Bore scratches in new gun

H

hondo25

Inactive
Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and have recently purchased a new SAA clone in .44-.40 at a considerable cost of about $800.00. I'd rather not mention the manufacturer's name as I have purchased several of their replica's and their customer service has been outstanding.

My concern is this. As I went about cleaning it up this past weekend in preparation for its first firing, I noticed a few small scratches inside the bore. After a thorough cleaning with Butches' Bore Shine and a finish with "JB's", I could still see these scratches. They are pretty much confined to the middle of the inside of the bore. They appear to be superficial and do not seem to be compromising the rifling or the edges of the rifling. The barrel itself is 5 1/2".

I can package it up and fed-ex it back to the manufacturer. My questions is, is it worth the bother?

I'm relatively new to guns but the few that I currently own do not have any scratches, minor or otherwise, inside their bores. I'm not sure how much this would affect the guns performance. I plan to shoot primarily factory "Cowboy Action loads" at the local range.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hondo
 
Hondo, from my experince over the years, I have came across quite a few brand new guns with scratches in the bore. What these are, is actually tool marks, caused by the reaming and rifling process. You are most likely to see these kinds of marks in a button rifled barrel. 99.9% of the time these are purely cosmetic, and in no way adversely effects the accuracy. The only thing it may do is "lead" bore a little more quickly, than a perfectly smooth bore.

Since you've already J&B'd the bore, I would shoot it with a few different loads, to see how accurate the pistol really is. If it is shooting accurately enough for your satisfaction, then keep it as is and shoot away. If it is not showing satisfactory accuracy, then send it back, detail why you are sending it back, and expalin that you would like it rebarreled.

Again, shoot it first, and more than likely, you will find that those scratches bother you more than it does the accuracy.
 
Dear 1SHOT1KILL,

Thanks for your kind reply. I would tend to agree with your assessment that these are machine marks and that they are essentially cosmetic and nothing more.

It would seem strange to me that they could affect accuracy to any extent that I could percieve, but being a brand new gun I wasn't sure if I should fire it first. The company I purchased it from offers all of their guns with a "Lifetime Warranty" and I'm sure they'd make good on these marks, but I really don't want to send a new gun back to the factory if it isn't really necessary.

I like your advice about shooting some different loads and judging it's accuracy first.

Is there anything I could do to maybe polish out these marks a bit so they don't collect leading or cooper fouling?

I know there are metal polishes that might do the trick. JB makes a product called "Bore Shine" I think, that might smooth them out a bit.

Anyway Thanks again for your response.

Hondo
 
hondo25....I agree with 1shot1kill...It may not apply to your situation or what 1shot 1kill said, but sometimes what looks to be like a scratch, is actually the gas release if your shooting a semi-auto.
 
You can try to lap the bore some. I would not fire lap however. I would use J-B Bore Cleaning Compound, on a tight fitting patch. The J-B Bore Cleaning Compound is a very, very fine abrasive compound, that with a little elbow grease, will remove minor and fine scratches in the bore. I've used it on several muzzleloader bores that had radial scratches from the reaming prcess that the button rifling process didn't remove. It took about 200 passes, but they are hardl noticeable now, and unless you knew they were there in the first place, you wouldn't notice them at all.

You can get J-B Bore Compound at Brownell's, http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1160&title=J-B%7e+NON-EMBEDDING+BORE+CLEANING+COMPOUND]

and Midsouth Shooters Supplies at http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item.asp?sku=00048083065002

It is easy to use, just saturate the bore with somehting like CLP or Breakfree, apply J-B to a tight fitting patch, make about 25 full passes, resaturate the bore, apply j-b to a new patch and make another 25 full passes, and repeat for atleast 100 passes, then clean and inpsect the bore. Continue until the bore is too your liking, but I don't think you will need over 200 passes, 100 might do it just fine. Remeber to make full passes, not short ones in the scratched area.
 
bore scratches in new gun

1shot1kill and other responders,

I took your advice and ran about a 100 passes of JB compound through the bore. The scratches all but disappeared. The only way you can see them now is if your looking for them and shine the bore light at just the right angle.

They were fairly superficial to begin with I guess.

Went and fired it for the first time yesterday. As best I can tell the accuracy isn't really affected by anything besides my mediocre shooting skills.

Thanks to you and all of the other forum members who were kind and thoughtful enough to take the time to offer their opinions and helpful advice.
It's much appreciated!

Hondo
 
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