chamber pitted with rust

M

marklyftogt

New member
I have an old Stevens 311 I am cleaning up with one barrel that has a spot about 2" long that was really rusty and is now pitted. Is it safe to shoot? I hope to use it in cas.
 
If you want to be competitive with it, you might consider taking it to a smith (someone in your posse probably can recommend one) who works on doubles for CAS. They can polish the chambers and make it easier to kick out the empties by jerking the gun backward. If you have to pull them out by hand, your times will be too slow to win much, all else being equal.

At the same time, and before you commit yourself to paying for any work, you can get the gunsmith's opinion about the pitting.
 
I just meant some kind of protective oil.
Click to expand...

Whatever you meant you wrote

Well, if the rusting is only on the outside, and there was enough lube/grease in the bore and working parts, that rust doesn't mean much regardless even if pitted.
Click to expand...

Speaking for myself, I do not consider lube/grease to be some kind of protective oil.
 
Can't we all just get along?

I polished the chambers and the bores with 0000 steel wool wrapped around a bronze brush. All the surface rust is gone and shells chamber well so I think I will be fine. For cowboy shooting it shouldn't make much difference.

And newbie.....if you ever want any good advice on here I wouldn't tick off the old timers that know their stuff :)
 
you should have called in the jaws of life to pry that %$%%@ng response out.

Final message prior to mine, ( using 0000-BT ) would have been my advice. GL
 
If you really want to polish the chambers get a cleaning rod, stick a cleaning patch on it that will just go into the chamber. Chuck the rod in a drill. Smear valve polishing compound on the rag. Now run the rod in and out of the chamber with the drill running. This will slick the chamber up better than anything I know of and no need for a gunsmith. Remington Shells are the easiest to shuck out of a SXS.
 
Update

Well I cleaned her up best I could and took her out to the range to test fire.

Performed like a champ. Fun to bring an old rust bucket back to life.
 
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