Barrel corrosion

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jimcobber

New Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2020
Messages
2
Reaction score
3
Hi, I recently purchased my first black powder rifle. It is a CVA Mountain Rifle in .50 cal purchased at an estate sale for $65. It was a rusty mess, but after a lot of elbow grease, I got it looking fairly good and it shoots well. I am not a black powder fan! Apparently the rifle was not cleaned properly after shooting and the breech end must be pretty corroded. When you clean with a patch, the patch will get stuck at the very bottom of the barrel. In order to make cleaning easier, I'd like to smooth down this part of the barrel so the patch does not get stuck. I have a couple of ideas on how to do it, one is using sand paper wrapped around the end of a rod, pushing it down to the bottom, then spinning the rod with a drill. I was thinking that maybe pulling the breech plug. But, the CVA has a barrel type primer nipple and, as I understand the way that is installed, it would block the area of the barrel I'd like to smooth out. I have already treated the barrel with evaporust. The rifling look good and the rifle is surprisingly (at least to me) accurate with a patched ball. I am reluctant to pull the flash barrel, if I can't get the timing right, I don't have a 30" drill bit to create a new flash hole. I can't stand the front blade site, it's no narrow it's hard to see when signing on a target. Anyway, anybody had the same problem? Did you come up with a solution?

By the way, I did a rookie mistake an put in a patched ball without powder. I could not pull the ball with a screw ball puller due to the above problem. So I unscrewed the flash barrel cleanup screw and poured powder down the hole until it was full, put the screw back in an fired the gun. The ball came out. Is there something terribly wrong to do this way? I've never read this as a technique, so I'm guessing there may be a reason for this.

Thanks!
 
Your not the first one to do that.
One of my muzzleloaders had a bit of a rough spot at the bottom of the barrel. It seems like it smoothed itself out after a few shots.
 
When you run the patch down, you can feel it hit the rough area, it's about a 1.5 inch long. I've put 50 or so rounds through it so far. When the patch gets stuck I have to enlist someone to hold the rifle as I yank on the rod. It can be quite a tug of war. The Rangemaster's not too sure about shenanigans like this, but maybe he figured it's standard for the crazy black powder folks.
 
I have a rifle that does that, if I go straight to the bottom and try and pull it back out, I gotta fight on my hands. Your patch may not be wet enough, get it soaking wet and try short up and down strokes as you near the bottom. Once you get that lower fouling good and wet, go with a bronze bore brush as suggested and really work that breech end
I wouldn’t put sandpaper in a drill or try and use a long drill bit.
 
I would think it is possible you could cause damage with the sandpaper in the bore before you got to the bad spot.

I am not sure how far down the stuck ball was. If quite close to the breech it apparently worked for you. If too far up the bore I was concerned it would act as a bore obstruction and cause trouble or a bulge. Apparently neither happened for you. Glad it came out OK
 
I have a rifle that does that, if I go straight to the bottom and try and pull it back out, I gotta fight on my hands. Your patch may not be wet enough, get it soaking wet and try short up and down strokes as you near the bottom. Once you get that lower fouling good and wet, go with a bronze bore brush as suggested and really work that breech end
I wouldn’t put sandpaper in a drill or try and use a long drill bit.
This is the correct answer. . . ^^^^

Chances are, that stuck part is near the breach plug or barrel, and extends up to 5 inches from them.
This is a very common happening when using black powder, and especially common when using Pyrodex.
There is nothing wrong with using Pyrodex, it is a black powder substitue. When you shoot black powder,
you EXPECT to have a lot of cleaning to do afterwards on the SAME DAY when the sun goes down.

Run your copper bush down to that point and work on a a little bit. Then run a very wet patch with #13 solvent
down the barrel. It may take a few times, then it will smooth out nicely.

If out in the field, just run a very wet patch down the barrel once, it should be ok.

That rough spot is from Blackpowder not escaping out the end of the barrel. BURNT Black powder is extremely
corrosive, and sticks on everything.
 
CVA has a patent breech, odd set up. That could be part of the problem with your patches. The best way to clean up a barrel is to freshen the bore. You have to make a slug in the bore. this entails molten lead pored around a bore brush. Then you use valve lapping compound. Research it before you try it and don't forget to lube your bore.
Nit Wit
.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top