fire lapping a bore

[yeoman]

Who has done this? How is it done? JB bore paste?

[lemoyne]

I have done a number of guns this way including one home made barrel. What you need to use depends on why you are doing it and what you hope to accomplish. To polish a bore I use jewlers rouge and PRB ,I simply put a light coat of jewlers rouge on the outside of the patch. If you have burrs or rough spots you might want to use valve grinding compound or JB bore paste. If you would give us more info we might be able to help more. One of the important things to remember is not to go over board, when you grind or polish a barrel it takes shots off the life of the barrel. Lee

[falcon]

"To polish a bore I use jewlers rouge and PRB ,I simply put a light coat of jewlers rouge on the outside of the patch."

I also use jeweler's rouge. Works for me.

[dmurphy317]

Here is a link to the kit I used when I fire lapped my son's Bobcat. there is a link on the page to the instructions also. http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=646612&t=11082005

The abbrasives used in the kit are pretty coarse so be careful and recheck often. I would only use the finest grade if you only need to smooth it out a littlebecause metal is easier to take off than to put back on.

The JB's is good for a final polishing (you could probably even use the fire lapping method with it).

Here is another link to some info on lapping a barrel. Not all of it applies but gives some interesting reading.
http://yarchive.net/gun/barrel/lapping.html

[dmurphy317]

Forgot to mention, I used 2400 grit (I think, may have been 1200) to hand polish the bore ater the fire lapping.

[Semisane]

Here's the best article you'll find on fire-lapping muzzle loaders.

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/48

I've fire-lapped several revolvers and one muzzle-loader. Got significant improvement in every case.

[dmurphy317]

Semisane,
That is an excellent article, in fact, I think I read it before lapping the Bobcat and thats where I got theinfo on howto do it. Thanks for reminding me.

[yeoman]

If you would give us more info we might be able to help more

I've given consideration to using bore paste as a barrel fouling material, guessing the grit from paste may be similar to the residue from fouling.I would runa paste moistened patch over a loaded round for the first shot, then go to my wet patch/ dry patch routine. I wouldn't be attempting to truly fire lap the bore, being more interested in not harming the bore.

I can not get to the links provided from where I am but will later this evening. Thanks.