barrel lapping
 

just wondering about what i can do to fine tune the old flinter this year since the seasons ending soon....too soon.....i got the lock tuned and firing like a champ....got the stock refinished....blackend the brass....everything i can think of....but i heard of lapping barrels and getting better groups....figured it couldnt hurt?? i shoot a 50cal tc hawken flintlock.....patch n ball and conicals are my projectiles of choice....may just try a sabot one day....but dont know how accurate they will be....but should i lap my barrel? i dont know how old the gun is.....dont know who had it before me....it was clean when i bought it....but definently used.....someone just took good care of it....and i bought it.....should i lap the barrel? how do i do it?? thanx alot......just looking for a offseason project......along with working on a great clover leaf cutting group theres not much more i can do to that gun.....

RE: barrel lapping
 

If your rifle is shooting good and the patches it throws are not torn up or damaged, I really think lapping the barrel would do you no good. Lapping is the removal of metal from inside the bore. It is not something you do unless you really have to.

Many new rifle barrels are ruff. A quick lapp job will often times bring them around. One way to lapp a rifle is to shoot the ruff spots out of the gun. Unless your rifle is pitted and rusted in the bore lapping is not the answer. It might even make the rifle less accurate. And once you remove the metal from the barrel you can not put it back......

RE: barrel lapping
 

There is an article here that is an interview with Ron Dahlitz (founder of Buffalo Bullets), he discusses lapping muzzle loaders (it's about 3/4 of the way into the interview). He advises against it, but recommends using steel wool to smooth out tooling marks. I haven't done this...

RE: barrel lapping
 

Wise man says not to fix sumthin' that ain't broke or not out of sync! However, if you suspect the rifle should shoot slightly better, then two patches of JB Bore Paste - each patch going 10 swipes up & down the bore with a black nylon bore brush... then 10 with a smooth-sided patch jag.... then a full solvent/alky flush-out & oiling. No short strokes with brush or jag... straight down - then straight back up. It'll make your patches black as coal so don't get nervous. Just stop right there. Inspect the bore afterwards with a light. Go shoot it this spring & see if it improves. Let us know what happens.

RE: barrel lapping
 

I did a similar process although I used a brass brush and changed patches every 20 up and down strokes with new JB each time. I did a total of 200 up and 200 down on my stainless Omega which would not load any sabots I could find. I can now load Hornady bullets in Harvester sabots (with a small amount of difficulty). My rifle shot great from the start and I hesitated doing this until I got so fed up with loading difficulties that I decided to either fix the problem or get another gun. I am now very satisfied with my rifle and just got the first elk with this rifle. I think the stainless barrels from T/C are probably the ones that need the polishing the most due to stainless machining characteristics which tends to leave surface roughness. I have not noticed any change in accuracy although it shot cloverleaf patterns at 50 yards from the start and still does. I like stainless; however I think there is probably more need to "shoot in" the stainless barrels or polish them.