1915 J. Steven's Arms, Stevens Favorite, No. 27

K

KevinBeyerJr

New member
I recently have been tasked with cleaning my wife's grandmother's 22 Long Rifle, and after almost 100 years, and god knows how long it has been since it has been properly cleaned, I have questions about what to do with a corroded barrel. I cleaned it with typical Hoppes No. 9 cleaning solvent and using the wire brush included in my gun cleaning kit, it didn't make much of a difference. Does anyone have any tips, or should I take it to someone to restore it. Though I know that it isn't worth much to the average joe, but it has obviously been in the family for at least 4 generations.
 
The barrel can be relined, it really is not that difficult. Info and parts at Brownells.com or a gunsmith can do it for you. How corroded is it? I have seen barrels that look like the vale of tears still shoot very accurately. We are talking about the bore and rifling, right?
 
Yeah that's correct, after a couple of brushings with the copper wire brush, it cleaned it out a bit, but it is far worse than any pistol that I am used to, that I am very good about keeping cleaned after each visit to the gun range.

It is still semi clean, but it looks like small grains of sand in the barrel. Nothing that should affect the accuracy terribly, but it is still not in anything near pristine shape. If it wasn't that small of a hole I would post a picture, but no camera will do it justice.
 
If is just a family treasure because it was "Grandma's rifle", just clean it up and oil it well, then store it properly. Lining the barrel would be fairly expensive for a gun that will jsut sit in a closet, and it can ruin the appearance of the rifle if it is not done properly.
 
I've owned several Stevens rifles & pistols, from the 1890's - and every one of their bores looked like the inside of an old sewer pipe from all the years of shooting before non-corrosive ammo became available.

As posted above, many still shoot well - but any that don't either get a wallhook or a barrel reline.

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