Rolling Block outside barrel pitting

[lastditch]

Found this site a while back, been just reading and learning again, got out of casting and reloading a while back. Now I am getting back into it.
I collect WW2 military arms, but lately I am getting back into the 11mm European type cartridges.
Now I have a safety question, picked up a couple of .43 Rolling Blocks along with a 7mm Mexican RB.
The 7mm has nice crisp rifling, haven’t slugged the bore yet. My concern is the rust pitting around the chamber area, photos show the story.
I will be shooting cast bullets with light loads, any ideas or concern I should look at.
Need to do some front sight work and re-crown barrel also.
Thank you in advance for answers and a great site.
Tom

[country gent]

That dosnt really look like plain rust pitting to me in the pics its to localized for as heavy as it is. I would recrown and fix sights to test using light loads. I'm wondering if blood or some chemical got on it there starting the process. Another reason that brings this thought is bore is crisp. This is unfinished metal and should have corroded before the blued areas did,

[marlinman93]

Looks like plain old rust to me. But likely from laying on something damp, or even laying on damp ground. It is localized vs. all over, so it needed to be in direct contact with moist material.
Rust does make metal harder, and the ancient Romans used it to harden their swords by burying the blades for a length of time as long as a year. Then they dug the blades up and polished the rust off. This was before heat treating was discovered many decades later. So the gun's metal is harder than it originally was, but I don't believe in the area your gun is rusted that it will hurt. That's very thick metal there, and mild cast loads shouldn't be an issue.
If all you plan to do is load and shoot it a little, I think it's fine. But too far gone to consider using the action or gun for any restoration work.

[OlDeuce]

Found this site a while back, been just reading and learning again, got out of casting and reloading a while back. Now I am getting back into it.
I collect WW2 military arms, but lately I am getting back into the 11mm European type cartridges.
Now I have a safety question, picked up a couple of .43 Rolling Blocks along with a 7mm Mexican RB.
The 7mm has nice crisp rifling, haven’t slugged the bore yet. My concern is the rust pitting around the chamber area, photos show the story.
I will be shooting cast bullets with light loads, any ideas or concern I should look at.
Need to do some front sight work and re-crown barrel also.
Thank you in advance for answers and a great site.
Tom

Tom if that was my old Roller..........I would glass bead the rust/pitted areas and silver solder the pits smooth and re blue !!!! Ol Deuce

[lastditch]

Thank you for the input so far. Originally I was not planning on keeping the 7mm as my interest is with the larger European calibers, I shoot the 50-70 and 45-70 now.
I have little into the 7mm since it was a package trade, we both got the best of each other ; )
I quickly realized if I sold it I would miss it and have to find another, so the saga begins.
I can live with the pitting, as I will likely not shoot it much my concern is reduced integrity of action.
Original post said I would shoot cast bullets, I now leaning toward jacketed, anyone see an issue on that? Still reduced /light loads.
As far as the pitting, about 20 years ago I took a summer class at one of the gun smithing schools in the area, one person who did a demonstration was welding/brazing a much pitted 86 action.
The rod he was using was one that could take bluing or browning. After that I always do a triple take when looking at older firearms. I don’t remember the rod number.
Tom

[marlinman93]

Tom if that was my old Roller..........I would glass bead the rust/pitted areas and silver solder the pits smooth and re blue !!!! Ol Deuce

How do you blue silver solder? I've seen barrels with attachments silver soldered on and the solder showed up easily. Those pits would need to be welded, and once welded the gun needs to be relined, as welding pulls metal and ruins the bore.

[Mk42gunner]

While fugly, I don't think the pits on the outside of the barrel are deep enough to affect the strength of the barrel, there is a hole drilled in the bottom of the chamber area that is deeper than the pits. I am not sure about the pitting on the action itself, it may or may not affect the hoop strength of the receiver. It is hard to give definitive advice from pictures on the internet.

Robert

[Texas by God]

A friend had a Browning Safari 7mm mag pitted like that. We bead blasted it then filled the pits with JB Weld. Shoeshine sanded the epoxy to flush then painted flat black with engine enamel. It looked good &he's still using it 30years later.
Best, Thomas.

[OlDeuce]

How do you blue silver solder? I've seen barrels with attachments silver soldered on and the solder showed up easily. Those pits would need to be welded, and once welded the gun needs to be relined, as welding pulls metal and ruins the bore.

Marlinman.....The last sight I soldered on.... Well....I cleaned it all with steel wool and alcohol.....and that put the cold blue to it and WoW Just like taking the cold blue to an old Brass framed repo pistol !!! It worked Try it!!!! Ol Deuce

[marlinman93]

Yes, cold blue is probably the only thing that will darken it. But it will easily wear off, as it's a very thin surface application with no durability. Unless the owner wants to apply some sort of clear sealer over the darkened silver solder. And if that's needed, might as well paint it.

[OlDeuce]

Yes, cold blue is probably the only thing that will darken it. But it will easily wear off, as it's a very thin surface application with no durability. Unless the owner wants to apply some sort of clear sealer over the darkened silver solder. And if that's needed, might as well paint it.

I've found normal ware the stuff does Ok! and always easy to give it another dab every once in a while :-) Ol Deuce