stagpanther
New member
Update--barrel may be saved!
I dragged the rifle out of the safe and was actually looking at it to put a new barrel on, and decided to take one last look at the damage. While the finish was definitely eaten off at the muzzle and under the barrel, I decided to give the damaged crown the "neutron bomb" treatment of chemicals to see what would happen--pretty much had nothing to lose since I figured I'd lop off an inch of the muzzle anyway. After soaking a while in a couple of different treatments, I was surprised to see that the rifling had "repaired itself" at the crown. What I figured must have happened was the initial CLR treatment resulted in a "sludge" of metallic substances that solidified at the exit of the muzzle--it looked exactly like damaged rifling in color and texture to my eye. I don't know what to do about the bluing--which actually resembles a black epoxy paint of some sort and not real bluing, but I don't really care if the gun can still shoot OK.
I dragged the rifle out of the safe and was actually looking at it to put a new barrel on, and decided to take one last look at the damage. While the finish was definitely eaten off at the muzzle and under the barrel, I decided to give the damaged crown the "neutron bomb" treatment of chemicals to see what would happen--pretty much had nothing to lose since I figured I'd lop off an inch of the muzzle anyway. After soaking a while in a couple of different treatments, I was surprised to see that the rifling had "repaired itself" at the crown. What I figured must have happened was the initial CLR treatment resulted in a "sludge" of metallic substances that solidified at the exit of the muzzle--it looked exactly like damaged rifling in color and texture to my eye. I don't know what to do about the bluing--which actually resembles a black epoxy paint of some sort and not real bluing, but I don't really care if the gun can still shoot OK.