Charter Arms Explorer II Leaded?

[moose30273]

The other day I bought a Charter Arms Explorer II pistol. I had seen it sitting in the counter and the price was right. I wanted it mainly for it's history (Being part of the Stoner/ Armalite family) I really had planned to just throw it in the safe and forget it. However I thought I would clean it really well before forgeting it. Problem is the gun has either been shot out or is just leaded beyond belief. As I have not seen a modern .22 lr ever shot out I tend to think it is lead. However, two days later and the bore only shows a hint of rifling. But it is squeaky clean. I know these guns were not renound for quality but I just do not think one in as good of condition as this one would be shot out. I have tried Butches Bore Shine, Hoppes #9 and some other things I will not mention to no avail. Any suggestions?

[docone31]

Chore boy, and elbow grease.
I believe those barrels were steel lined.

[Bret4207]

Like Doc says, Chore Boy or 4/0 steel wool and a some solvent.

[longhorn]

Huh! One of those shot enough rounds to get completely leaded up? I've shot 1K+ rounds in a day a couple of times through a Ruger semi-auto (I had 12 or 13 magazines for mine, at one time) and the barrel didn't look leaded. Something seems amiss; maybe lots of extremely poor ammo, or some sort of barrel problem. 4/0 steel wool plus Kroil soaking and some elbow grease will remove the lead-what do you have to lose?

[moose30273]

I don't know. Have now scrubbed and scrubed. Still no rifling. I think something is amiss. Who knows? Anyone want a project?

[GT27]

I would suggest shooting it to see if you bought a weapon, or a paper weight? Bullet flight will determine it. Hope you have a receipt for a return if it's the latter...

[buck1]

I saw a single six that way once. It was lead.....Buck

[tward]

I bought an AR 7 about 20 years ago, when charter arms was having a rough time of it, and the barrell had no rifling at all. Apparently got through QC and no one noticed, leaded like heck!
Tim

[jh45gun]

About leading I had a Ruger Government Model once that I really liked. I shot it on a hot day with some Remington Thunderbolt ammo that had been sitting in my truck for a week or two during hot weather. Well I did not notice all the lube had melted off the bullets. I shot that Ruger plinking and suddenly I noticed I was not hitting what I was shooting at any more. I looked down the barrel and it looked like a 17 caliber and it was spitting wire instead of bullets down the barrel. Cleaning it provided chunks of lead coming out of the barrel after working at it I finally got it clean. I was worried about all that pressure stressing the barrel so later I got rid of it. But maybe bad ammo did the same thing to this gun. I remember shooting a lot of shot cartridges in an old 22 Marlin when I was a kid that leaded up the barrel bad too.