Another ruined Black Diamond

[dbowling]

A couple years ago a friends Dad bought a Black Diamond XR .50 w/camo stock that was mint looked brand new.. I offered to buy it from him on the spot when I seen it, he said no he didn't want to sell..
That muzzleloader season he killed a big buck with it which I went and dragged out of a huge holler with my 4 wheeler for him. Fast forward to yesterday and his son brings the same gun over for me to look at as his Dad hadn't had it out of gun case since 2 yrs. ago.
Take gun out of case drop light down barrel and cant even see anything as there is tall fuzzy rust down the whole barrel and the 209 primer from when he shot deer was still in primer pocket :cry: , told him gun might be ruined, on top of that breech plug is rusted in solid. Put some Kroil down barrel and left over night and tried taking out again no go so took it out to barn wrapped in heavy leather and put in my vise.. Tried it again with just ratchet/socket and wouldn't budge so put 2 ft. cheater on it and cranked on it and it popped sounded like a rifle going off, after 2-3 more loud pops it finally started turning easy and came out..
I cleaned barrel/degreased then polished with 50 strokes of Montana Bore polish and while you can see rifling good now there's a huge pit toward top of barrel and whole barrel has small pits down one side.. it makes me about sick someone can do this to such a nice muzzleloader, he swears he cleaned it guess he just put the spent primer back in it, primer was even all corroded and green.
This was a exceptionally nice gun, now it may or may not shoot and is worth maybe a third of what it would be if taken care of..

 

[Steelheader323]

What a shame, keep us posted


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[twild]

That sucks I Love my 45 BD, and NO you can't buy it

 

[jims]

Sometimes they will still shoot accurately with pitting but that is too bad in any event.

 

[Tannhauser]

If the bore and barrel were corroded then he didn’t clean it. Sad to see a well made firearm damaged due to laziness.

 

[Squeeze]

More muzzleloaders end up as tomato stakes I'll bet than ever get resold. Too many guys used to shooting a .22 they never clean, Or that old beater shotgun that gets an oily rag twice a year. Guys just dont know better and dont care. Some people just have to learn lessons the hard way. My dad used to have a buddy that had a new muzzleloader every year. He would pull last years rust tube out for the yearly sight in, discover it was unusable and head to the nearest sporting goods for whatever cheapo was on sale. He just couldn't be bothered, and never learned. Guess he had plenty of cash and little time for cleaning..

 

[MrTom]

I had a chance at an Encore, I believe an X5 model. I didn't have a clue what the gun was like other than advertised as "not shot many times" and "clean" and like "new". Looking thru the barrel AFTER I was able to pull the breech plug I simply replaced the plug and said no thanks. It was clean on the outside but in the barrel another story was told.

I clean my guns religiously after shooting at the range and as soon as the deer season is over. I store my rifles and pistol with the breech plugs removed and will take time to run a patch thru their barrels at regular intervals thru the storage period, first to be sure they have a protective surface and secondly to check for tell-tale traces of or red buddy, rust. I was accused one time of being obsessed with gun cleaning but I simply came back with if you own a gun cleaning it and keeping it clean are the responsibility of the owner, just like changing oil in a car is the owner responsibly. I just don't understand how some people can buy a quality product and just let it go to pot.

 

[Widude]

Yes, lack of proper care is the demise of many muzzle-loaders. A new shooter needs to figure out the cleaning requirements before they go to the range to test fire.

 

[dbowling]

gonna try shooting this one this weekend, his Dad is gonna buy another gun either a center fire rifle or another muzzleloader.. his boy said I can probably get this one for 50.00, if it shoots decent its worth that.. will just have to see..

 

[Okie Hog]

For many years i scoped, sighted in and cleaned up neglected muzzleloaders. Seen a lot of nice guns that were ruined. Got tired of attempting to do magic with rusted muzzleloaders. Now i send the gun and owner on their way.

 

[WV Hunter]

Such a shame. Good luck with it

 

[CatamountRob]

Pretty easy to find BD barrels on eBay, but the odds are that they won't be much better than the one on it.

 

[Dougs136Schwartz]

Is there still a pretty good chance the gun will shoot ?

 

[dbowling]

Yea I think it will shoot, it has one big pit about 3 in. from crown and the rest are small shallow ones down one side of barrel..if the big pit doesn't screw it up on exit should still shoot decent.. will just be a pain in the posterior from now on to clean/keep clean.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

Most unfortunate indeed. Maintenance is one of the many things a breechloader must re- learn when picking up a frontstuffer...
Love my 50 XR and my Super 45 XR. Well used and used well...

 

[WildTurkey]

How did it shoot and did you buy it for $50?

 

[dbowling]

it belongs to my friends Dad and I will probably get it for 50.00 or free.. I've gave my friend 3-4 muzzleloaders over the years and I just gave both of his boys one this year to hunt with next year..so he said he will give his Dad the 50.00 and give gun to me..
His Dad said it was really accurate but all he did was zero it in shoot the one deer and put it up dirty 2 yrs ago.

 

[edmehlig]

It’s amazing how many people don’t know about cleaning a ML after shooting it. My sons friend won a ML I told him what powder and bullets to try and how to clean it. I found out he didn’t clean it for two weeks later. The gun wasn’t ruined but there was rust down the whole bore. He thought he had time as he never cleans his Center fire rifles right away. He learned a good lesson. Thanks to JB bore paste and oil he saved his rifle. Or so I’ve been told?