PC & Severely pitted 30-30 barrel ?

[Electrod47]

Pity, all around because of the bore. The outside of that gun looks good. I've had some scroungy weapons in my day and the bores were usually able to be bright and shiny. Somebody may have fired BP and never cleaned it proper

[elmacgyver0]

It may shoot just fine, you don't know until you try it.

[longbow]

I got some of my best early lessons on what cast boolits and shotgun slugs look like after firing from deep, wet, heavy snow in Kemano B.C. (just below the Alaska panhandle on the coast) many years ago. It snows lots there and wet heavy slop.

I was learning casting for "small bore" for my .308 and was using moderate Lyman loads under a Lyman 31141 with no gas check. I could see the streaks under the snow so thought "I wonder...?" Sure enough I managed to find quite a few. They were so badly gas cut from not having a gas check on them that the lube grooves were almost gone! I wound up getting gas checks and things improved immediately!

I had lots of experience casting for .45-70 and .58 muzzleloaders and never had an issue even with Ruger #1 loads in .45-70's under PB .45-70 boolits but those .30 cal. were being eaten up by gas cutting like I'd never seen!

Also recovered many Lyman Foster slugs from teh same deep snow and learned why they don't work. Too much undersize and uneven bump up was what I found.

Snow can be handy!

Longbow

[725]

That rifle looks to be in wonderful shape except for the bore. I agree, shoot some fire laps through it to clean it up. I've fire lapped a few and it does a fine job. Easy as pie. . If that fails, it looks to be a perfect candidate for a .35-30 conversion or even a .38-55. Might be even easier to just reline it to .30-30. I just always wanted a .35-30.

[Petander]

Yes. This might be a firelapping candidate.

I loaded some cowboy loads, this just became a 357.

1440 fps VV N320.

There was black crud but not excessive leading imo. Need to shoot more. Even the burning residue collects here big time.



I decided to keep this, just change my plans accordingly.

[longbow]

I'm with 725! Its a nice gun so if fire lapping doesn't fix it boring and lining for .30-30 might be possible or bore and re-rifle to .35-30 or .38-55. But there I go making other people's decisions and spending other people's money!

I guess I am window shopping!

It is a nice gun. I think I'd keep and make it work one way or the other.

Longbow

[oley55]

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...

Veering a bit off topic, I am assuming this is the ghost ring type front sight. The inserts should be easily changed out with a wide variety of apertures. I am currently using a hole type, sized just right for punching holes in paper at 100 yards, although not a Marples that I recall. The sight perfectly brackets a 6" target with just a whisper of white around the black providing a perfect and repeatable sight picture. With that front site and a Marples tang site, I routinely manage 100 yard 1.5" groups from my 24" Rossi R-92 in 357 magnum. Ideal for punching paper, but not so good for critters n such.

If you are interested I can look through my records on which brand of ghost ring and source for the inserts. The apertures come in a blued spring steel plate about the size of a credit card with a variety of posts/options ready to be twisted free and used.

edit: Lyman 17 with Lee Shaver inserts.

[Petander]

Veering a bit off topic, I am assuming this is the ghost ring type front sight. The inserts should be easily changed out with a wide variety of apertures. I am currently using a hole type, sized just right for punching holes in paper at 100 yards, although not a Marples that I recall. The sight perfectly brackets a 6" target with just a whisper of white around the black providing a perfect and repeatable sight picture. With that front site and a Marples tang site, I routinely manage 100 yard 1.5" groups from my 24" Rossi R-92 in 357 magnum. Ideal for punching paper, but not so good for critters n such.

If you are interested I can look through my records on which brand of ghost ring and source for the inserts. The apertures come in a blued spring steel plate about the size of a credit card with a variety of posts/options ready to be twisted free and used.

edit: Lyman 17 with Lee Shaver inserts.

Oh I really appreciate this, thank you very much.

Got a nice colour with clear & black today:

[oley55]

yes sir, those boolits look fine. I think we need a name for that color combination, how about 'Antique Pewter'?

[Win94ae]

My 1917 30-06 barrel looks like this.



I shoot lubed cast bullets without a problem; I can't see powder coating causing one.

I don't think the pitting is bad in and of itself, I regularly get 1 MOA groups with this gun. The story of this barrel is exactly like yours.



I can't find cast bullet groups.

[frankmako]

JB bore compound will help. it will take some time, but it will clean up most of your problem. you will have to work at it, it will take time and your arm will get sore.

[Petander]

Great comments and suggestions,great people,great forum,thank y'all.

I have a 200 grain bullet with lube groove. These are hard, Hi Teked and can take 300 WM without problems. I could fill the groove with lapping compound, is 360 m/s (1200 fps) okay for fire lap?



How can a 120 years old rifle look like this,me wonders...

[oley55]

check out NECO and Beartooth Bullets for pointers on fire lapping. Bare soft lead should be used for fire lapping. The lapping compound should be embedded into the lead by rolling the bullets between two strips of steel plate with the bedding compound smeared on the bottom plate. Your loads should be absolute minimum with just enough powder for the bullet to exit the barrel. Look for a PM from me.

[Bazoo]

Pretty neat old rifle. Here's some instructions for firelapping a revolver but it will apply to a rifle. https://gunblast.com/FerminGarza-Firelapping.htm

[303Guy]

My hornet barrel makes your barrel look brand new. It shoots sub MOA with jacketeds and not too badly with cast but those castings were less than perfect so I can't blame the gun. There was no leading from cast though.

My two-groove Brit looks like this;

It's one of my most accurate rifles with jacketeds. I'm now trying plan cast and so far there is no sign of lead been removed from the boolit. I only fired one boolit to recover and check.

My pig gun looked like this;

After fire-lapping


Here is a recovered boolit from the hornet.

It shoots paper patched boolits well enough to take out turkeys.

And here is boolit recovered from the pig gun.


And the reason why I call it my pig gun

[GregLaROCHE]

JB bore compound will help. it will take some time, but it will clean up most of your problem. you will have to work at it, it will take time and your arm will get sore.

I’d start with a few fire lapping and then go to the JB compound.

Are you in Finland? Will you be lapping in Lapland?

[charlie b]

So, how did the PC bullets do? When you cleaned it how did the patches look?

I love that rifle! If it did not shoot well I'd send it out and have it bored to larger dia, .32, .35 or .38-55?

[quack1]

I have a Krag that has a barrel at least as bad as yours, and it shoots plain base cast bullets, straight wheel weight alloy lubed with Felix lube, very well. I shoot hundreds of rounds each summer without any leading or buildup. As others have said, give yours a good workout before you do anything to that barrel, you might be pleasantly surprised.
You ask how a 120 year old gun can look so good? It's been reblued. A very good job, with nice sharp edges and square edged screw holes, but not original. Up until around 1916, levers, hammers and buttplates were case colored, yours are blued. Also, the locking bolt (the piece between the hammer and bolt) should not be blued. The stock also looks like a refinish, the straight line where it butts up against the side of the action looks slightly rounded from sanding in the pictures of it laying by the chronograph. Again, a very nice job, but not original. I certainly wouldn't mind owning a gun as nice as that one.

[dimaprok]

Was looking at your chronograph picture for a minute trying figure out what's wrong. 743 is awfully slow number and than it dawned on me - that's meters / second which translates to 2437.6 fps!
I am going to agree with previous suggestions to firelap the barrel. If I ever come across 30-30 rifle, I have everything for it but the dies.

[Petander]

Oh yes fouling is crazy.

I fired five low velocity coated cast bullets yesterday and cleaning took two hours. Another worn out brass brush.

It's the same with a box of factory j-ammo, you will need a big bag full of rags until blue stops coming out with Bore Tech copper remover.

It's so funny how we assume things like "yeah, I'll get a 30-30 for easy cast shooting."