Pitting and Accuracy
 

Here is something I have never quite figured out.
A lot of my guns were purchased used, actually of the front loaders I own now I only bought two of them new.
Now when you buy these used guns over the net you just never know how well they have been taken care of. I have been pretty fortunate for the most part. One of my barrels has always kind of concerned me. If you look down it hard, in the right light, you can see a little ring about where the powder and the bullet would meet. And if you really look hard you can see slight pitting in the barrel. It is not something you can feel when you are swabbing but it is there. Now this is one of the best shooting guns I have ever shot, bar none. I have other bores that are pristine and I cannot get the same kind of accuracy out of them.
I would like to hear the opinions of some of you on this phenomenon.
Art

I've played with a few TC Renegade and Hawken barrels that had obvious pits and they shot just fine. They did accumulate fouling though. You just have to do a real good cleaning job on them to make sure the fouling is out of the pits. But I do a complete flush after a range session anyway, so it's no big deal.

Now I'm talking patched round balls here. A pitted bore may behave differently with full bore conicals or sabots. But come to think of it, I had a pitted .50 Renegade barrel that shot 250 grain XTPs in Harvester sabots quite well.

My dad has a CVA Kentucky rifle in .45 that he built as a kit about 25 or 30 years ago. He is very bad about taking care of guns. This gun hangs over the fireplace in the unused family room that gets no air conditioning, and the humidity plays he77 on it. It is the most awful looking thing I've seen, all rusted and pitted. But that rifle will drive nails at 50yards (his comfortable range) with PRB's. The deer can't tell it's not smooth and shiny!

rw

I own a couple like you described. When you purchase them they seller tells you ... " there are a few marks in the barrel." A few marks!! But they seem to shoot well. My Knight LK-93 is that way. But he sold it for $75.00 shipped. I figured the other parts were worth that. But discovered it is a real good shooter.