I have been given by my FIL an early serial number Marlin 1894 produced sometime around 1904 in .25-20. No one knows when the last time it was shot. It was given to him in exchange for reroofing someone's home probably 20 years ago. So there is no way to know the history. I cleaned the action which was very gummy and lots of gunk in there. The action works well, not super smooth, but very functional. The barrel is in rough shape. There was visible rust so I decided to lead lap the barrel. It was my first time doing this so I'm sure someone else could have done a better job but after a couple trys I got a decent plug and and began to work it down the barrel from the muzzle end. Everything was going well the first 12" or so from the muzzle, the lead plug grabbed the rifling and was turning as I expected, then we basically hit a free fall around the 12" mark. The plug no longer grabbed any rifling and there was very little resistance all the way to the chamber. Being more on the optimist side I figured the barrel was half good so maybe the bullet would catch the last 12" of rifling and continue downrange like a good bullet would. Wrong. I have keyholes all over the place. Loaded it down considerably in hopes that a slower bullet would catch, but no. I am literally getting 8' (8 foot!) groups at 50 yards.
After my internet research I am guessing that someone fired corrosive ammo years ago and the chamber end of the barrel was eat away with rust. Does anyone have any other ideas what could have caused this?
Secondly, any recommendations on what to do to salvage this gun? I have no interest in owning a gun that doesn't shoot. I also do not want to sell it as it was given to me by family and would love to pass it along to my boys. I am considering reboring to a larger caliber or relining to the same caliber. Does anyone have any experience with gunsmiths here that would do this?
Thanks in advance.