PC & Severely pitted 30-30 barrel ?

[Petander]

So how bad barrels are you people shooting with PC?

I got my hands on an old 1894 , now after two days of cleaning I found the barrel seriously pitted. I was thinking a dedicated cast bullet fun gun mostly. Because I have the gas check maker now...

My PC is holding good with 44 mag, will PC work in a pitted 30-30 with a 140 grain GC bullet?

Keep or send back? I'm just testing it and oh man, finding all those layers of lead and copper...









Thank you. (I can reply to myself tomorrow I guess...)

[Smoke4320]

That one will be rough .. no pun intended
lots of file like action on the PC coating

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I don't know the answer about using PC bullets in a pitted barrel, but although the close up photo looks terrible, the through the bore photo doesn't look that bad. I'll bet it would still shoot acceptably well with jacketed bullets.

DG

[1006]

I am thinking: shoot it, see how it works. It does not look too bad to me. I inherited a shot out 257 Roberts. It looked a lot worse than yours and would still shoot the first 4 Jacketed bullets after a good cleaning into a 1 moa hole at 100 yds. I wish I had not eventually gotten it re-barreled. It was fine for hunting. The group started growing exponentially after the 5th shot. I would try moly coated bullets—the moly might help fill the rough spots, MIGHT.

[Petander]

Thanks folks

Yes the last pic is a greatly magnified pic of a Lyman borescope screen.

[farmbif]

those take downs are not real common or affordable if they are not all worn out. if it doers not shoot acceptably and if it didn't break the bank I would call jes and see if you can get it bored out to 32 win spl

[BJK]

Can't barrels be relined? I seem to have heard of that and filed it away in the dust and cobwebs that is currently my mind.

[Finster101]

Before I did anything I would shoot it and see how it does. You might be trying to address a problem that isn't there.

[zarrinvz24]

Having had a few sewer pipe Vz24’s back in the glory days of cruffling, I can say that you may be surprised by how it shoots. Take it out and give it a try. Even lead boolits may do surprisingly well. If not, than no big deal, your right back at where you are right now.

[rockrat]

Might take some JB bore compound and lap the barrel a bit to help smooth things out a little. Then shoot it and see how it performs

[GoodOlBoy]

Before I did anything I would shoot it and see how it does. You might be trying to address a problem that isn't there.

I second that. Before you make a decision. See how it shoots.

God Bless.

Richard

[longbow]

Since you are just testing you wouldn't want to be altering the gun but if the pitted barrel can get the price down you might consider options to make a shooter out of it. It looks nice externally and the take down is a nice feature. No point in having a gun that won't shoot accurately though.

I'd be inclined to try firelapping or hand lapping with fairly fine abrasive then give it a try... or as stated above, give it a try and see how it shoots. If it shoots well and doesn't lead badly then that answers it. If it does lead up badly and/or doesn't shoot well then lapping may fix it.

Alternately, rebarreling. reborring to .35 caliber or reboring and rechambering to .38-55 are options.

How are the rest of the internals? If the action is all good then tell the guy the barrel is a sewer pipe and he's asking too much! Get the price down to where you can put some money back into it to fix the barrel.

Longbow

PS: Sorry, that doesn't address your question about powder coating then does it? That I can't help with.

[Petander]

I actually loaded 50 rounds of 170 Sierras (Vihtavuori N140 load) while the rifle was being shipped.

I then shot them all without inspecting the gun, I know the seller, he is sort of a collector and I assumed his guns are as clean as his vintage guitars. Well they are not.

It shot acceptably, minute of deer, I had clays on a clean snow berm, easy to see hits. Sort of funny marble front sight with a round hole in it...

I also checked function with some factory ammo. Hornady velocity is as promised.



These will be fired today. There's still some ancient crud in the barrel but I'll shoot these and see what happens, coating / leading-wise.

[GregLaROCHE]

You might want to consider putting a few fire lapping rounds through it.

[coloraydo]

Maybe try a few paper patched through it.

[Smoke4320]

I would keep s close eye out for buildup and if possible to somehow capture fired bullets for examination.
Those fired recovered bullets will tell you alot as to what to expect
Maybe build a snowbank to shoot into?

[6.5 mike]

Think I would try the pp'ing. I've used it before, worked well in a 303 Savage, need to finish that one, lol.

[longbow]

303 guy says he paper patches for some pretty rough bores with good success. I would have thought the paper would get torn up by a rough bore but apparently not. The bore in that gun doesn't look as bad as some of 303guy's guns.

If you haven't done it, it is a new skill to learn but not difficult for boolits of .30 cal. and 150 gr. or longer. I had some trouble trying to paper patch 100 gr. boolits for my .303's. Short little things they are! After all the fumbling and work I got some reasonably well patched boolits but they didn't shoot very well. 180 gr. PP worked fine. I'm too lazy to do much paper patching though.

If it was me testing that gun I think I'd want to keep it unless there is another in better condition available. If it works well as is no problem, if not I'd be looking at fixes and I have to think barrel replacement wouldn't be easy or cheap for the take down aspect but lining (if possible) or reboring to larger caliber shouldn't cost too much if lapping didn't fix it.

Longbow

[FredBuddy]

My 1898 30-40 Krag looks a lot worse
than your pictures. I worked up a load
with the Lee 150 FN, checked and powder
coated that shoots quite accurately. The
powder coat doesn't seem to be scraped
off by the pits since my cleaning patches
still come out looking more fuzzy than
when they went in ! I make a final pass
with a brush to get the lint out.

[Petander]

Maybe build a snowbank to shoot into?

Build? Haha. This is Finland, man tall banks everywhere right now.

I will find some bullets later in spring for sure.

I'm also thinking keeping the rifle, it's a good one except the bore for cast. I can get a deer @ 100 right now. And I can trade other hobby (music) things for this rifle no money involved. Bluing looks original.

It probably has the chrorite primer cancer thing I just read about.

This just may not be my dedicated cast 30 cal rifle that the plan was.