cleaning a dark bore

[Joe Portale]

A while back, I saw a web page where some guy discribed a method of cleaning up dark rifle bores. It promised to clean up the dark to almost/near shiny condition. Of course, I didn't book mark the page.

If I remember the process it involved household ammonia , Bon Ami cleanser or similar and something else.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Or would anyone care to share their dark bore cleaning secrets?

I have some surplus rifles that have dark bores that make me crazy when I clean them. The rifles shoot fine and yep, I'm just being anal.

 

[johnwill]

I'm having difficulty imagining any truly effective method of making a major change on a dark bore, other than a barrel swap.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Shoot it first and see if it shoots straight. A pitted dark bore may still be a decent shooter.

 

[johnwill]

Gary,

I believe he mentioned it shot fine, just that he wants to "clean it up". I know of no sure way to do that. I've often considered firelapping a dark bore, anyone tried that? I would expect you'd have to remove some metal to "clean it up", that's about the only way I've thought of...

 

[C.R.Sam]

Using abrasives......lot easier to make it shoot worse than better.

Sam

 

[johnwill]

Actually, I agree that fire lapping it might not yield an improvement, but we were just working on making the bore look better.

 

[sleeping dog]

Here's a method of copper removal that uses ammonia:

http://www.storm.ca/~debin666/html/projects9.html

I tried it on a beat-up israeli conversion mauser. The bore looks a lot brighter. It doesn't shoot any better. WARNING- do this in a well-ventilated area.

Regards.

 

[Hen]

Try some brasso or flitz metal polish to brighten it up.

Hen

 

[HankL]

The world class, all time, definative work on this subject is right here. The Only Source For Barrel Cleaning Please note that some of the names have been changed to protect................

 

[tomsas]

Try some JB Bore Paste & Kroil first...If that doesn't do it, go the Flitz route, it's slightly more abrasive than JB...

Tom

 

[JR_rcsd]

If the dark bore is from the machining marks left from the rifling process, then you probably shouldn't mess with it. If it shoots straight and needs to be cleaned more often than not, oh well..If it's from fouling, look into the Outer's Foul out, well if its fouled so bad conventional cleaning processes don't work the first and second go round.