August 22, 201412 yr i bought a $50 870 barrel that looked like crap. Some cleaning, electrolysis, and cold blue later and the thing actually looks really nice. Unfortunately I still have rust in the barrel. After all this I used WD40 on a bore brush that was chocked in up a drill and that still left some in the barrel, and I believe it may be pitted. After the WD40 I cleaned it out with brake cleaner then oiled with CLP to protect it. What should be my next course of action? Hypothetically, since a shotgun is a smoothbore anyway I don't see how it is detrimental for accuracy. It was a 26" ventrib that is now a little over 18".
August 22, 201412 yr Get one of these www.frontiermetalcleaner.com . Use with Rem Oil or some other solvent. It will take all the rust out. I use it on everything I want to take rust off of. Does not harm bluing. I use it on equipment to get rust off, hydraulic cylinders, marine coatings, chrome. Don't know what it's made out of but it works. I have seen surface rust removed on blued gun parts that make them look so good you have to really look for where the rust was.
August 22, 201412 yr Or buy a copper choreboy from your local supermarket, wrap it around a dowel and go to town on it. Pitting is pitting so just ignore it.
August 22, 201412 yr I had a nearly identical problem with a shotgun barrel a couple years ago. I scrubbed the hell out of it with a brass bore brush and Hoppe's #9, that got rid of all the rust. It was bright and shiny after about 20 minutes of scrubbing. Unfortunately there was a lot of pitting about three inches from the muzzle. A pitted barrel can still be used but it does something to the shot cup and kills patterns.You can try honing the barrel but it wont get rd of the pitting. Basically a pitted barrel is toast according the the three gunsmiths I talked to. I find it hard to believe in this day and age though. There's gotta be something that can fill the pits but even if there is the cost to repair my cheap shotgun barrel would not be justified.
August 22, 201412 yr Electrolysis will work inside the barrel too. Use a piece of 1/4" steel rod as your anode and put it inside the barrel. Any sort of plastic spacer to keep the rod from touching the sides of the barrel will work.
August 22, 201412 yr This post renewed my interest in restoring an old barrel I have. After reading a few more how-to posts on other forums I got an idea. Probably expensive if done professionally but there may be a workable DIY way to do this if making a home electrolysis set up is possible. . Anyway, what about using chrome? If someone can figure out a way to cheaply chrome line a shotgun barrel, perhaps back bore the bbl, chrome line it and then hone the bore. Might just be crazy enough to work, or maybe just crazy, I dunno.
August 22, 201412 yr This post renewed my interest in restoring an old barrel I have. After reading a few more how-to posts on other forums I got an idea. Probably expensive if done professionally but there may be a workable DIY way to do this if making a home electrolysis set up is possible. . Anyway, what about using chrome? If someone can figure out a way to cheaply chrome line a shotgun barrel, perhaps back bore the bbl, chrome line it and then hone the bore. Might just be crazy enough to work, or maybe just crazy, I dunno. Chrome will not fill a pit. If you chrome line a pitted barrel you will just have chrome lined pits.
August 23, 201412 yr Chrome will not fill a pit. If you chrome line a pitted barrel you will just have chrome lined pits. If the barrel is over bored to remove the pits there will be no pits to fill. Just build up the bore with chrome and hone and polish it back to original specs. It would be a lot of work and probably very expensive. Not worth doing on an old H&R but on a better gun it may be a perfectly good solution.
August 23, 201412 yr If the barrel is over bored to remove the pits there will be no pits to fill. Just build up the bore with chrome and hone and polish it back to original specs. It would be a lot of work and probably very expensive. Not worth doing on an old H&R but on a better gun it may be a perfectly good solution. This would work but most likely exceed the cost of a new barrel.
August 25, 201412 yr What should be my next course of action? For the rust, use a 50:50 mix of ATF & Acetone. Soak the bore - let it work for about 15 - 20 minutes - brush it with a spiral stainless brush - repeat ... Good Good that there are no pits
August 25, 201412 yr Author For the rust, use a 50:50 mix of ATF & Acetone. Soak the bore - let it work for about 15 - 20 minutes - brush it with a spiral stainless brush - repeat ... Good Good that there are no pits I actually used that as a carb dip when I rebuilt the carb on my Mustang. I was disappointed to be honest. It was also separating
August 27, 201412 yr I actually used that as a carb dip when I rebuilt the carb on my Mustang. I was disappointed to be honest. It was also separatingDid you try electrolisis?
August 29, 201412 yr Author Did you try electrolisis? On my carb? No. My barrel I did. Worked fantastic on the exterior
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