Assistance with a rough bore.

I picked up a 12ga. New England Trade Gun with a rough bore. No major crators or real bad pits however it is rough. I've been told "use emery cloth" but I would appreciate additional info.

R.I., Ive used this tool from Brownells and it works great! http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7930/Product/SHOTGUN-BARREL-HONE
Robby

The brownell's tool is the ticket. I have also had some success with taking a 1/2" dowell, cutting a slit in the end, inserting emery cloth and oil, and spinning it in the bore with an electric drill. I use heavy paper to make sure the emery roll on the end fits tight. Cheap and easy. Use finer and finer grit til you get the polish you want.

0000 Steel wool used as a patch with your ramrod. Will polish up the bore with a little (or a lot of) work.

Ive always taken green scotch cloth pads cut so it snugly fits the bore.attach it to a cleaning rod with a little hoppes gun oil and worked it up an down or if you can attach it to a drill motor so much the better.

That is the system we used to use to polish aircraft hydraulic cylinders after honing. You just insert newspaper shims to get a nice tight fit and polish away. The emeroy cloth was a lot cheaper than super fine honing stones. :idunno:

Recently tried fire lapping a barrel using wet patches with sandy clay. It worked GREAT!
Use an absolute minimum of powder so that the polishing effect begins further down in the barrels than you would be seating a ball.

My source of the polishing material was crawdad mound. Any source of clay should work just fine.

I looked at the honing tool and thought "great, only $14.99" Then realized it is too short to do much good. Then saw the extension for almost $80!! Gee whizz, darn it. Also not much description of grit sizes. I think I'll stick with sand paper on a ram rod with a split in the end. Just chuck it in a hand drill, spin it while running it up and down the bore. Cheap, simple, works.

Laffindog, An adapter for that tool can be made easy enough, and used with cheap hardware store bar stock. Depending on what "rough bore" means, you could be hard pressed to clean it up with emery.
Robby

Robby said:

R.I., Ive used this tool from Brownells and it works great! http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7930/Product/SHOTGUN-BARREL-HONE
Robby

Click to expand...

You can get these at your local auto parts store. They are Brake Cylinder hones

...I agree with Ohio, but be careful to use a touch of tape or glue to help the emery cloth stay on the dowel... I had a bugger of a time retrieving a curled up piece of emery from the breech end when it failed to come out with the dowel... Thank goodness for coat hangers and needle nose pliers!...

I've used both the Brownell's tool/brake hone with an extension rod I made & the emory-paper-on-a-stick routine. The grit on the stones for the Brownell is very fine, not quite polishing, but close. Takes a long time if the bore is really rough, plus need to be careful to keep the extension rod from hitting the side of the barrel when turning. It's also limited by size; won't fit small smoothbores, like .410. The emory paper route works (taping is good, I'll try that next time), & you can vary the grit to end up w/ 600. Fire lapping is a chore also, I've used valve seating compound, but have to clean thourghly between shots & I suspect could even put microscopic ripples in the barrel: just a guess.

I have used the cylinder hone to polish a shotgun chamber. Would take a lot of work to get the inside of a long barrel, especially if it is rough!

A tight patch, oiled and rolled in valve grinding compound. If you go in with a hone and are not VERY carefull, you WILL have an egg shaped barrel, It is the same as honeing an engine cylinder.

I have used a brake hone with an extension rod and cutting oil on smoothbores as well as rifled guns. The rifled guns depending on the depth of the lands may catch the stones is adjusted to tight. After using the brake hone wash out the bore with kerosene then use fine steel wool on a bore brush to smooth and polish, flush again. :v