Cleaning a rusty barrel

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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Erud on Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:30 am

Holland&Holland wrote:
Erud wrote:
Bearcatrp wrote:I have the black spray can of CLP. This stuff is bad? Been using it for years. Seems to do a good job.


Nothing wrong with it for general gun cleaning, but it may not be up to getting the rust out that you described. CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust) is more potent. It’s about all I’ve used in barrels for the last 3 or 4 years and it is better on carbon than any gun cleaning product I’ve tried. I have not tried it on rust, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t do more than the CLP does. Flitz and Butch’s Bore Paste are both mild abrasives and will get even more out when scrubbed back and forth with a brush.

What is your procedure for using it for general cleaning? Any tips or tricks you have learned? Techniques to keep it off the blueing?


I pretty much use it the same as any other bore cleaning product. My regular process for cleaning my barrels is this:

1. Push a couple dry patches through the bore to get the large chunks out.
2. Scrub back and forth (focusing on throat and first 10" or so of bore) with CLR-soaked patches on a spear-tip jag until they start to come out sort of clean-ish. This usually takes 8-10 patches.
3. 10 strokes back and forth with a bronze brush with CLR on it.
4. Push 2 or 3 dry patches through to get the remaining slop out.
5. Put it away.

I do that every couple hundred rounds or so and it does a great job of keeping carbon under control. It also removes some copper, but I don't care about copper one way or the other. Every so often (probably every 600-800 rounds, maybe a little more often when a barrel is nearing the end of it's life) I will scrub bit with Flitz or Bore Paste to get the throat smoothed out a bit. This is for 308's that have pretty high accuracy requirements, and I generally replace barrels at 3500-4000 rounds. They are always still shooting great at that number, but I know they're getting close and they don't owe me anything at that point. I've only ever actually "shot out" one barrel, it was a krieger .308 and it officially gave up the ghost at 4400 rounds.

My rifles have blued receivers and I don't take any special precautions using CLR, just wipe it off if it gets anywhere it isn't supposed to. The bluing on the inside of the receivers is lighter than on the outside. That may be a result of using CLR (and other solvents), but they also have many thousands of bolt cycles under their belts. If I were using it on a collector piece I would probably be a little more careful, but mine are tools.
Last edited by Erud on Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Erud on Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:35 am

On another note, when I was in high school I had a friend that worked at the local Domino's Pizza. One night when he was pretty new he ended up being the only employee there at the end of the night and had to close up the store by himself. He wasn't quite clear on the process, and ended up accidentally mopping the floor with the muriatic acid that was there to clean the stainless steel oven. I don't remember all the details, but it removed the grout from between the floor tiles overnight. I don't know if that's good or bad when it comes to use on firearms, but the suggestion reminded me of that story.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby crbutler on Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:28 pm

Hydrochloric acid (muriatic) will get rid of the rust… and the rifling.
It’s a strong acid.

I’d use whatever chemical bore cleaner you usually use, and then as Erud mentioned, JB (I’ve never used flitz in a bore) to get what you can out.

A .22 RF usually uses milder steel than centerfire guns. It doesn’t handle cleaning as well.

I’d get what you can out, then try shooting it. If accuracy is poor, I’d go straight to having the barrel sleeved given this is a heirloom rifle.

BTW, Novak’s boiling water thing is the same as rust bluing. What he is doing is converting rust to rust blue then carding off the scale. The undamaged bluing remains, and the rust spots are now rust blued. Looks good, especially on guns that had been rust blued originally.

That is not particularly effective with the bore, but rather the exterior surface. You can’t really effectively card the interior rifling, so you can’t knock the converted scale off that way.

My experience is that you can get the rust out with aggressive cleaning, but you may or may not have acceptable accuracy- and it will not be as good as it was prior to rusting- may be pretty close, but not as good- and it will definitely foul faster than it used to. The pits, which will be there regardless, are the cause of that.

I’ve had a few hunting guns that I’ve kept hunting with despite rusting in the bore, but usually I’m stuck getting them rebarreled.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Bearcatrp on Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:39 pm

After about 500 rodding with CLP and brush, decided its time to get out the bore scope. Take a look at the pitting. Should I rebarrel this old gem? Its in the middle of the barrel.

Image

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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Erud on Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:01 pm

How does it shoot?
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby crbutler on Sat Jan 22, 2022 7:43 pm

+1

If it shoots ok, it’s fine.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Bearcatrp on Sat Jan 22, 2022 8:42 pm

Have no idea how it shoots. This rifle has been sitting a long time. Wanted to clean it up before trying. Can’t believe how much powder residue I’m still getting out of it. Will have to wait until spring to test it out.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Holland&Holland on Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:33 am

Bearcatrp wrote:Have no idea how it shoots. This rifle has been sitting a long time. Wanted to clean it up before trying. Can’t believe how much powder residue I’m still getting out of it. Will have to wait until spring to test it out.

Why wait till spring? They shoot fine in the winter.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby Erud on Sun Jan 23, 2022 7:53 am

I wouldn’t do anything with it until you shoot it. If it shoots well, I wouldn’t do anything. Borescopes are good at determining what a barrel looks like, but bad at determining how well one will shoot.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby speedy396 on Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:02 pm

Could also plug the barrel and fill it with Kroil and let it soak for awhile. Then brush, polish, and clean. ProShot makes a sprial brush for removing rust. Looks kinda like a brillo pad.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby crbutler on Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:19 pm

Per your borescope photo, no need to do anymore cleaning until you shoot it. You did a good job getting the rust out.

While it might lead a bit easier than a Virgin bore, if it shoots well, don’t mess with lining it.

If it’s mostly in the middle of the barrel, you might be surprised… I’ve seen more issues with damage at the muzzle end causing inaccuracy than elsewhere.

It’s also a reasonably cheap rimfire… if you can hit a golf ball at 30 yards with it, I don’t know how much better sleeving or rebarreling will get you.

Have reasonable expectations.
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Re: Cleaning a rusty barrel

Postby smurfman on Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:07 pm

You could also run some DynaTek Bore Coat down the barrel. It seems to have helped some with a Krag I tried it on. At the least, it cleaned up better and easier.
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