Barrel cleaning with Scotchbright to rid the rust...

[tac]

Over on my favourite BP site - muzzeloadingforum.com - we've been discussing, for about the eleventy-millionth time - how to get minor rust out of a barrel without causing more harm. If anybody here IS interested, apart from Andy, who's heard it all before, please go to the site and search for cleaning rust out of a barrel.

Anyhow, it's not just rust that can futz up your marksmanship, always supposing that you are good enough to actually HAVE a level of marksmanship in the first place. Other things can lurk in there, as this amazing story will teach you.

Last year we had a new to BP shooter turn up with a very nice .45cal TC that wouldn't shoot a 'group' smaller than about a foot at 50m with a REAL-style bullet. I use the term 'group' advisedly, in fact, out of ten shots fired, only four actually hit a target that measures four feet by two feet. I watched open-mouthed as one bullet hit the backstop sand about four feet left and high. And BTW, he is a tolerably good shot with a modern-style gun.

It just so happened that I was bragging about my new, dirt-cheap borescope that fixes up to a cell-phone, and we used it. About 3/4 of the barrel from the breech up the rifling was completely filled with some kind of plastic coating stuff that had set hard, rendering the rifle into a mostly smoothbore. Much scratching of a number of heads ensued, but I advised him to use the old green-grade Scotch pad, and as much elbow grease as he could provide, before trying to shoot it again. My advice was echoed by a number of other BP- shooters there, and dismayed at the amount of hard work ahead of him to clean this stuff out, he left.

The following Thursday - a BP-only shooting day - he was back, and asked me to take another look at the bore. TBH, it wasn't totally cleaned up, but I felt that another hour or so might well do it. What was the cr*p? I axed him.

The answer was astonishing, at least to me. He had gotten in contact, via the gun store, with the previous owner, who admitted that he'd gotten rid of the rifle because 'it wouldn't shoot'.

Hardly surprising, when you consider that instead of using a regular patch, like most of us would, he'd used an undersized ball from his .36 revolver, swathed in many folds of Glad-Wrap.

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[Andy54Hawken]

Scotchbright does indeed work well for neglected bores...both of the blackpowder and smokeless kind.

However...
While you can use an undersized round ball , Glad-Wrap is not a good opttion for patching material.
Make sure whatever you use for patches , is 100% natural fiber.
Cotton , hemp , linen all work well.
Slik works too...But only if you need an extra 40 yards like Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans

Andy

 

[Lincoln4]

When I first started hunting turkey, I found a process online for using it to reduce shot group size. Made a significant difference.

 

[P7M13]

At least the first owner admitted it.
A bore bath with toluene might have helped.

 

[RVTECH]

The T/C Renegade I restored a few years ago had a a fair amount of rust in the bore (and pitting) and I used water based valve lapping compound with a tight fitting 'mop' I made from smaller diameter brass brush wrapped with a soft cotton material.

Worked very well. I got essentially all the surface rust out but some pitting remains however continual shooting has smoothed it out some and it shoots very accurately.

I can't imagine what influenced the previous owner to use Glad-Wrap - I mean was he unaware of the fact it would melt due to the heat and deposit in the rifling ?

A few rounds of fire lapping might have cleared it as well

 

[tac]

The T/C Renegade I restored a few years ago had a a fair amount of rust in the bore (and pitting) and I used water based valve lapping compound with a tight fitting 'mop' I made from smaller diameter brass brush wrapped with a soft cotton material.

Worked very well. I got essentially all the surface rust out but some pitting remains however continual shooting has smoothed it out some and it shoots very accurately.

I can't imagine what influenced the previous owner to use Glad-Wrap - I mean was he unaware of the fact it would melt due to the heat and deposit in the rifling ?

A few rounds of fire lapping might have cleared it as well

Apparently so. You have to remember that over here many people buy a BP firearm - rifle, shotgun or handgun, sometimes all three - without a clue how to shoot them. Even though he had to be a club member, you would have imagined that he would have had a mentor - seems not. Having done the BP RCO course run here in UK by the NRA, I can say that it is very detailed and most entertaining, and run by people who are very on top of their game, BP-wise. I did the Deutsche Schutzen Bund version in 1979 - that, too, has a hoot and extremely well-run. I advise anybody here in UK that comes new to BP shooting to either hang around an old f*rt like me, or to do the course. Sure, you have to pay, but the days of 10-cent hotdogs have gone, too.

 

[RVTECH]

Even though he had to be a club member, you would have imagined that he would have had a mentor

Even a good book on ML would have helped. Heck, when I started out I had a couple I read thoroughly and that is what mostly got me on the right track - and I learned a lot about ML history in general through them.

 

[tac]

Even a good book on ML would have helped. Heck when I started out I had a couple I read thoroughly and that is what mostly got me on the right track - and I learned a lot about ML history in general through them.

Yup. The Lyman Manual is THE Bible for most of us. The guy who bought the rifle has done all the good stuff - he STILL has my Lyman BP manual!

 

[RVTECH]

This was my first!

 

[Stomper]

Over on my favourite BP site - muzzeloadingforum.com - we've been discussing, for about the eleventy-millionth time - how to get minor rust out of a barrel without causing more harm. If anybody here IS interested, apart from Andy, who's heard it all before, please go to the site and search for cleaning rust out of a barrel.

Anyhow, it's not just rust that can futz up your marksmanship, always supposing that you are good enough to actually HAVE a level of marksmanship in the first place. Other things can lurk in there, as this amazing story will teach you.

Last year we had a new to BP shooter turn up with a very nice .45cal TC that wouldn't shoot a 'group' smaller than about a foot at 50m with a REAL-style bullet. I use the term 'group' advisedly, in fact, out of ten shots fired, only four actually hit a target that measures four feet by two feet. I watched open-mouthed as one bullet hit the backstop sand about four feet left and high. And BTW, he is a tolerably good shot with a modern-style gun.

It just so happened that I was bragging about my new, dirt-cheap borescope that fixes up to a cell-phone, and we used it. About 3/4 of the barrel from the breech up the rifling was completely filled with some kind of plastic coating stuff that had set hard, rendering the rifle into a mostly smoothbore. Much scratching of a number of heads ensued, but I advised him to use the old green-grade Scotch pad, and as much elbow grease as he could provide, before trying to shoot it again. My advice was echoed by a number of other BP- shooters there, and dismayed at the amount of hard work ahead of him to clean this stuff out, he left.

The following Thursday - a BP-only shooting day - he was back, and asked me to take another look at the bore. TBH, it wasn't totally cleaned up, but I felt that another hour or so might well do it. What was the cr*p? I axed him.

The answer was astonishing, at least to me. He had gotten in contact, via the gun store, with the previous owner, who admitted that he'd gotten rid of the rifle because 'it wouldn't shoot'.

Hardly surprising, when you consider that instead of using a regular patch, like most of us would, he'd used an undersized ball from his .36 revolver, swathed in many folds of Glad-Wrap.

Scotchbright does indeed work well for neglected bores...both of the blackpowder and smokeless kind.

However...
While you can use an undersized round ball , Glad-Wrap is not a good opttion for patching material.
Make sure whatever you use for patches , is 100% natural fiber.
Cotton , hemp , linen all work well.
Slik works too...But only if you need an extra 40 yards like Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans

Andy

Well, I'm "glad" he was able to "wrap" up the mystery of where the plastic came from and get the BP rifle shooting again!

 

[Spitpatch]

The ammunition shortage produced an unpredicted increased interest in blackpowder guns, especially when neophytes discovered they could mail-order frontloading guns.

Unfortunately, a large portion of those coming to the new theater fail to educate themselves as to operation and maintenance. Many are from a generation (or generations) that have come to expect "plug and play" and instant results with no investment in time, effort and careful study. When the need for such becomes readily evident to them, often they abandon the discipline. ("Discipline" might also be generally absent in their lives.)

It IS the extra effort, experimentation and study of technique that appeal to those of us that stick with it: Because the results when one "turns the corner" to find what is necessary to make a blackpowder gun shoot marvelously are so much more rewarding as a result of the extra personal investment. The process (often puzzling and exasperating) is satisfying far beyond something that is gained easily and quickly.

A young neighbor, enthralled with the idea finally saved enough to purchase a top-drawer Sharps replica, and dutifully worked with it using "Black and Lead" as prescribed. Then as a result of a dearth of black powder, tried smokeless and was lured with higher velocities and accuracy that quickly (and with little effort toward experimentation) challenged his more traditional recipe.

Then the bottom fell out.

His fine gun suddenly would not shoot worth a plugged nickel. He quit bringing stellar targets for show and tell when he came to visit. The gun languished until I made some direct inquiries and he finally brought it by. Leading in the barrel was as prevalent as wrinkles on Madonna.

I provided him with a prescription for removal (it had gone on so long that it was pretty bad). He's now "Back in Black", and the gun has never shot better, rivaling his Christensen .300 Winchester at the long ranges he loves.

 

[tac]

You might point out - if you ever get asked - that I get 405gr lead bullets making 1420 fps from my 33gr loads of 4198.

I also get a hundred fps LESS velocity from 70gr of compressed black powder.

EDIT - I ought to have added that the black powder loads are a whole heap more fun to shoot - that commotion and smoke do it for me every time.

 

[Spitpatch]

You might point out - if you ever get asked - that I get 405gr lead bullets making 1420 fps from my 33gr loads of 4198.

I also get a hundred fps LESS velocity from 70gr of compressed black powder.

As the young neighbor discovered, with soft lead projectiles (his at 525 grains), higher velocity is NEVER a goal. It can in fact become the Nemesis.