doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Need best way to polish chambers for extraction

Hey pards,

I have a project SxS that I am playing around with right now. It is an antique belgium 12 gauge hammergun w/ laminated barrels (let's please not have the discussion on the safety of laminated barrels in this thread). This gun is beautiful even though it has no engraving - wood is great, finish has age but not worn off, etc.

It is a really nice wall hanger but I take it down on occasion to shoot a half dozen rounds at clay targets in my back pasture. I am currently shooting 2 1/2" blackpowder shells w/ 1-1/8 oz of #8 shot and 3 drams of BP through it (made by Republic Metallic Cartridge Co.)

What I am finding is that the shells don't want to slide out on their own after I have fired a second round through each barrel. My question is what is the best way to smooth up and polish these chambers so the shells just fall out on their own. Or is this just a problem that I am going to have when shooting black powder? It seems that there should be an easy fix but want the feedback from the group before picking a solution.

Also, I am not reloading my own 2 1/2" shells yet so if anyone knows of any black powder shells that are loaded a little lighter than what I am using, I would sure like to find out where to find them.

Let me know.
Thanks,

You might start with a magnent to see if the cartridge heads are steel. If so, switching to brass may resolve the issue completely. Steel heads don't spring back like brass does.

Brownells has has ball hones made for chamber polishing, also are available from major machinery concerns like McMaster-Carr at lower prices, you have to figure what size you need.

Jim

get a brass cleaning brush and wrap oooo steelwool around it. spin it with a drill in the chamber - I coat it with some lap compound - from an auto parts store for lapping valves. That should polish it up very nicely. I reload my own - if you'd like to know how e-mail me at harm@blclinks.net - Paul

I am not really in favor of honing the chambers on a laminated barrel because I am afraid of taking too much metal and making them week (although I am sure it is a fine idea on a newer gun). I also think that it would be a good idea to go with lighter loads. I am half way through my very first box of black powder 2 1/2" shells and am still trying to learn how BP loads compare to nitro loads. In shooting these, they don't feel any lighter than my standard 2 3/4" shells for quail that I shoot through my Rem 870. I am definitely interested in shooting lighter loads. I just haven't found where I can buy shells with 2 1/2 drams yet. If someone knows where I can find these, please tell me where you have seen them and I will definitely order a box.

I tried the idea of using the brass brush wrapped with 0000 steel wool and coated with all-purpose metal polish. I chucked this in my screwgun and spun it for about five minutes in each chamber and then cleaned them up real good. That smoothed em up a little. I can still feel a little roughness that I would like to smooth out. I don't know if I should use differnt metal polish that has more grit or not. Maybe I need to just stick with the 0000 steel wool and polish and do several passes.

BTW, I am using paper hulls so I am not sure if that makes much difference or not.

It's truly near impossible to remove any metal of enough significance to weaken the barrels by honing the chambers using any reasonable method.

Wooden dowel with a slit in it to hold some emery cloth, then spin it with an electric drill, up to 1200 grit paper.

If that doesn't solve it you probably might have to lengthen the forcing cones, that will solve it.

You mention there remain rough areas in chamber after polishing. With old guns poorly stored, this can be common. These local rust spots can be quite hard. I have taken to giving those hard rust spots a good working over with fine emery paper on a dowel rod, sometimes even with a rounded tipped screwdriver, till they are gone, then polish again.

Often these areas of hard rust are in the last cm or so of the chamber, adjacent to forcing cone. They are there because this area gets coated with powder fouling residue on nearly every shot, and, often is not cleaned throughly, so, rust developes and gets compacted by subsequent shots.

Check Kent Gamebore BP shotshells. Think I remember some of them being the old standard 12 gauge load of 1,0 oz of shot and 2,5 drams powder. I have long loaded this 1,0 oz (28 grams) 2,5 Drams load with both fiber wads and one-peice plastic wads. It is an excellent load for shooting clays (including 16-18 yard trap) and flushed or descoyed birds. A 1 1/8 oz (32 grams) load is more for passing (flighted) waterfowl and not really needed for much else.

Niklas

Where do I find these on the web? I did a google search for Kent Gamebore BP shells and found a place that sells the 2 1/2" shells but it doesn't say how any drams of powder are in them.

Let me know. Thanks.

There is one place that always seems to have Gamebore 12 gauge 2,5 inch 1,0 oz BP loads -- Ballistic Products, Inc. (www.ballisticproducts.com) Here is link to page on their site that lists them.
http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?number=G1225BP28

Surprizingly, I did not find them listed on GameboreUSA site.

Niklas