Bad TC Renegade barrel

[OSR]

I have a old 50 Cal TC Renegade with a barrel that was a mess. When I ran a patch down the barrel, all you felt was roughness and grabbing of the patch. I cleaned out the gunk,and rust. I also managed to smooth out the roughness with steel wool. You can still see what's left of the rifling, but the gun won't shoot worth a darn, even at 25 yards.

I think the only thing left to do is to sell this barrel to someone who would want to rebore it to 54 cal or larger. How much would it cost to have it rebored to 54 cal.? Do you think it would be financially worth it? I only have one 54 cal rifle. Everything else is in 50 cal.

If I decided to sell it what would be a fair price to ask?

 

[nkbj]

Well, can only tell you what I've had done.
The TC fifties will clean up pretty quick when rebored due to the rifling being very shallow. Depending upon how deep the pitting is you could probably have anything from a .52 to a .60 depending upon:
* The depth of the pits.
* The depth of the screw holes for the rear sight and the under rib.

I have a TC .52 that I think is just the cats meow. But that's 'cause I like shooting .50 cast bullets with paper patches.


However, you can get any kind of rifling you want whether it be strictly round ball, square, round bottomed, minie ball, paper patched, or rifling that will work for combinations of choices, tapered groove depth, narrow land, wide land...

The tough part is meandering through the decisions. The good part is it will cost you about half what a new barrel would!

 

[don hepler]

I have a barrel, just like the one you describe. It is a TC .32 Cherokee. I knew when I bought it, that the bore was roached, but Cherokee's are scarce and over priced. I figured if it wouldn't shoot then I would have it bored out to a .36 or .40. I used steel wool, polishing compound, scothbrite, but it still would not group. I switched from BP Goex to Black MZ powder, and the groups went down to shooting as good as my pristine barrel on my .36 Seneca. I guess the fowling was reduced by the substitute powder, so that it wouldn't build up in the ruff bore.

Most of the damage in my barrel is in the first two inches, at the muzzle. Maybe I just got it smoothed out enough. I have not tried Goex, again. I did change patches, lubes and etc. It's working so, I'm lucky.

However, I have a 54 and several 50's, so it might be a good excuse, for you to have a 54. Big bore's are nice.

 

[Archer 756]

:surrender: Go to smoothbore sit and there is a article on boring and the name of the person that can do the work, he also does rifles "smoothbore ignorance" :hatsoff:

 

[Eric Krewson]

New drop in barrels are are ridiculously expensive, costing more than the gun is worth.

A round trip to Bobby Hoyt for a rebore will cost you $145, you will get back a tac driver.

 

[necchi]

Mr. Hoyt did my 54 T/C sewer pipe barrel into a 62 smoothy for around 85 a few years ago,,
I remember I shipped it to him and he charged me $65, that included the return shipping cost.

 

[Eric Krewson]

You won't get much for it in it's current condition.

You can part it out on eBay and get a good profit out of it.

For instance; the tang and screws alone will sell for around $25-30, under rib for at least $15, roached out barrel should bring around $75, sights around $35 and such.

Pull up Renegade parts on eBay and get ready for some sticker shock.

 

[necchi]

Uhm, I actually bought the 54 barrel from a guy for $15 that was a complete rust bucket with the intention of turning it into a smooth bore.

But your right, folks do list just barrel parts on ebay,, and sell them. It's gone nuts the last few years, as little as 10yrs ago you could get rails, sights, screws,, for just a few bucks.

 

[OSR]

Thanks for the information. I was wondering how much it would cost me, to rebore to the next size up common caliber.

I'm going to give it one more try using s****s. It's kinda crazy in a Renegade, but I won't know if it makes a difference until I give it shot.

I'm hoping it works, because I really like the 50 cal more than the 54.