Dark bore w/ good rifling or bright bore w/ average rifling

K

KLRANGL

New member
So I'm pretty new to this whole milsurp thing. I bought the Mauser, and just picked up a Mosin, and plan on expanding the collection to all the bolt rifles of WWII.

When I was looking at all the Mosins this one dealer had at the last gun show, I noticed they all either hard dark bores with good rifling, or bright bores with average rifling. I couldn't really decide which one was better, and being a Mosin I didn't really care all that much about accuracy, so I just went with the bright bore. What's the general consensus on bore condition, and is there anything else I should really look for?
 
thats the funny thing about them, you really never know until you shoot them. I have heard of some with what look like horrible rifling and lots of pitting that shoot really well, while others look new and cant group at all.

Personally i would go with the shinny one.
 
Muzzle condition counts, too. Good barrel + good rifling + bad crown = inconsistent POI.

To address the original question, I'd rather have good rifling than a shiny bore.
 
My answer above made it sound like I'd rather have good rifling and and dark bore. More precisely, I'd rather the rifling be good and the bore be dark than have a shiny bore and bad rifling.

Mainly it's just a gut feeling, but imho shiny versus dark bore (not pitted, though) will have no effect on the accuracy of the shot. Rifling does.
 
Rifling first, bore can be cleaned if its dirty. Proof is in the pudding, how does it shoot. Made the mistake of buying a .17 cleaning brush and rod and cleaned my Gamo Air Rifle. Accuracy went right out the window and after several hundred shots is just now beginning to get its old accuracy back. Lesson learned. Shiny barrels look nice and are proof of good maintenance but not necessarily a good shooter.
 
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