doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pitted barrels; to hone or not to hone?

Do they have any deep pitts ?

But on of the joys with pitted barrels is that you can a lot of fun for very little money. I paid £50 for my Jeffery 410, have added £200 in having the action tightened and now have something I really enjoy shooting. One day when have some spare cash will have the barrels sleeved. The same gun if in clean condition is now selling for £1,500 plus at auction. If pristine well over £2000, and they are not making any more.

One poster mentioned cleaning a pitted bore with ??? and four 0 steel wool. I prefer to be much more agressive and use fairly coarse emery cloth soaked in oil, repeatedly pushing breech to muzzle, being careful not to mess up the square corner at the breech. Much less invasive than honing but very hard on the pits and rust. I keep the emery paper very wet with oil to minumize scratching. The barrels must be mounted in a vise to apply enough pressure to do any good. I have had great results with this method.

I appreciate the views of all who have posted. With full acknowledgement for jOe's dire warnings (which I do take seriously), I've been shooting this old Scott for a number of years like it is, and I think I will try the vinegar and wine cork treatment, then clean the bores up with steel wool or emery cloth or scotch-brite or something like that and see if things look any better. I can't do any damage that way that can't be remedied with a backboring and professional polish. Thanks again for your advice...Geo

As far as I know there is no way to accurately measure the depth a pitt inside a barrel...if it could be honed and remain in proof I'd try it.

Just be sure you get a guy that knows what he's doing....if there is such a thing ?

Years and years ago when I was a young man like many folks at that time, I collected beer cans. One of the tricks back then was to use mixture of Oxalic Acid and water to soak the beer cans in and that would certainly remove all rust, much much better the navel jelly. Wonder why that wouldn't work for pits as well. Frankly, just thought about it reading this thread.

jOe, I have some shotguns that have been honed to a minimum barrell thickness of less than 20 thousanths. They heve pretty bores and I paid more for them than I should have because of that. I don't think that whoever honed'em out did me any favors. I could probably have the backboring done a thou or so at at time down to an acceptable minimum thickness, but it would just be a bet that the pits would go away that way, and I'd still have the resulting choke change to contend with.

The way I puzzle it out, if minimal backboring would get rid of the pits I don't have a problem (other than cosmetic) anyhow, and if it didn't, I'd have wasted my money...Geo

Yes they have pits. No sign of further rust since I gave them a bath in vinegar.

Pete

My lifetime supply of emery cloth and 10W30 probably cost me about seven bucks and has made the pits disappear in tens of thousands of dollars worth of bird guns. I don't know what else to say.

Bill, do you use a up and down stroke in the barrel with no rotation? What are you using to hold the emery cloth?