[Adam]

Over the weekend I was organizing some stuff in my gun safe and I happened to glance at the end of the barrel of my Winchester Apex .50 cal inline and noticed some rusty residue just inside the crown. I thought that was odd and pulled the gun out to clean it up. What I then found about made me puke. I apparently neglected to clean the barrel the last time I had it at the range LAST YEAR!

I took a wire brush and passed it down the barrel several times to clean out the loose build up and see exactly what I've got to deal with. I expected much worse but the barrel is relatively clean aside from just ahead of where the powder and sabot would sit (by my guess-timation). There is appears to have a heavy build up of something, whether it is rust / corrosion or heavy powder residue I don't know.

Being that the damage was done I wanted to get an opinion on it before I attacked it with what I have to see what you would all recommend.

Right now I have several gun cleaning solvents including:
- Blue Wonder
- Butch's Bore Shine
- Sweets Copper Remover solvent
- Hoppes #9(?)
- Some sort of black powder rifle cleaner that I can't remember the name of.

I also have several cans of industrial cleaners, some of which say they will remove / prohibit rust.

Any suggestions of how I should approach this would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[HighCountry66]

Does it still shoot ok?
Are you able to remove the breech plug and that is how you seen the spot?

Clean it the best you can and shoot it. I would bet there is a good chance its not the end of the world as it seems right now.

If you are looking at this from the bore with a light at the other end in a small hole, its possible what you think you see isn't actually what you are seeing.

Shoot it before getting crazy.

 

[turkey4life]

hopefully there isnt severe damage to the barrel. get a bottle of t.c #13 natural bore cleaner. run a brush down it a couple times. clean it heavly with this and the junk should run right out of the barrel.
once the patches start coming out clean run a patch covered in bore butter down it.

my uncles was filled with rust because he doesnt understand to properly care for a muzzleloader, I ran patch of bore butter down it for him and it shot fine after that.


I always clean mine as soon as I get back home so I dont forget, I also check it every once and a while to make shure it isnt rusting.

 

[blitzinstripes]

Two years ago, I loaned my CVA in-line to my father who loaded a charge in the barrel and never fired the gun, nor did he remove the charge and clean it! I realized his mistake some time later that summer. The Triple7 remained true to its nature and didn't cause any corrosion, but I did encounter some puzzling phenomenon I would have to assume was a form of electrolysis between the platinum coated power belt bullet, and the bore. Removal was very labor intensive, and eventually required (I hate to even admit it) a length of steel rod, a heavy dose of penetrating oil, and a mallet to jar the bullet down and out the breech.I feared the worst, but subsequent shooting sessions showed no measurable difference in accuracy. After getting the bullet out, the remainder of the cleanup was a breeze. Needless to say, I haven't loaned out the gun in a while! Best of luck. Be glad it wasn't a flintlock! I assume you were using one of the modern BP substitutes, which are much more user friendly in terms of corrosion and poor cleaning.

 

[HOGGHEAD]

Probably what you are seeing just ahead of where the load was-is a crud ring. Especially if you are shooting 777 or similar powder and a 209. That should not be a big problem. It could also be plastic build up from sabots if you shoot those.

The Butch's should work just fine. Saturate a few patches and let it sit for a while(few minutes) in the barrel. The Butch's wil cut through about anything you could have put in there.

Then clean with a good tight jag. I would not use a brush(YET). But then I never put brushes in my barrel if I can help it.

Then repeat the soaking patches until a dry patch comes out completely clean.

It may take a brush if your barrel is rusted badly, but the crud ring should come out.

Have you noticed the crud ring before?? Have you looked for a crud ring before??

If it is real bad then buy a small jar of JB bore polish and polish the bore with the JB and a brush. Then repeat the saturated patch. This should definitely do it. If not then good luck because it is probably pitted. Tom.

 

[frontier gander]

hot soapy water, a bore brush, another bore brush with some 000 steel wool wrapped around it. You can follow up with simple cotton patches on a cleaning jag. Oil is good afterwards

 

[DennyF]

The last time I had to deal with a neglected smoke pole, used hot soapy water to remove the powder residue (real black powder), then cleaned the bore with a mixture of ATF and mineral spirits, along with a bronze bore brush, to remove the rust.

Usually let my smoke pole bores protected with a thin coat of oil in the off season, but clean out the oil with mineral spirits and let dry, before shooting them again.

 

[Dogface]

Adam

Maybe I missed it but are you sure the charge and bullet are out of the barrel?

 

[Adam]

Guys, I removed the breech plug and ran the brush down the barrel from there. I have not shot it. I viewed the "ring of build up / crud" by looking down the barrel with the gun pointed at a light. Hopefully it is just the crud ring several of you have mentioned. I have never noticed, nor looked for the crud ring in the past.

I am shooting 777 pellets with a TC ballistic tipped sabot.

From the variation in replies, I can probably clean it up with just about anything. I hope to tackle it tonight.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Adam]

I didn't have a ton of time to work on this last night but I devoted about a half an hour to it. I ran a swab with Butch's on it down the barrel to clean out any loose stuff and then ran another and let it sit for a while. Then I ran a dry patch through and took a look. There is still A LOT of whatever it is about 4" or so down the barrel from the breech plug.

I put on a wire brush and passed it through a few times to loosen it up and then ran another patch through it. It helped a little. After that I had to look after the baby as the wife wasn't home.

Apparently this is going to take some time and elbow grease to clean up...

 

[Setters4Life]

Note: I learned the hard way that on early guns with side lockparts (flints and caplocks) that the smokey residue and its caustic elements have a way of intergrating into the lockwork. I have had to rebuild two locks that came from rifles that had shiny bores but the lockworks were rusted solid inside! Thankfully there's not much to T/C locks but it was a frustrating process. Both guns had "sat" for a while without use.

 

[brubincam]

for the bore use scotch brite scour pad--tight fit--on cleaning rod--excellent for lead in barrel also