Want a better pattern?
 

I was very sceptical of this method last year when I tried it. I wasn't going to but it only cost about $3.oo so I figured I couldn't lose. First thing you need to do is get some scotch brite the green stuff by 3m (other brands fall apart to quickly). Then by yourself the blue stuff made for finishing metal or the no scratch stuff. You must have a drill to do this though. Next if you have a twelve gauge you get out the wire brush made to clean out the twelve gauge. You cut the scotch brite to wrap around the brush once and then just a little extra (youll see why in a sec). Then you need to get some solvent oil or I just use wd-40. Wrap the scotch brite around the wire brush and apply a liberal amount of the oil to the scotch brite and I also spray some down the barrel. The brush should be attached the cleaning rods so it will reach the length of the barrell. I then attached the end in the drill chuck and tightened it down. No you must start slow but try to ease the scotch brite down the barrell (starting at the trigger end). This is where the little extra scotch brite will help as you power the drill the scotch brite will start spinning and the little extra flap will keep the pad tight to the brush. Then you get it goin and I did this for about 5 minutes with the green, put a new green pad on and go for 5 more minutes. Then put on the finishing pads and do that for about 5 minutes. While your doing this make sure to work it up and down the length of the barrel, Also apply oil as needed (the barrel does become a little warm but the oil will help reduce this. You may want to do this outside and junky clothes on because it creates a bit of a mess.
Now clean your barrell like you normally would. Take a look down your barrel and it will be as smooth as glass. If not continue drilling. When it is completley shiny go re-pattern your gun you should be pleasently suprised how much polishing your barrel can help out a turkey pattern. I got 25% more lead in the 10" circle @35 yrd just by doing this simple little technique. I believe the reasoning behind this working is that when the manufacturer makes the barrel they dont do a very good job of polishing it out. Now I didn't invent this I seen it somewhere last year but I STRONGLY RECCOMEND it. I was impressed now I dont have a doubt when I enter the woods the pattern will be there.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Thanks for the heads up on that Bigsmooth35. I will be giving my barrel the teatment in a few weeks.

Thanks

Jerry

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I forgot to tell you I have an 835 so it is overbored and easily alows the pad and wire brush combo to enter the barrel. If you have a gun (12 ga) that is not overbored you may need to use a 20 gauge wire brush to allow for enough room to get the pad in the barrel. It should fit very snuggly.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

This has also been posted on a thread before saying to do it with 0000 steel wool. I tried it with the steel wool and I had problem with it sliding up off the brush and going up the rod. It worked pretty good though. I guess the scotch brite isn't to course? I may try it again with the scotch brite.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

..hey friend,to me this is a ole shooting match trick.0000 steel wool is what i use
with a metel polish..Blitz,metel glo,maas,all sold at hardwhare stores,shine to a
smooth surface,also makes for easy barrel cleaning after shot,and not to worry
you wont remove enough metel to hurt a thing...:eek:

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Do you guys do this with your choke screwed in or not? Totoe told me about this last year I just did'nt get around to doing it, I think I will give it a try this year, Thanks for the info.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I pass throuhg my choke maybe only 3 times with green pad and twice with finishing pad. I dont feel that the scotch brite can do much but polish it. The scotch brite is extrmley soft when you think about how hard the metal used in your choke is. So to answer your question I do pass it through the choke juist not very much compared to the barrel. The only thing I hate about it is I have a ported comp-n-choke and some of the scotch brite decides to go in the ports then I spend a little bit of time claning the ports out(an air compressor made this quicker than going through each port)

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I've heard of this method before as well, but never actually tried it. Looks like I'll have to get this done before the season rolls around!!;)

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I polished my barrel out this year and for what it is worth, here are my results.

40 yds. Before
Vital (spine and skull) .................... 2
Head and Neck ............................. 44
Whole page (10in. by 10 in.)........... 95

40yds. after
Vital ............................................. 7
H&N............................................. . 37
Whole page .................................. 119

60 Yds Before
Vital ............................................. 2
H&N ............................................. 13
Whole page .................................. 29

60 Yds After
vital ............................................ 4
H&N ............................................ 13
Whole Paper ................................ 36

Even thongh the head and neck hits stayed the same or went down, my vital hits and over all pellets went up which shows that it is a better, more even pattern. At both distances my overall pellet count went up 25%.:D

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Well I did the polishing on both of my turkey gun barrels today. Remington 870 Super Mag and Benelli Super 90. I don't really know if the results on the pattern paper is going to be better, but they sure are shiny and smooth. I mean a mirror finish. I post the pattern results later this week.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Yeah everyone that has done this please post your results . I am interested if this will help all the stock barrels. Like I said In a ten inch circle I gained 25% more pattern and there are absolutley no holes in the pattern.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I don't get what the "blue stuff made for finishing metal or the no scratch stuff" is. Is this a scotch brite pad, too, or is it some kind of paste or such?

And when you say "Then put on the finishing pads and do that for about 5 minutes" are you talking about "blue stuff or no scratch stuff" pads or are there some other scotch brite finishing pads you're talking about or is this a paste?

How thick are these pads, and where would I get some?

Sorry I'm asking what probably are pretty stupid questions to you, but I've never heard of scotch brite.

Thanks, though, as I do want to try this myself.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

yeah the blue pads are also a scoth brite pad. My local wal mart sells the blue pads which simply say no scratch (non-heavy duty). But my local hardware store sell scotch brite metal finishing pads. So yes both of those are a 3m brand scoth brite.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Thanks. I'll go to the hardware store and see what they have.:D

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Bigsmooth35,
I found the green scotchbrite but can't find the blue one . The barrel in my 1300 really shines like a mirror now. Is it critical to finish it off with the blue one ?
I did see othe types of scotchbrite but it wasn't for polishing metal, just removing rust etc..

Thanks for the tip.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

roman,
yeah the green is good enough. Thats all I used last year to acheive the 25%. I just found the blue stuff this year at walmart and it said no scratch and was a little softer so I used it this year just to see, and in all reality the pattern didnt improve much if any with the blue stuff. Hey have any of you got to shoot your guns yet?

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Update......

As I posted previously, I did the polishing technique on both my 870 Super Mag and Benelli Super 90.

870 - I patterned both guns today. I shoot 3 1/2" Rem Hevi-shot 6's in my 870. All I can say is, the 870 will be my long distance turkey gun. Last year this gun with same choke and load would put upwards of 25 pellets in the head and neck at 40 yards. This year, after the polish, I shot the 870 with same choke and load at 47 yards. The pattern was more uniform than I have ever seen from this gun. I counted 43 pellets in the head and neck and only 10 outside the 12" circle!

Benelli - I shoot Fed 3" HV 4's from this gun. Last year I was doing good to get 10 pellets in the head and neck at 40 yards. This year, after polish, same choke and load, I counted 22 pellets in the head and neck. ONLY 7 PELLETS OUTSIDE THE 12" CIRCLE AND THEY WERE ONLY AN INCH OR SO FROM THE EDGE OF THE 12" OUTLINE! I have always had trouble with my guns shooting 4's. Not anymore.

And Yes, I'm a Happy Man!!

Thanks a million for the tip!!:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Clever...So which one of you works for 3M?:D

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

That would be Bigsmooth.:D

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Hey come on now:D. Just tryin to save ya'll some time and money and stay away from the cheap stuff (that didnt make it for more than 30 seconds and shredded everywhere).

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Just having a little fun, BIG. I personally am thankful for the good tip.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Yeah I know was all said in good fun and glad that it worked out for ya

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I couldn't find any blue pads, so I used the green scotchbrite pads for my first run through and then used some 0000 steel wool for cleanup. This is on my new Mossberg 935, and when I used the green scotchbrite, there were visible metal flakes on the scotchbrite pad after I had scrubbed with the drill for a while. The barrel is all shiny inside, now, and I'm looking forward to seeing if I get any pattern improvement from this. I'll post the patterning results when I get through patterning the gun, probably not until next weekend, though.

With the oil for lubrication and the drill spinning and all, it is a messy job, as reported.

Before I did this, I called several gunsmiths. They all had experience polishing the inside of "old" (pitted) barrels, but none had ever heard of polishing the inside of a new, seemingly perfectly good barrel. They all quoted prices of in the $50-65 range to polish the barrel for me, so I decided to do it myself.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Yeah after doing it myself , I would do it for that , and consider it easy money !
Thanks Bigsmooth for the detailed instructions and the savings $$$

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I have bought the material to try this method I will let ya'll know how it does for me.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Big, I have been shooting shotguns for about 30 years, and that is the first time I have heard of doing something like that to a perfectly good barrel, but it sounds like a great tip. I will be trying it very soon. I have tried a very similar trick to slick up the chambers of an old double barrel I use for cowboy action matches, so I am sure it will help as you are describing. Thanks for the advice!:)

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I just wanted to say that this works awesome! I had an old slug barrel that was pitted really bad, I did this too it and it looks like a brand new barrel. I didn't use the blue stuff I just used the green and still had very good results.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

The Nitro Ammo arrived , waiting on the Rhino choke . Then I will go to the range and test the "Mirror polished barrel " with Winchester ammo , then the Nitro ammo and then with the Rhino !
My poor shoulder .

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Hey roman let me know the results I'm kinda keepin track on how this works out for everyone.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

I'm still playing around with my gun, but I had 93 pellets in a 10" circle @40 yards. The previous year I had 70-80 if I recall correctly. I also did notice that once the barrel is polished, it is much easier to clean. Bottom line: I don't think it will hurt.

Winchester 1300. 21" w/ Kicks .655. Winchester HV 3" #6.

RE: Want a better pattern?
 

Big.........

I'm going to try this on my Mossberg® Mdl 500 20GA. I get great 30yd patterns with Federal Premium Grand Slam® 5's & 6's. No. 4's don't pattern well at all; maybe this will do the trick. I'll post the results.

BTW........... Where in WA State are you located?