light pitting in grooves

[JIMYJAC]

Would a little light pitting in the grooves on a otherwise nice looking traditional be expected? Not running the whole barrel just a couple inches down from the muzzle. Never had this in any of mine but I know it`s hard to get an older one in 100 per cent. In other words should I be concerned if I bought it. Thanks

 

[edmehlig]

I don't think I would be. I would shoot it to see how she shoots. I would definitely give it a good cleaning and check the rest of the bore out if you can.

 

[deermanok]

I just recently bought a vintage CVA mountain stalker rifle. Kinda sounds the same thing you have going on.
I hit it with my steam cleaner, bore brush and a bunch of patches later it started looking good. I then used some scotch brite pad strips wrapped around a cleaning jag. About 60 strokes, changed pads after 10.
Cleaned up really nice. The other day I plugged the nipple off and dumped some Evaporust down the barrel. Let it sit about 5 hours.
Bore brush again and a whole bunch of patches later, man the bore is shinny bright now.
Some of the pitting is still there but I think it will shoot just fine.

 

[snapbang]

I have seen a couple of MZ barrels so pitted I was sure they were junk. Both shot excellent. Your new gun will shoot fine but do as deermanok states. Give it an agressive cleaning. May or may not shoot better but you will feel better about it and it should be easier to clean after shooting.

 

[JIMYJAC]

Thanks for the help guys. I`m holding off getting anything with open sights for now. I wanted to pull the trigger on the deal but I`m dealing with some vision problems. VA won`t do my cataracts as yet so I`m going back to single vision lenses and I want to see if that helps me. Most everything I have is scoped now except my hand guns. Once I get the vision straightened out i would like to have a least one traditional as I always enjoyed it.

 

[Matthew323]

Old muzzleloading barrels were made from soft iron, which meant that the rifling wore down, requiring the barrel to be freshed out by the gunsmith. Only several thousands of material was removed as the grooves were deepened. This brought a worn out barrel back into fighting form. A new ball mould was provided to the customer as part of the service, as it was required for the now slightly larger bore.

This same process is still available from several sources, Bobby Hoyt for one, and I think Rich Pierce over on ALR.

Of course, you can always have Bobby Hoyt bore it out to the next caliber.

 

[Matthew323]

Sent out a request for clarification to Rich Pierce at ALR. Will let everyone know for sure whether, or not, he can fresh out a Thompson/Center, or Investarms barrel.

 

[4stringdude]

I will be waiting for the info you get back. I bought a 50 caliber T/C Thunderhawk for low $$. It has a pretty roached out bore. I've cleaned it really well, but have never taken it to the range. It may shoot well, but I don't know. Knowing I could do something different with it would be nice.

 

[Dave951]

Pitting in a barrel may or may not be a problem. You will never know until you shoot it and try some load development. Sometimes they'll shoot just fine, sometimes it's a lost cause. I'll never do anything other than a super clean up and test shooting before deciding whether or not to send it to Hoyt.

 

[Matthew323]

Sent out a request for clarification to Rich Pierce at ALR. Will let everyone know for sure whether, or not, he can fresh out a Thompson/Center, or Investarms barrel.

Mr. Pierce replied that he doesn't work on button rifled barrels such as Thompson/Center, and the European imports. The reason being that the button rifling process unevenly work hardens the steel as the oversized rifling button is drawn through the smooth bore of the barrel blank under tremendous pressure and torque.

He stated that the hard spots left in the barrel by the button rifling process tend to catch his tooling, and break the rifling cutter.

After several broken tools, he decided not to try again.