Depends on how severe the pitting is. I had a rifle that I bought on an auction site that was badly pitted. I ran a few passes with JB Bore Paste (about 200 each direction) and cleaned it like normal. I shot some groups at 50 yards that were less than an inch across. I sent the rifle back as the theads for the nipple were badly rusted also and I did not want to deal with tapping for larger thread nipples or heli-coil to fix. If your rifle checks out for safety I would clean it as best as possible with some passes of a lapping compound (not too coarse) clean like normal and go shoot to see. Check the nipple threads. You can get a drop in barrel for the rifle with Green Mountain barrels. I forgot the site but will go look it up and repost. The site is www.trackofthewolf.com.