Cleaning a pitted 03-A3 barrel

[Leatherbark]

I recently came upon a Remington 1903-A3 with a 2-groove barrel that is fairly pitted mostly from about a foot in front of the chamber to the muzzle. The rifling grooves are well defined and are pitted in the grooves and on the lands. I haven't shot the rifle yet because I am still cleaning out what I guess is the copper. I've been using Gunslick foaming bore cleaner and the patches came out pure blue with blue syrup pouring out in front of the patch after leaving the foam in the bore for 30 minutes at a time. I have foamed/patched the bore 12 times and the patches are still somewhat blue although not near as blue as the first 7 or so.

My question is.... Is the blue patches still an indication of copper still buried in the pits?

My last session i used Sweets 7.62 a couple of times (still blue patches) and the bore foam again after that. Then I used Kroil and bore brush and then Kroil and JB bore paste. Patches still coming out nasty brownish black. Then I foamed the bore again and voila! A blue patch again LOL............Any advice short of a foul-out machine?

Thank you,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Bob

[Larry Gibson]

It is the copper in the pits and you probably won't get it out. An electrolysis device might get most out though. However, if shooting lube cast bullets it won't take long for the lube and probably some alloy to smooth over the pits. Thus if the rifling is strong it should shoot ok. Barrel might be a candidate for fire lapping. Another thing you might do is find some steel jacketed SKS/AK and load to 2300-2400 fps over 2400 or 4227. Or 7.62x54R steel jacketed bullets and load over starting loads for bullet weight of 4895. A couple hundred should do well.

I've been going through the cleaning/shooting steel jacketed bullets with a bubba'd M1917 lately.

[elk hunter]

A pitted bore can hide a lot of fouling both powder, the black stuff, and copper, the blue stuff. I'm always amazed at the amount of crud that is in old rifle barrels especially military ones.

[Fernando]

Try plugging the bore and get some KG copper remover and let her soak.
Use sweets or some other ammonia based to check for blue after.
This stuff is great - best copper cutter I ever tried.
It really eats the stuff and does not hurt steel.
Brushing with a carbon remover between treatments seems to help.

[243winxb]

Pits don't go away by cleaning. Shoot it. Or buy a new barrel. Will need headspacing. https://www.sarcoinc.com/1903a3-spri...l-2-groove-gi/

[waksupi]

What is your bore brush made of?

[Leatherbark]

I know the pits won't go away. Been shooting, reloading, dealing with pitted bores for 60 years. This is the first one that I have had this hard of time getting the copper out of. I'm looking at possibly a new barrel also. Thanks for the like to Sarco 2 groove barrels. Guess I'll cast up some lead boolits first and give it a try.

Bob

[LAGS]

I had a Mosin Nagants that had pitting and copper build up in the pitting.
I had to soak the bore with Straight Industrial Ammonia to get the copper out.
But after the copper was gone , and the barrel was fire lapped , it shot cast Boolits well.
Especially powder coated slugs like the 312-299 over RL 7

[Fernando]

I'm tellin ya try KG
You wont go back to anything else.
There is a test floating around the web they did by weighing
pennies before and after will all the popular bore solvents.
So tried it out and won't waste my money on others.
I still have a bunch of sweets and still check after I'm done
to make sure it's all gone and it has cleaned some real sewer pipes.

[Fernando]

https://www.coretacsolutions.com/pro..._KG12_TEST.htm
Hope this worked

[Shawlerbrook]

It takes a lot of elbow grease to work on those milsurp barrels. Does the barrel look any better. It never ceases to amaze me how good some ugly barrels will shoot.

[GBertolet]

After you are finished attempting to clean it, try shooting it, and see how she groups, before considering replacing the barrel. I have a 98 Krag, that was shot with corrosive ammo, and put away without cleaning, and sat for decades, by the previous owner. I did all of what you have done, in an attempt to clean up the pits, and ultimately gave up, and just shot it. It groups exceptionally well with cast bullets. Very satisfied as is. You may be also with your rifle.

[georgerkahn]

I have spent toooo many hours trying to get that not-blue patch to no avail. I reinforce 100% what Larry Gibson wrote ('cept I'm not messin' with any barrel(s) now). Listening to several sages at R&G club, the advice I was given was given was: 1/ Shooting safety is paramount -- for the shooter, firearm, and those close. A really pitted sewer barrel has no effect; 2/ As long as there are no obstructions, shoot it! You may have to clean it more frequently than a pristine barrel -- but, no harm! 3/If you're considering shooting it at an Olympic-type event...have lots of $$$... 1st replace the barrel, then "do" the trigger...then the sights...
Mine was an Eddystone 1917 with a sewer barrel. I cleaned it with a bore brush and Shooter's Choice after each trip to the range, followed by a light coat of gun oil on inside barrel. Before subsequent shooting I ran a few patches wet with Zippo cigarette lighter fluid through the barrel to remove oil. And... shot away.
No! The firearm definitely could not shoot baby aspirins at 100 yards! But -- as is -- I sure had lots of shooting fun with it.
geo

[GregLaROCHE]

I was thinking about suggesting fire lapping and searched in the search box, but couldn’t find anything. I know the topic has been discussed here more than once. I got hits for lapping and fire, but not fire lapping. I tried putting the words in parentheses and hyphenated. How come the search box only seems to work half the time?

If anyone can find some links to fire lapping, please post so the OP can have a look at them. It could be appropriate in his situation.

[FLINTNFIRE]

He can google fire lapping up pretty easy .

[GregLaROCHE]

I didn’t think to Google it. I just used the site’s search engine, because I remembered there had been threads on it.

[725]

How about a barrel lining? All the original stuff stays and done right you can hardly tell it's been relined.

[Leatherbark]

Thanks for all the advice. I guess I'll give shooting it a try to get a baseline. I have a sewer pipe 09 Argy with a .315 bore that I shoot the Lee bullet double coated with Eastwood green and size it to .316. With 16 grains of 2400 it'll put them all in a nice 1-1/2 inch group at 50 yards with several hovering around an inch. I'll try the same with this Springfield after I slug the bore. I think it will benefit also from fire lapping to smooth out the pits in the top of the lands................Bob

[Rich/WIS]

FWIW once had an old 20 inch barrel 94 Krag sporter that was pitted in the grooves from chamber to muzzle, although the lands were reasonably smooth. With a no drill Redfield receiver sight would reliably group the GC 311284 at 1500- 1600 fps into 3 inches or maybe less at 100 yds. Shoot it first before replacing the barrel, a new barrel plus installation is not cheap. A decent A3 is a fun shooter, I have one, and depending what you paid for it if all else fails it might be worth investing in a new barrel.

[AJB]

If you decide to re-barrel, it is worth noting that unused 1903A3 barrels are still pretty easy to find, and there are several available on EBay right now. They are also available at: https://www.sarcoinc.com/1903a3-spri...l-2-groove-gi/