Cleaning of gun barrel

[maverickwebley]

Hi. I own a 1940 Made Webley & scot Birmingham single barrel gun. Its barrel is getting corroded from inside. Gun smith suggested to get it grinded from inside. Will that make the wall thickness even thinner and it may bulge during firing. please suggest.

[art_collector]

Use WD-40 that should help. Grinding it is no answer to the problem.

[dr.jayakumar]

friend,
cleaning it thoroughlly will definetly help.
spend some time using fine brush.
do it for 2 to 3 days and see.
use cleaning soln liberally.
post some pics.

[brihacharan]

Hi. I own a 1940 Made Webley & scot Birmingham single barrel gun. Its barrel is getting corroded from inside. Gun smith suggested to get it grinded from inside. Will that make the wall thickness even thinner and it may bulge during firing. please suggest.

Hi MaverickWebley,
> Step 1 - Spray WD40 liberally inside the barrel - leave it for an hour.
> Step 2 - Using a soft brass wire brush (available in any gun shop for 12 bore guns) clean the insides thoroughly - This should remove 95% of the rust -
> Step 3 - Repeat the process once more.
> Step 4 - Using a soft cloth dipped in Gun Oil clean the barrel again. When the gun is not in use, always oil the insides of the barrel and leave it.
> Remember never store you gun in a cloth case as it attract moisture and causes rusting. Store your gun in a plastic sleeve with a few holes punctured in it.
> I hope there are no pittings inside the barrel (pitting means 'tiny depressions' caused by rusting over a period of time
> If so you can get the insides 'Chromed' - for this check with your gunsmith / gun shop / metal coating specialists.
> For heaven's sake "Take care of your GUN" by checking it periodically.
Cheers
Briha

-- Fri Aug 26, 2011 2:58 pm --

Hi. I own a 1940 Made Webley & scot Birmingham single barrel gun. Its barrel is getting corroded from inside. Gun smith suggested to get it grinded from inside. Will that make the wall thickness even thinner and it may bulge during firing. please suggest.

Hi MaverickWebley,
> Step 1 - Spray WD40 liberally inside the barrel - leave it for an hour.
> Step 2 - Using a soft brass wire brush (available in any gun shop for 12 bore guns) clean the insides thoroughly - This should remove 95% of the rust -
> Step 3 - Repeat the process once more.
> Step 4 - Using a soft cloth dipped in Gun Oil clean the barrel again. When the gun is not in use, always oil the insides of the barrel and leave it.
> Remember never store you gun in a cloth case as it attract moisture and causes rusting. Store your gun in a plastic sleeve with a few holes punctured in it.
> I hope there are no pittings inside the barrel (pitting means 'tiny depressions' caused by rusting over a period of time
> If so you can get 'Chromed' - for this check with your gunsmith / gun shop / metal coating specialists.
> For heaven's sake "Dont Grind the insides of the barrel" - "Take care of your GUN" by checking it periodically.
Cheers
Briha

[winnie_the_pooh]

Hi. I own a 1940 Made Webley & scot Birmingham single barrel gun. Its barrel is getting corroded from inside. Gun smith suggested to get it grinded from inside. Will that make the wall thickness even thinner and it may bulge during firing. please suggest.

You can back bore/hone a barrel to remove pits.However it would depend upon the wall thickness and then too you need the proper tools to do it.The tools for this are not cheap.To give you an idea the Sunnen hone tool used in the third link is about $1000.

1.Checking wall thickness and bore
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2. Backboring
[youtube][/youtube]

3.Honing a shotgun barrel
[youtube][/youtube]

The 'gunsmith' here will probably put some sand paper on a dowel and remove the pits.That would be worse than the pits themselves.Keep them clean and there is not reason that the pitting will worsen. Hot soapy water followed by a good scrub and then drying and then oiling should take care of this.

[Eoinsloan]

By Eoinsloan
Single barrel guns tend to have much thicker walls than s x s. Unless the pitting is deep the best approach is to ignore it and pass boiling water through the barrel and stop the rust after cleaning in old fashioned black powder style ie adding a toiletry grade soap - NOT washing up liquid which contains sodium chloride - to very hot water and pumping it up and down with a mop on your rod and the muzzle end in the water in a plastic bowl then flush with very very hot water and put in a hot cupboard to dry overnight. Oil with Ballistol. I have light pitting in my 1872 Boswell but light pitting is inevitable in old guns and is not the end of the world. BUT the pitted area is where future pitting would restart so you must be scrupulous from now on. For interest I put 30+ rounds of black powder through that Damascus barrel Boswell on Monday last - it has not been reproved since the 1872 proofing when it was new.

[Prabhath]

Have a look at the Ballistol website. They have a product specifically for removing the corrosion from inside the barrels and also claim that the German army uses this particular product extensively. The product is called Robla SoloMIL.

Here are a couple of links in this regard:
http://www.ballistol.de/english/index.p ... 05&sub2=37
http://www.6mmbr.com/BlogMay2006.html

[skeetshot]

Have a look at the Ballistol website. They have a product specifically for removing the corrosion from inside the barrels and also claim that the German army uses this particular product extensively. The product is called Robla SoloMIL.

Here are a couple of links in this regard:
http://www.ballistol.de/english/index.p ... 05&sub2=37
http://www.6mmbr.com/BlogMay2006.html

Robla SoloMIL is a copper remover, so will be of no use in a shotgun barrel.

Also, since this cleaner uses ammonia, ensure that in any barrel cleaned with it, this is fully removed and the barrel is properly oiled as ammonia based cleaners attract moisture and that causes rust.

This is a powerful and useful cleaner and will remove the most stubborn of copper fouling, but it must be used correctly.