doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Salvaging crappy bores

I bought this percussion SxS in pretty decent shape other than the bores which were sewer pipes......BUT...they cleaned up nice. Turns out it was just 100+ years of dust, bugs and this brown greasy stuff.

There is some very fine pitting in the bores though...any way to deminish or remove it? Or since its on the very fine side should i just forget it.

I took it to my local buddy/gunsmith who ran a scope down the barrels all the way to the breech and pronounced it safe to shoot with light loads.

I have several old shotguns with less than pretty bores. They all shoot quite decent patterns, one gives excellent (even) patterns.

SO long as there are no deep pitts that are serious weak points, especially near where my forehand is, I no longer concern myself with them.

The other non-cosmetic concern is that baddly pitted bores are harder to clean than nice shiny bores. With nitro powders I don't worry much, but, I do keep such bores well coated with a nice penetrating oil, RemOil for me. With BP, I get lots more concerned and mostly do not shoot BP in guns with pitted bores.

Niklas

I have one shotgun with pitting in the bore...its a well made little belgian 16ga sxs...I had a gunsmith check the barrels to make sure it was safe to shoot and backbore the first 5 or so inches in front of the chambers to get rid of most of the pitting...it still has some roughness in both bores but polishes up real nice now when I clean it...