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I found a slick trick for polishing rusted round barrels.
I use my wood lathe. I make appropriate plugs from hard wood and place them in each end of the barrel. Chuck it up and turn @300 rpm.
I then use cocus cloth in progressive finer grits until the rust pits are gone. I then polish in the conventional way on the buffer. This also works really well for removing draw filing marks.
After you profile a barrel on the lathe, do the same thing and use an angle grinder with sandpaper discs to remove the lathe tool marks, then polish normally. I have my wood lathe set up with delrin points on both ends and just run them in the bore. (usually crown and chamber afterwards anyhow.)
I've been threatening to buy a wood lathe to polish barrels with, to save the ways on my metal lathe, for several years. I draw file and use a one inch belt sander and various grit belts. The problem is space. You would think with nearly 1000 square feet of shop/garage I could find room. Guess I should have built a bigger shop.
I do the same thing but it is amazing how long it takes to remove marks and pits. Also a huge pile of emery strips.
I wonder how a grit loaded buff in an electric drill would work?