cayugad

Well I have to agree Pittsburghunter.. I personally would never use steel wool or a drill of any sorts in my barrel. I have hand lapped a few barrels in my days. The idea of lapping removes metal from the barrel. Personally, to smooth out a barrel, I take some Scotch Brite Scouring Pad and J-B Bore Paste. I put the pad on a patch worm, smear it with the bore paste, and scrub the barrel good and hard. After that I put a cleaning jag on the ramrod and a tight fitting patch. Again, I smear it with bore paste and scrub the bore of the barrel giving it about 40 strokes sometimes more. After that I clean the barrel with hot water and soap, then some solvents and go out and shoot it. Normally you can feel the difference as soon as you load and shoot.

The thing I would worry about with a drill and steel wool is causing extensive wear to any section of the barrel. No matter how careful I would be, that steel wool revolving at high speeds is going to effect the rifling of the barrel IMO....

There is also fire lapping where you smear conicals with rubbing compound and shoot the barrel smooth. I have personally never done that.

dmurphy317

Before doing any of this, I would suggest using a patch worm with a ball of cotton on it to run down the bore and back. Then shine a light down the bore and see if there are any strands of cotton showing where a burr or rough spot is. That will give you an indication of what might be needed and to what degree.

I would not suggest the drill method of smoothing the barrel as it would tend to wear one side of the rifling more than the other. I have done both fire lapping and hand lapping of a barrel and my advise would be to GO SLOW. The fire lapping can remove quite a bit of metal so check it often if you go that route. I have heard of guys doing the 000/0000 steel wool thing by hand but not with a drill motor and not rotating just normal strokes. A few strokes might help if there are some sharp burrs in the bore but I would go with something more along the lines of what Cayugad suggested with the JB's.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do and do check the bore with a cotton ball before you do anything to see if you have a big or little or non existent problem in the bore. You probably should also slug the bore to verify the actual bore deminsions before you do any lapping, that will give you an idea of how much room you have to play with. The gun I fire lapped had a tight bore of .498 when I started It was right at .500 when I was done. That only took about 12 to 15 rounds to get there.

PSEsilverhawk55

my dad took the gun out last weekend and shot and had no problems, but he swicth to american powder and also shot a few caps through it before he loaded it and shot it.

PSEsilverhawk55

sorry for endeding so soon, ran out of time. The two guns were shoting loose powder he did not use pellets in the new gun, also he was sure he was seating the bullet all the way but he had to pound it to get there. but as said before he didn't have any trouble after swithcing powder and shotting the caps through it first. Thx for all the help

Triple Se7en

I have one word to describe this thread........

AJ52

Pitts it really has nothing to do with me being a moderator.

If you think I'm crazy - Hey by all means do not try it

I've done this with 2 of my own smoke poles and 2 that were not mine along with a 12g rifled barrel.No doubt you do need to be careful.
There were NO ill effects from the procedure I performed. My guns loaded a bit easier and seemed to smooth out rough spots particularly in a .45 Knight and the 12g barrel.

I've used this method in the breech area and bolts to smooth the action.Its all in the 000/0000 wool,the oil,speed of drill,strokes.

BTW - 000 or 0000 steel wool can be shredded in your finger tips and low/med speed drill(I use portable drill) does not mean high speed or shredding metal from the barrel! Its really not as abrasive or crazy as it sounds.

For anybody that has honed the cylinder wall in an engine this is a very similar technique.

biggerhammer

Is it practical to get a muzzle brake installed/drilled on an existing ML? I'm hoping to tempt my wife into hunting with my Hunstman but she's alergic to recoil