Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

Did not get to do much ML shooting - my hunting partner and I were on another mission... Turkey season is around the corner so we went to pattern his shotgun and I thought what the heck so I took mine... He also needed to sight in his 1893 Marlin 30-30 - I took an A-bolt 270 - just so I could say I have shot it recently... this use to be my main whitetail gun but since the advent of ML's I have not shot it in years...

But I did get something accomplished with the a ML... I broke down and took my new 54 cal Renegade out to see if I could burn up patches in it as I did with the other 54...

All of you that concluded my previous problem with the burnt patches could possibly be the bore condition and blow-by - You were correct... Only got to shoot 2 shots but at 55 yards with 70grains of stinky Pyro RS they almostcloverleafed... better than that the patcheswith no wads were intact - I was a happy camper...

another amazing thing for me that barrel probably has not been shot more than a dozen times - it is like new...

Here is a pic of the patches - I am hoping this is what I should be looking for & again this was with out a wad. Both were store bought pre-lubed patches. The one on the left is .018 Pillow Tick and the one on the right is a .015 cotton.... The .018 is really - really tight in in the bore and kind of a bear to get down the barrel.


I mightget to shoot Gongs yet!

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

Well I like the tight patches... sounds like you had a good day. Turkey season is coming soon here too.

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

Hows the snow doing up there? We gona need snowmobiles to hunt the first few weeks this year???

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

Glad you've got a RB shooter with that one Sabotloader. So, what are you gonna do with that other one?

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

goatbrother

Snow? you mean white snow? Heck it was snowing in Moscow today - I realize that in the "bannana belt" it doesn't happen that much - heck it suppose to snow tonight and tomorrow... Actually I broke the berm accross the road to the rock pit last week. It was almost an accident - I was trying to do it easily without getting stuck but I got the front end of the truck over the berm and I could get back over the berm... my only option was to go ahead - so anyway went on through. There is still about a foot of snow on the pit floor and the road to Strychnine Gravel is not even close to being driveable yet... I am hoping I can start logging out the lower ATV trails by mid-May. But, I am betting there will stil be plenty snow left.

Big hunting - the snow should be gone-> April 15 - Turkey day - still gonna be a lot of snow - so it might be "cold turkey"

mike

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

Well being that you got a good shooting 54 and another with a pitted barrel, you may want to consieder making a lapping plug for it and try to lap out those pits. If you need to know how, drop me a line.

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

bronko22000

I have in the past tried to lap the barrel smooth -even went so far as using a very fine valve grinding compound. But there is so little of the lands left I guess I think it might a really shot barrel...

My first attempt after a ton of brushing with JB's was to fire lap it with JB's and some full bore conicals. It did smooth it out but it is still rough all the way down the bore...

I wish I could get a good picture of it so that you could judge whether it could be saved or not...

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

"Back in the day" when barrels were made of cast iron, they would "freshen" them out...Then make a new mold a few thousands larger and keep shooting them...With the aftermarket barrels avaliable it's probably not worth the effort now...

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

You'll soon shoot it as a smoothbore, maybe?

RE: Just in from the Rock Pit...Got good Patches
 

I've often wondered if anyone has had a rifled barrel reamed out to be a smoothbore. I would think it wouldn't be that major of a job for a good machinist to convert a .54 rifle to a .56 smootbore.