Clean abused barrel

[nodanlboone]

I have a CVA Optima V2 that belongs to my father-in-law who never cleaned it. The breach plug was completely blocked, but I was able to clean it. He is 90 and I don't know when he last fired it, but there is a small circle of what appears to be powder toward the muzzle and what appears to be smears of powder toward the breach end. Wire brushes, hot water, bore cleaners haven't diminished them much after a lot of scrubbing. I did fire it to see if that would help remove them, but they are still there and stubbornly hanging on. Any suggestions? Or just use it like that?

 

[deermanok]

You might try cutting some strips of green Scotchbrite srubby pads.
Wrap the strip over a smaller caliber jag.
If it's a 50 cal, use a 45 cal. Jag.
Do 40 or 50 strokes up and down the barrel, change the strip after 10 strokes.
That should clean up the barrel some.
I have a couple guns with less than perfect barrels that shoot just fine.
Some discoloration and stains aren't a big problem, unlike rust and pitting would be.

 

[nodanlboone]

Appreciate the thoughts, it is a .50, don't know any of the history of the gun. It loaded much easier (almost too easily) than my .50 Magbolt and fired, but I was just trying to see if it would remove the stains from the barrel so I wasn't really aiming at anything but the ground.

 

[nodanlboone]

I was able to remove the rust and the only pitting I can see is small and just inside the end of the muzzle.

 

[deermanok]

A small amount of pitting shouldn't be too much of an issue. Try shooting at paper to verify. Good luck with the gun.