Is this safe?
 

So I was cleaning my Remington Genesis the other day as black powder hunting season ended. I saw in the bore what either looked like a crack or a scratch. It's about 4-5" in from the chamber area of the gun. Not sure if it's a chamber on a black powder gun but it's from that end. I couldn't get it out even after brushing it a decent bit so I thought it might be a crack. Anyway, I called a shop about 30 mintues away that makes custom guns and gun barrels. I asked if they would be willing to take a look at it. He told me to bring it down and he would check it out for me with the bore scope. I went down there today and he said it's not a crack however, it's a gouge like something was shoved down in there. I don't know what could have caused it. He said he couldn't tell me for sure if it was safe or not to shoot but at the same time he didn't seem worried about it. He said it probably wouldn't shoot the best however. I said I just didn't want it to blow up in my face and he told me he wouldn't worry about that happening.
So is this thing with a gouge in the rifling safe to shoot? Anyone else ever had this happen to one of their guns? He even let me look at it through the bore scope and showed it on a TV screen too. You can clearly see it's a gouge in it but I can't tell how it got there.

Whatever it is, it's probably been there all along. I wouldn't worry about it. How long is this gouge?

I agree with UncleNorby - it's probably been there all along and I wouldn't worry about it.

Is it relatively straight or does it curve with the rifling? It was probably caused by a chip caught up in the boring or rifling machine. If it's not real deep, it may have been caused by a piece of crud (i.e. sand) on a cleaning patch or sabot.

It's straight and goes across the rifling however, I can't tell how deep nor really how long as it's hard to see in there. The bore scope thing I looked through made it look fairly long but it also made it look huge when in reality it's not. Anyway, I decided to take it out and try shooting it. I shot 3 times and didn't clean it between shots and it shot fine. I will post a picture of my group in a minute. I guess I need to clean it up now.

So should I assume this thing is safe to shoot? I just don't want it to blow up or explode the barrel or anything that may hurt the person shooting it.

So I shot 3 shots without cleaning it today and this is how it shot. This is 100 grains of Pyrodex. Well, 2 50 grain Pyrodex pellets and a 295 Grain Powerbelt Hollow Point at 100 yards.



When I sighted it in I didn't get it perfect on the bullseye just got it close enough to hunt with like that. I will say also that I didn't have the best rest today. I usually use two sand bags up front and one to hold the rear. Today I didn't have one for the rear so I rolled up my jacket and put it under the rear. It worked but I wasn't as steady as I often feel I am with sand bags in the rear too.

Overall, for a hunting rifle which is what it is I think it shoots fine still.

I'm cleaning it up again now after shooting it today and I looked and the gouge looks to be maybe 2" long or so. It really just looks like someone took a knife and made a slice down it.

it wont "blow up"...how-ever if it goin across the rifleing, then it could mess up the normal pattern of the bullet, but if you are sighted in with it in there already, it will be fine..looks like your group is good to hunt, a lil big but your rest wasnt very stable?

i would see if ya had another bag and try and get 3 good shots off to see if your groupin gets better.

i would think the gouge got there from shovin a new bullet in while there was a piece of debris in there or somethin of that nature., maybe the tip of the push rod or a scrubber..... i dont know bout you, but i look down my barrels b4 i buy and if there was somethin in there, i would imagine you woulda seen it b4 you bought it like you see it now.

WEll IMO, you can't argue with the way its shooting. That is a really good 100 yd group. I don't think that scratch is going to hurt. But just for giggles, I would give Remington a call and see what they say. After all, ML season is over where you are at so you have time.

Do you use a bore guide? Some people do not use them. Then they use jags and other items like bore brushes and being not centered in the bore they do run the risk of rubbing that jag or brush against the side of the bore.

Another thing to check is the straightness of your range rod, ramrod, or cleaning rod. I have also seen jag head bend. So check all of them items. If they are crooked, replace them. Jags normally bend at the thread in part because as they roll out of place, we put a lot of pressure on the treads. This could have scratched your bore.

I personally would think it has always been there, it is not a danger, and it appears the rifle shoots fine. But this is something to keep in mind when you clean and swab the rifle.

The only reason I don't think it's always been there is the fact that I think I would have noticed it long before now if it was. I rubbed the other side with my cleaning rod to see if it would scratch it like that and it didn't. That makes me think it was something more than that.

It almost looks like it's where the powder or pellets would go not the bullet as I don't think the bullet would go down quite that far.

Maybe I need a bore guide so stuff like this never happens again if that's what caused it.

Basically I'm just worried this thing is going to blow to pieces while I'm holding it and injure me. Is it safe to shoot or is there a chance something like that could happen? Should I just get a new gun or keep using this one?