Cast boolits and deep pinprick pitting ?

[Eldon]

My recently acquired 1900 very nice 30-40 Krag rifle has, as the seller told me, a less than perfect bore.

After a complete cleaning and a 2 day soak with penetrating oil, I patched it out with acetone.

With my bore scope what I found was different than I have encountered before.

On the tops of the lands, about 20% was covered with scale rust not fouling.

In the grooves and on some of the lands there was deep pitting as if a drill the size of a tiny pin had been applied.

Today I fire lapped it with my Brownell's kit using the 220, 20 rounds, cleaning every five. The boolit was a Lyman .311 180 round nose with Lyman lube, with the grit pressed in between to steel plates.

Those were followed by 5 of the boolits with no grit. Load was 8 gr TrailBoss

In spite of old eyes and those terrible sights all 25 went into 2" @25 yds with no tipping.

Got it home and cleaned it with Hoppes and patches until they came out clean.

Bore scoped it and the scale was gone but the pinprick pits remain. I'd estimate 30% of the bore is compromised but the lands are sharp and you can still see rifling cutter tool marks in the grooves.

Before I have it made into a 35-40, I'd like some experience based advice on shooting it as is. The 5 I shot at the end did not lead at all.

I have a 190 gr NEI bore rider GC that drops at .311 (the back) with Wheelweights. Also a Lee Mosin mold dropping a 165 GC at .314.

I'm thinking of trying both with powder coating, the NEI unsized, the Mosin to .313.

I thought the pinpricks would fill with lead ..... they did not.

Advice sought and most welcome !

[Went2kck]

Looks like a fun rifle to shoot, Shoot it. That is all the advice i have.

[funnyjim014]

I say shoot it. Most mil surp rifles that I own have less than ideal bores and still shoot decent enough for my skill level

[runfiverun]

use a lube with about 5% carnuba in it.
shoot,shoot,shoot some more.

[303Guy]

This one has deep pin prick pitting near the muzzle. They don't show in the photo though.

[madsenshooter]

Give it a go as is, bearing in mind that the CMP sells new Krag barrels. https://estore.thecmp.org/?cat=BAR

[GhostHawk]

I have to agree with run5.

Carnuba in your lube 3-5% and just shoot it a bunch.
As long as the rifling edges are there and strong I don't think the pits are going to adversely effect things much.

They may slowly lead up, fill with lube, etc. But I see no real downside.

It is just not going to have a perfect mirror sparkling bore like a new rifle.

[guicksylver]

Many fine guns with "Bad Bores" have been brought back to life shooting cast bullets out of them....your's doesn't sound all that bad...my suggestion is not to fire lap it any more..I think 20 rounds may have been15 too many already...you'll only wear out the throat shooting more...RFR got the right idea..keep shooting normal cast bullets and it will get seasoned and look a lot better..dark maybe but very serviceable...fine old Krag ..don't give up the originality just because the bore don't glitter..she'll shoot better than you I bet !!..well maybe not.. don't know how well you shoot...nice find...

[Eldon]

I have firelapped 10+ barrels WITH PROFESSIONAL KITS. I'm not trying to "save money" by going cheap w/Napa valve grinding compound. Yes, FL with lead will move the throat a tiny bit. Way overblown .... anyone own a Weatherby ?

Since an "as issued" Krag throated for a 220 gr round nose will shoot modern 180 gr spitzers just fine, the long throat issue is another canard with no actual testing to verify the claims.

The last 5 shots, after cleaning were lubed with SPG and zero leading. I'm thinking powder coating may be helpful as I move velocity up.

Time will tell.

[303Guy]

I managed to get a close up of my deep pin prick bore.



This gun clearly has far worse bore condition to yours but if I cut the barrel back a bit more it would probably be Ok for shooting. As it is it spins the boolits just fine.

[psweigle]

As runfiverun has wisely suggested, carnuba will "season" the barrel with time. I wouldn't worry all that much with the bore the way it is, cast bullets with the PROPER fit will shoot better than most of us can.

[Texas by God]

It might not relate here but two of my most accurate milsurps had bad looking bores but were very accurate with jacketed. They were a late war Brno 98K and an Astra 400.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Eldon]

So what lube has a lot of "carnuba" in it ? I have used SPG since it came out for everything but now have switched almost all to powder coating.

[guicksylver]

http://www.lsstuff.com/...try them ...great lube and service...there is also a Carnuba BLUE out there ...you can google a recipe for this stuff if you are so inclined to make it yourself..

It'll take about 20 rounds to settle in...Dan