Sharp Shooter

not to cause a problem or change your thought patterns, but I have three sidehammers in the back room that have had BB in them for a year or so now - I just do not use them so there they stand... + one old shot gun. No sign of any rust in any of them. But the climate here and in the house is never very moist. If you live in a damp climate you certainly could run into problems...

My guess is that at one time or another it never got cleaned properly.

How much have you shot it? You might TRY shooting some conicals through it. Remove the regular lube (usually BB) and the lube the conicals with JB's bore paste. Do not shoot hot loads. I did that to one of my Renegade barrels that I bought off the internet, I shot 20 lead conicals through mine. I wish I could say that it polished the barrel smoothand clean for me - it didn't but it really took care of the rust problem. Then to keep the rust from occuring again - keep the bore dry... as soon as you clean it - get it dry... use some alcohol to displace water - use hot air down the barrel to insure it is dry - then lube the barrel with a VERY GOOD bore oil when the barrel is hot.

just some thoughts - i was able to salvage the old Renegade barrel enough to be a really good shooter, but the "oatmeal" looking bore still haunts mre even thought it shoots reasonalby well. But no more rust showed up...