Do you own a field gun that has a rusty bore?

[teumessian_fox]

How many of you have a field rifle with rust in the barrel?

I just bought a rifle off of a "trusted" guy on another forum. He said the wood had some dings (which it does) and the blue is good (which it is).

He neglected to tell me there's rust in the bore. No pits. And if you shine a bore light in the breech, you can't see the rust. But when you take it out into the sunlight, you can see the rust along the lands.

It shoots fine. And it's probably in great shape for a rifle made in the early 1980s.

But I'm thinking I'll probably get rid of it.

Do any of you have field guns with rust in the bore?

 

[unwise11]

Get the rust out?
Brush, Hoppes, Amonia based solvent, time, scrub, might work if you try.
But get rid of it if you dont like it.

 

[Al Thompson]

I've seen dried oil do a very good imitation of rust in a rifle bore. Copper build up will look pretty bad sometimes as well..

 

[ants]

Clean it and shoot it. No big decision to me.

Clean the bore, my friend.
Use copper cleaner, just in case that's copper rather than rust.

Then take it out and shoot it.
If it shoots great, it's a keeper.

I don't get rid of anything until I find out how it performs.

 

[BrocLuno]

Rust on the lands ain't to tough to get off. Clean good and shoot a bunch. Should shine right up. If it's accurate and reliable, the bore is OK. If not, sell it.

there are plenty of old military rifles that had corrosive ammo shot through them and the bores are ugly, they still shoot fine. Yours will likely do better

 

[Hatterasguy]

Fire a few rounds and it will clean up, my Mosin is like that. As long as the rifling is strong it will shoot OK.

 

[caribou]

The up side is that if peopl dont take care of your tools/gear, they probly wont be using them much anyway.

Ive picked up quite a few neglected rifles over the years, and brought them around to being usefull again. Dont judge the rifle by its bore condition, judge it by its accuracy.
Only accurate rifles are worth shooting.

You can take out that rust by shooting it alot and scrubbing it alot, then doing routine maintenance/cleaning after every use


Cleaning a firearm is part of the responsibility of owning a firearm.

 

[sourdough44]

I would run tighter patches, alternating, with 'JB' Bore paste & then Kroil down that bore to get it in the best shape possible. That would be whether you keep it or sell the gun.

 

[win71]

It sounds more like copper build up and not rust. For one thing, rust is generally caused by moisture resting on metal over time. It's unlikely moisture would only settle on the lands.

Try running an oily patch through the bore. If it is rust, which is soft and porous if only on the surface, it should absorb the oil and almost disappear from sight. If it's copper it should only get shinier.

 

[Bernie Lomax]

Try running an oily patch through the bore. If it is rust, which is soft and porous if only on the surface, it should absorb the oil and almost disappear from sight. If it's copper it should only get shinier.

He should clan it with some wipe-out or outers foaming bore cleaner. If that's copper he has in the bore--which i suspect it is--then that will cut right through it. Also, the patches will come out blue.