Got my Bob Hoyt rebore back!

[T-Bird]

I need to add, I sent him $20 extra for shipping. When he sent it back to me, it costed him $25.50 I noticed. He didn't ask, but I sent him more money. Just informing, so y'all can judge how much to send him.

[lead chucker]

The Man trusts you will pay for his work. Every barrel I have sent him he has done what I asked and it just reappears in the mail with an invoice. I make a copy of the invoice with the shipping included and fire him off a check the next day. Not many people will do the work and hope they get paid by some one they don't even know on the other side of the country. He never asked me for money up front which would have been fine with me. Next barrel I have him do for me I want him to remember me and know he will get paid. Not many guys in the world left that trust people.

[lead chucker]

I sent him the barrel he did the work and mailed it back to me with out being paid any thing. That's a very trusting person.

[T-Bird]

Well LC, I offered to send him the money when I contacted him initially. I wouldn't have asked him to do it any other way. You're right, there aren't many trusting souls left these days. Unfortunately, that's largely because they have been burned by the large number of UNtrustworthy souls.

[LAGS]

Those ways of him doing business is one of the reasons that you guys see me promoting his work.
It also inspires me to try and do things for others in the same kind of way

[lead chucker]

I offered to give him money up front too but he didn't want it.

[T-Bird]

Maybe I sounded "shady"!

[lead chucker]

T-Bird. Not at all, I hope you didn't take it that way. Every one has there way of doing business. I was surprised he didn't want some kind of deposit when I sent my barrels. What are we all going to do when he retires. I hope he has kids or grand kids he is teaching.

[T-Bird]

I didn't take it that way, I was joking. Yeah, I don't know what we will do, he's a rare soul with considerable talent and a strong work ethic. A dying breed regrettably.

[Woodnbow]

I didn't take it that way, I was joking. Yeah, I don't know what we will do, he's a rare soul with considerable talent and a strong work ethic. A dying breed regrettably.

If you haven’t already, you might look into Lee Shavers method for smoothing barrels. I’ve used it on a few Hoyt barrels and lately every barrel I get.

“Lee Shaver’s Break-in Procedure

Having used the jacketed bullet/clean-between-shot process in the past and
specifically Badger’s procedure when breaking-in one of my Browning BPCRs, I
was not looking forward to repeating the very lengthy process with my other
Browning’s. Fortunately Lee Shaver came to the rescue with his much simpler and
less time consuming process. With permission from Lee I’ve included the details
of his procedure. It’s from a larger article Lee published in the May 2013 edition
of The Single Shot Exchange Magazine.

“Excerpt from “Breaking In a Barrel” by Lee Shaver:
Several years ago, I developed a process for breaking-in barrels for lead bullet use
that eliminated the afternoon of shooting and cleaning with jacketed bullet. It
began because I would occasionally have to get bad leading out of a barrel for a
customer, and when you charge what a gunsmith must charge to stay in business
you don’t want to spend an afternoon scrubbing the lead out of a customer’s gun.
And I’m sure the customer would rather not pay for said services.

What I learned was that when scrubbing lead out of a barrel, I could run a tight oily
patch through a few times and then take the patch off the jag. I would then unroll a
little 0000 steel wool and cut a piece the size of the patch. Place that over the
patch and then run it all through together. (The proper fit is when you have to
bump the rod a few times with the palm of your hand to get it started in the bore.)
When you shove that steel wool over a patch through the bore of a badly leaded
barrel, it may sound like paper tearing as the lead is ripped out of the barrel in a
pass or two. I can clean the lead out of the worst barrel in about ten or fifteen
minutes that way, and an average leaded barrel will be clean in a few strokes.

After using this technique for a while, I began to notice that the rifles that I was de-
leading that way seemed to lead less afterwards, which got me to thinking. We use
fine steel wool on the outside of old guns all the time to do some cleaning or spot
rust removal, and it does not damage the surface of the steel. It just scrubs it.
Which lead me to consider the fact that we are trying to break in a barrel by
smoothing the surface without cutting, and it seems to me that process would go
much quicker if we used something on the inside of the bore that was closer to the
hardness of the barrel instead of lead or copper. So I started trying the steel wool
and oiled patch technique on new barrels before shooting them. I use it about as
tight as I can get in the bore and wear out a steel wool pad or two in about 15
minutes, then I go and shoot the rifle.

How well does it work you might ask? On a few occasions, I have built a new rifle
and taken it to a match without ever having fired the rifle. All have performed
flawlessly in their first match and several times I won the match or set a record
with them. On one occasion, I set a new 300 yard range record with the first 13
shots out of a barrel. This method has become a service we offer to our customers
here in the shop and I have shared the technique many times with others.

So the next time you get ready to shoot that new rifle, just remember it is important
to break in a barrel properly, but if the operation you are doing to the barrel cuts –
it is not breaking it in. It may be making the barrel smoother, but to break the
barrel in you need to polish the bore by burnishing not cutting either by shooting it
or scrubbing it.”
Lee Shaver

[lead chucker]

That was a good read. I'm probably doing it rong using polishing compound. Hope I didn't mess up my new 58 cal barrel Hoyte just did for me. I get back to town Friday and hope to shoot it some more. Life always seems to get in the way when you want to go shooting.

[T-Bird]

I have run some 4/0 steel wool down this barrel, I read that was what "somebody" recommended that he did when lapping barrels. I didn't do it like that tho. That "somebody" was Lee Shaver, but I forgot his name. The way you describe it it a much better way and I'm gonna do it again. Thank's!

[LAGS]

On my used barrels that I want to Lap or Polish up a bit when I refinish a rifle , I make a Lapping Lug out of Epoxy and use some kind or polish like chrome cleaner.
I haven’t found any Hoyt reworked barrels that I had to go to that extent.
I mostly can just polish them out a bit with polish on a cleaning patch until I find a consistent travel of the cleaning patch as it is pushed down the bore.
When polishing a barrel,
I always do it in full length strokes and not little short strokes unless there is some obstruction you find in a certain spot.
But I haven’t found those spots in Hoyt barrel so far.

[Brimstone]

Yes Lee Shaver was who recommended I use steel wool for leading. His reasoning made perfect sense to me having a bluing tank and applying all forms of bluing to my guns, hot caustic, slow rust, cold and charcoal bluing. The steel wool doesn't take the finish off.
Frankly I'm still a bit skeptical it can burnish the rough spots in a barrel, if it does, it's certainly the slowest and gentlest of methods for sure.
I prefer to lap with fine compound on my patched jag.

Anyway, the steel wool is perfect for removal of lead. In fact it was my passing comment about figuring out my leading issues with my Postel bullet that brought up how to remove the lead. He was right. It works just fine.

I still don't remember what he said to look into for solving the leading issues, just the steel wool to remove it. My brain just tossed the first part out entirely.

[Texas by God]

Just curious, how much does a rebore cost?
Can a 1-48” twist 50 caliber barrel become a 1-66” .54 caliber barrel?


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[LAGS]

I haven’t had a barrel done for over a year and a half.
So I can’t give you the current prices .
But all you have to do is call Bobby.
But what I am getting ready to send him is also .50 Renegade barrels that I want rebored to .54 with a slow twist.
Bobby Hoyt
717-642-6696
I figured you would ask for the number

[Texas by God]

Thank you Lags!


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[T-Bird]

mine was $125 with 25.50 for return shipping.

[Woodnbow]

On my used barrels that I want to Lap or Polish up a bit when I refinish a rifle , I make a Lapping Lug out of Epoxy and use some kind or polish like chrome cleaner.
I haven’t found any Hoyt reworked barrels that I had to go to that extent.
I mostly can just polish them out a bit with polish on a cleaning patch until I find a consistent travel of the cleaning patch as it is pushed down the bore.
When polishing a barrel,
I always do it in full length strokes and not little short strokes unless there is some obstruction you find in a certain spot.
But I haven’t found those spots in Hoyt barrel so far.

I’ve seen a post from you in the past describing this technique. Looks like it would work just dandy.

For others, I would guess I use at least 50 full length strokes to wear out a steel wool pad, then I make a new one and do it again. I had one barrel Bob did which had some chatter marks on the lands. This treatment cleaned them up a good bit and a few hundred paper patched bullets did the rest. It’s a good shooter and easy to clean.

[Texas by God]

mine was $125 with 25.50 for return shipping.

Thank you!


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