your battery drill with the brush on the end of the cleaning rod.
It will clean way better than just pushing the brush through.

Id say get (borrow?) a borescope and assess the "damage" properly first

I do suppose a gunsmith would really only be doing the same thing, just would be (hopefully) more knowledgeable than I am about the condition being safe or unsafe to shoot.
Ill see if I can track a borescope down and have a nosey, I think the closest smith might be in Auckland so would require shipping anyways.

thats a really old gun....really old. other than for novalty value,why would you want to shoot it anyway??? a .410 chamber insert would allow you to do so safely..but you may just find yourself registering it and leaving it in safe,you cant wallhanger it without making it inoperational...eg cant be fired or rectified to be fired....barrels filled with concrete sort of deal...and I cringe even typing that.

You’re most certainly right, I’m just happy to leave it on my shelf now, I’ve been trying to get my hands on a shotgun with external hammers for ages but never had any luck (not counting this as it was given to me as a wall hanger)

Firing pins are removed but after some googling it does indeed seem that we don’t really seem to have a wall hanger class of firearms so it guess it’s going back in the safe *shrug*
I wonder if JB weld in the firing pin holes would be enough to decommission it for good, I’d think it would be pretty hard to get out again

About the only way I can see this being useable would be getting the bores sleeved down to a 16ga, too much money and effort at this point, I will have to keep an eye out for one in good enough condition to want to deal with the register :)

you can purchase sub calibre inserts.....because the yhave there own barrels and chambers the pressure issues are minimal..the only bit of big gun that touches pressure is the face of the block...primer and case....

Ive only seen the ones that are like 8" long, do they make full length ones, Id be comfortable using a full length one as the action is still tight its just the bores that are naf,
I'd still use BP so I dont think pressures would be an issue,
off to try and find some now lol.

Well I did find some full length gauge adapter, unfortunately they require have 3" chambers so thats not going to work for me :(

they can be found here
https://chaszel.com/product/12gauge-...tgun-adapters/

the 28 gauge adapters are closer only requiring a 2 3/4 inch chamber which I guess my gun could be modified to fit but think thats more effort than its worth,

thems the brakes I guess

Id look at modding the insert. Shouldnt take much on an accurate lathe

Full length sub gauge tubes for 2 3/4 chambers are certainly available but are somewhere around $800 per pair,
From briley USA,
In 20, 28, 410

When I was twenties I knocked around with a bird who's dad shot a black powder cap lock 12 bore that seeped smoke from the barrel channel every time he fired it - it had pin holes right through.
We always gave him a wide berth when he was shooting that thing, but it never let go and eventually the 'wise heads' at the range told him "no more" - and it got hung on the wall.

At that same range, my mate and I watched a twist barrel 12 bore blow a 2" long chunk out the side just forward of the chamber. The shooter lost two fingers, and he didn't know they were gone until a lady pointed it out - that was with a nitro load.
Everyone did it those days, but I think everyone at the range that day found some BP to load their twist bores - I know I did.
That was over towards Pauatahanui (Pautahanui) (Pauatanui) (one of them) over the hill from Lower Hutt about '64.