Richard:The steel lapping rod has to be jagged or threaded at the end, reduced in diameter, for the lead lap to adhere, and become part of it. And the barrel should be securely clamped and the lapping rod guided.
If you lap the bore to get rid of a pit, you are likely to have enlarged it to the point were you have ruined it.
As to an award, not a chance. The line 's so long you are not even in sight.
-- Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:20 --
dr.jayakumar: Lapping a rifle bore, unfortunately, is not the same as "filling the pit with lead, and filing it down" (to paraphrase your suggestion). Lapping a barrel is not about filling and smoothing out pits with lead. It's about smoothing out rough spots and reducing high spots. It is polishing. And again, you'd have to get the barrel as hot as the molten lead to have the lead adhere to the barrel steel and fill the pit.
What you suggested, if it could be done, would not cure the problem, but would surely do damage to the rifling.