New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

Most of you know that I have had this old 54 cal Renegade "K" barrel for five or six years now. Somewhere in it's younger days it was severly mistreated. It was allowed to rust and pit fairly badly. It would shoot sabots great and with great accuracy but conicals and PRB's - it was all over the place. Severly burned the patches even with as little as 50 grains of GOEX. I have tried to lap barrel and even fire lap on different occasions and never was real succesfull with that project. I felt I got it cleaned up a lot from when I got it. It (the barrel)has sat in the corner for years - I just never had the hear to throw it away... I even tried to give away to a couple of different people.

In April I decided I would give it one last try... I packed it up and sent it to TC. I fully figured that they would send it back as tough luck or maybe in a weak moment replace the barrel. I got it back last week, I was disapponted because it still had the original barrel on it. I really thought it was now ime to throw the darn thing away. There was no information in the box that they had done a darn thing to it - so I thought it was just to far gone. Then I noticed it had been shot... the nipple area was dirty and the barrel had white residue in it. I ran a windex patch down the barrel and it was a smooth as glass - I could not believe it!!! ran a couple more patches till they came out clean then slid the bore light in - surprise-surprise the bore looked great... the riflings stood out nice and sharp and grooves were smooth again.

Today after I shot the walking trail and the crowd thinned out - I went back out on the trail and posted a target - thought I would test to see if it shot any better.

I was surprised with shot one when it was so cloase to the POA then when #2 hit #1 - I was really surprised - but then I decided I was just lucky - but I moved the site to move impact left - I'll be danged #3 went left - I adjusted the site up - #4-5-6..... GOSH!!!! #7 was all Semi's fault him and his darn rules...

Granted it was only a 25 yard target - but totally off-hand shooting - I say ATTA-BOY to TC for fixing that gun.....

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

Tell you what, Sabotloader, I'll ship you my pitted .50 Renegade barrel and you send me that refurburshed .54. After all, it's a Kit barrel, and no one wants one of those.

Great shooting offhand. What a wonderful thing to have a barrel brought back to life like that. I wonder if I should send TC my pitted .50 barrel and see if they will freshen it up.

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

I'll say amen to that. TC did you good. What are ya gonna do with all the Renegades? If your sellin' one I am interested. Chap

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

Semisane

No doubt in my mind - I would send it in... I should have done it sooner...... I was sure my barrel was trash.... I just sent it in for a hope and prayer!!!

gleason.chapman

I really should sale some of em.... I have 6 now and that is rediculas - but I do like em and they are not made anymore... Terry would probably sell em in heart beat - but I am gonna pass for now...

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

Liquid Lube
16 oz. water (non-chlorinated)
8 oz. isopropyl alcohol, 91%
4 oz. witch hazel
3 oz. castor oil
1 oz. Murphy's Oil Soap

Heat beeswax in a double boiler.In a separate can, add the castor oil and Murphy's oil soap (cold). Once the beeswax is melted, swap the castor oil can in the double boiler. Add the beeswax. It will clump up. Stir with spoon as the mixture heats up. When it fully melts together,there will be a 'scum' that floats to the top and just won't mix in. Be patient. DO NOT COOK THE MIXTURE. Skim the scum off. FINALSTEP: Add a extrateaspoon of Murphy's Oil Soap and stir vigorously. This last step makes the lube frothy and smooth - really adds to the appearance; though it doesn't seem to matter to the function of the lube.


Here's a real good solid lube for conicals:

2 oz. Beeswax (4 tablespoons)
8 oz. Castor oil (16 tablespoons)
1 oz Murphy's Oil Soap (2 tablespoons)



That is some nice shooting there...

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

Great that T/C fixed your barrel. I never owned a Renegade until last year. I always had T/C Hawkins. But I don't know what it is - I blame it all on you guys. I always did like BP shooting and was content with a 50 cal Hawken flinter and 50 cal percussion both with GM LRH barrels. But since joining this forum, I got another 50 cal T/C Hawken flinter, 54 cal Renegade percussion with an additional GM LRH 45 cal barrel, a 50 cal GM Carbine flinter barrel, a lyman GP Hunter, a custom curly maple stock with GM LRH barrel and T/C lock and hardware, bullet moulds, powders, bullets, balls, etc. etc. and who knows what else I got.
But its a blast, and I just enjoy going to the range and having one of my 'old fashion' rifles outshooting some fancy bolt action magnum rifle.

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

Some day I want to own as many Renegades as Sabotloader.... Renegades are a great rifle. They really are well balanced and they do normally handle real well.

What powder charge were you shooting in that rifle Sabotloader?

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

cayugad

Shoot I forgot to put that on the target... for these Rhondy shoots - I am shooting 60 grains of GOEX 3f and I gotta admit at this point I am guessing on any target out past 100 yards.... I got the deer @ 135 today but missed the elk @ 160... go figure... I am almost sure I convinced myself I need to shoot high and I think I did.... think I might be under estimating the power of the GOEX with the weight of the PRB...

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

bronko22000

In my case it is easy to compute... the forum helped me get started, but the bulk of my problem isCayugad's fault... I was perfectly content with my Hawkens til Cayugad started talking about Rene's and since that day I first handled one I liked them better than the Hawken - got rid of the 3 Hawkens and started out with one really nice 54 Rene - then decided I needed a 50 and from there things just went to heck... Dave's fault

RE: New Life for an Old Gun Barrel
 

sure... blame me. Its easier that way.