Pits

[Jerry Andrews]

I've been thinking, if barrels are pitted, and you remove the pits, aren't you removing the good metal all around the pits? In the long run wouldn't that make the barrels actually weaker as a lot of good metal is removed? Just thinking, Jerry

[Bruce Day]

Yes, and pitted barrels make no difference in functionality/ patterning so I am told. I have not personally pattern tested pitted versus unpitted barrels.

Some folks can't stand pitted barrels and want them polished out. I can stand reasonable pits in barrels, and have only one gun in that position, a light 20, and would not reduce wall thickness by having the bores honed.

Pitted barrels are harder to clean. On a personal experience note, I have found that what appear to be deep pits and an ugly looking bore are often not as bad as they look. I have used wet fine carbide paper like is used in wet sanding automobile paint, and wrapped that around a cleaning brush, run that through the bores and what appeared to be ugly deep pits substantially disappeared. If the bores are a little frosted, that is also a good way to polish them without removing measurable material. I'm sure some of the more experienced gunsmiths here have their own methods and recommended materials.

[Richard Flanders]

I agree with Bruce on this issue. I have also wrapped 2000-grit W/D paper around a swab and polished light pitting out of a barrel. I think that if a barrel has a lot of steel it doesn't hurt to hone them out within reason. It's different call on every pitted barrel and dependent upon barrel wall thickness whether it's a good idea to hone or not. To clean pitted barrels I chuck a cleaning rod with a bronze brush in a cordless driver and brush the bejeezus out of them on high speed with a lot of Hoppes, which works very well. I swab the bbl often while doing this to remove the rust, which will act like grinding compound if you leave it all in there while you brush it out. I put the barrels muzzle down into a small plastic pail and dump hoppes in often while brushing and the rust washes down and out of the barrels. There's no reason you couldn't do this by sticking the barrels into water in the bucket, running the brush up and down into the water while turning. On a similar note, I've discovered that a light oiling of a barrel will hide light pitting. Two guns I've bought, one a rifle, the other a S/S, came to me with bores that looked nearly pristine until I cleaned them. Now when I get a 'new' gun I brush the bore a lot with solvent and dry it thoroughly. Gunzilla seems particularly effective at removing old residue that even Hoppes had not removed. That stuff is incredible. I talked with the father of the kids who invented it at a Michigan gunshow in November; he told me they just got a contract to supply the entire Saudi military with it so they are really on a roll. Give it a try. You'd be amazed at what this cleaning can reveal under that oil. The shotgun had very light pitting stem to stern. The rifle had very light pitting that did not show AT ALL when I got it. The rifling was still sharp so it was not an issue, but the bore was advertised as 'excellent', which was a step higher than reality. I'd recommend a serious bore cleaning of every vintage S/S you buy. I suspect that some unscrupulous dealers put a shell or two through lightly pitted guns to hide the pitting. I'm always amazed when I get a gun with powder residue in the barrels. Were I a dealer I would never do that. Apparently some have something to hide as it were so beware. The gorgeous little Daly fwt I bought recently was sent back. The bbls sounded like a high-frequency baby rattle when rung. The top rib was loose for 4" at the muzzles, the lower rib had a spot by the forearm lug that I could push a .0015" feeler gauge completely through(thanks to Dave S. for that idea). The bbls had been restruck to remove pitting and irregularities; I found areas of .022" wall thickness just forward of the forcing cones. My penalty: it cost me $200 to look at that gun- $50 to get it here, $148 to fedex it back with full insurance. I assure I had better things to spend that money on than that. Lessons were learned on that one I can tell you. I thought I had asked all the questions on that one but I guess not...