doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on bore hones...

Hi All,
I've been trying to collect my thoughts on which direction to go with bore honing. I've got several guns with light pitting, and a couple with moderate pitting. It's become painfully obvious to me that I'll never afford a Sunnen or Tennesse Abrasive hone, so as I see it, I'm left with two options--flex hones or the Lisle brake-style hone. I'd like to hear the experiences of those of you that have used both. It seems like keeping the bore concentric with the flex hones would be the biggest issue. The brake-style hone that Browne**'s and M*dway sell have a piloted extension, and several different grits of stones available. As always, advice from those who've used both would be appreciated. Please take for granted that I have enough wall thickness in the barrels to do the job. Thanks all!

Do yourself a favor and send the bbls out to someone with the right set up,...preferably Sunnen!
The bores are the heart of your shotgun and proper work on them requires the proper equipment,..don't skimp on that

Best,

CJ

I've used the brake style hones with good, slow for sure, but still good, results in removal of chrome plating prior to installing thin wall chokes. My guess is that the flex-hone would require the patience of Job to remove pits.

I've used Brownell's brake style hones, I purchased it over 10 years ago and unless they've changed the way the stones attach I'd stay away. They had a bad habit of falling off while honing. They admitted there was a problem and sent replacement stones but they mounted the same way, just a friction fit, snap on. If they've changed it it might be worth a look.

Unless you have the correct setup, i.e. expensive, honing is a very slow and dirty process. I've used the brake style and the one from Sunnen that looks like a bore brush with gobs of ceramic on it. Stay away from the brake style.

The Flex-hones say right in the instructions that they do not remove pits. They only polish off the peaks or points of roughness. IME they remove very little metal and would not be useful for your job.

CJ has given you the best possible advice, send your barrels to someone that is equiped to do the job (Mike Orlen perhaps ?). The brake hones are, IMHO, worthless for doing this job. In part because they don't cut fast enough and second because the stone area is not long enough to make nice parallel cuts. The flex-hones suffer from the same problem but are probably ok for polishing chambers and maybe chokes.

I use a Sunnen hone setup for my own work that has replaceable abrasive bars that are 4 1/2" long. I use 120 grit bars for reasonably fast removal of pitting and 500 grit bars to polish the bores. The end result is a mirror bore with NO ripples etc.

I got my setup from Oscar Gaddy's widow after he passed away and also have another just as a back-up. I still would send my barrels to someone else if the bores needed extensive metal removed because even these hones are not for major metal removal.

I DO NOT do this type of work for anyone but myself. I just use it on my own guns that I want to clean up and make them nice.

While we are discussing the appropriate tool for honing, it might be educational to also discuss the pro's and con's of removing metal to clean up pitting. Especially in the case of damascus or twist, removal of metal just for cosmetic reasons might not be the best idea since it might also reduce barrel strength and may change the choke, though it certainly makes cleaning easier and improves the looks of the gun.

I always worry about that when I buy a damascus barreled gun with slick, shiney barrels. Should we just leave cosmetic pitting in place sometimes???...Geo

I am no gunsmith and never claimed to be. I send my guns with pitted bores to Jim Kelly at Darlington Gun Works. He measures the wall thickness and if sufficient he bores, hones & polishes after removing any dents. It's not cheap, $300 - $500, but if it's a nice gun it's worth it. The results are beautiful. So far he has done six for me.

Best Regards, George

I recently sent Mike Orlen the barrels of my 16 gauge Lindner Daly. It had serious bore issues. He backbored the gun, and shaped modern profile chokes. The finished product is incredibly well done. My bore gauge indicates the diameters don't vary any measurable amount.