Advice / suggestions on cleaning a filthy barrel

[Bent Arrow]

Hi

I'm trying to rescue a BSA cadet in. 310. The whole thing needs a damn good clean. The barrel is absolutely filthy. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Just looking for some suggestions on approaches to getting this thing cleaned up.

I ran a few patches with solvent down the barrel and a. 30 cal brush (what I had in the box) but it needs something with a bit more punch.

Also scored nearly 500 rounds of ammo with it. Like the rifle, it wasn't stored well. I cleaned a few up with a scouring pad and they came up OK. Cleaned up, the cases and projectiles might be useful but apparently many of the rounds don't discharge...... Im thinking it might be worth pulling the projectiles out, discarding the old powder and reloading with the original primers and projectiles. Is this a reasonable idea?

Cheers

[Oldbloke]

Kick it to me, Kick it to me, .
No on more serious note try Sweets in the bore.
Fine steel wool with some diesel or light oil might help in other areas to remove crap and rust.
Good luck.

[AusTac]

On the filthy .303's i come across, i take them apart past the chamber so nothings going to get hurt, boil the kettle, and run a few kettle loads of water through, plug the barrel after a few run through's and let it soak for 10ish minutes, then go to town with your favorite solvent with a tight fitting aggressive brush and patch regime once i'm done, a few tight patches to really squeeze and left over go out and good as gold, if your desperate, some 0000 steel wool also does the trick, but i've only used that once or twice.. and very gently with lots of lube, with that worth with the action facing up so none of the crap gets into the modern rifles, trigger assembly, not so much of a problem on oldies

[Gaz52]

Be gentle with the old girl ,remove the trigger group ,it will no doubt need cleaning as well .plug the muzzle with a tapered wooden plug , fill the barrel with your solvent of choice ,I use mineral turps or shellite,stand it in an upright position to soak for a day or so . I wouldn't recommend steel wool but I have used red "scotchbright" wrapped around a suitable jag to scrub the barrel .replaceing the scotchbright as it gets worn. Repeat this process, rinsing with solvent . Hopefully you will not find the barrel looks like a cheese grater once all the crap has been removed. Good luck , they are fine old rifles , don't waste your time with any of the published ADI 2205 loads , they suck.

[Wm.Traynor]

Presumably your bore is leaded owing to the use of lead bullets. A boil-out is a good place to start. Swab with a bronze brush and a lot of carbon solvent, patching out often to recommence from scratch with the brush/solvent. Check the bore after 20 strokes. You might have to resort to J B Bore Compound if you aren't satisfied and Good Luck. Hope it's a shooter

BTW, check the firing pin protrusion.

[Bent Arrow]

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions. I had a bit of a play this arvo, will get stuck in tomorrow. A lot of crap came out of the barrel already. I took a pic with the phone. I'm not sure if this indicates I'm going to be wasting my time or if this might clean up......

[Heckler303]

Hey Bent Arrow, some of the guys look like they've given you sound advice and a lot of it I've found useful, but definitely give a good rubbing compound a try. Or even metal polish (which isn't as heavy on the whole 'eating away your bore' business).



Autosol on a mop and brutually mopped back and forth a few dozen times then patched out with soft, dry patches will bring a good shine back in the bore. Helped revive an old bubba'd 303 this way.

[Wm.Traynor]

Can't tell if the streaks are on the tops of the lands or in the bottoms of the grooves. What treatment did you try this arvo? Heckler303's Autosol isn't a bad idea for abrasive.

[Bent Arrow]

Can't tell if the streaks are on the tops of the lands or in the bottoms of the grooves. What treatment did you try this arvo?.

Funny that, neither can I at this stage. I'm hoping it's gunk in the grooves not pitting on the lands. I just ran plugged the bore and filled it with turps, let it soak for 5 minutes and then flushed it a couple of times and then ran a .35 calibre bronze brush through it a few times. A lot of gunk came out already.

[Wm.Traynor]

".........not pitting on the lands". Do not give up. The barrel of one of my rifles looked like the bore had been rifled with a pick and shovel but it still shoots extremely well. Not sure about turps. There is some discussion on ozfclass.com about Mercury 2 stroke outboard engine cleaner for carbon but I doubt that is the real problem. Might be worth a read for future reference. In the meantime give it what I described above.

[straightshooter]

Many of the suggestions so far are a waste of time and some are likely to cause damage.
Best approach is to obtain a stainless steel 30 cal bore brush. A number of strokes with a good solvent will get the barrel as clean as may be possible.
If the lands have rust pitting then nothing will fix that. Since you have to clean from the muzzle be very careful not to damage the crown.
In your case the picture shows an unusual situation in that usually the grooves are where the rust is, not the lands.
Good luck.

[gillian]

get a bigger brush

[Bent Arrow]

So I got the old girl apart today. The trigger assembly took some soaking in wd-40 to get it to loosen up and slide out. I plugged and soaked the barrel in turps for an hour and then flushed it with clean turps, then flushed it with a couple of litres of water straight off the boil from the kettle. That lifted a bit of gunk. Got back to it a few hours later and ran a few more kettle fulls of water through it. Then ran some patches soaked in solvent through it, let it sit for 5 minutes and then about 50 strokes with a bronze brush, then patched it out with clean solvent/swabs. It's getting there. I think it might actually come clean eventually.....

[Wm.Traynor]

50 strokes
You should at least be very fit mate

[marksman]

my sugestion would be a bronze brush, carby cleaner or 2 stroke carbon cleaner, maybe fire lapping after this

[Wm.Traynor]

I did fire lapping and it worked very well

[duncan61]

What are you going to do with this rifle.Can you source ammo?I have never even seen one but the load data suggests its ballistic curve would be a rainbow.Does anyone hunt with them or were they a low recoil training tool.I need one

[marksman]

here ya go duncan www.usedguns.com.au/SearchResults.aspx? ... sold=false

[Bent Arrow]

So a few hours in the shed, half a bottle of solvent, 3 brass brushes, half a roll of cotton cloth and a jar of elbow grease later I think this is about as good as this bore is going to get.

After a bit of a clean

_20170811_181228.JPG (618.57 KiB) Viewed 7021 times

After today's effort

_20170813_171818.JPG (183.44 KiB) Viewed 7021 times

[Bent Arrow]

What are you going to do with this rifle.Can you source ammo?I have never even seen one but the load data suggests its ballistic curve would be a rainbow.Does anyone hunt with them or were they a low recoil training tool.I need one

It's going to be a plinker mostly. I scored 500 rounds that I'll probably pull apart and reload. I saw someone advertising cast projectiles for them just a little while ago. I'd seriously contemplate using it at close range on small goats.

[Bent Arrow]

OK, so now I'm looking for some advice on how to clean up the stock a little.. I'm definitely not looking to refinish the stock, just clean off the grime and reseal the stock........ There's a lot of conflicting info out there....

[Wm.Traynor]

Why do you want to seal the timber? Are you going to hunt in rain? If so, there is polyurethane which is not in keeping with the traditional finish. This only matters if you want to maintain the collector value. I recently re-finished a butt with stain, oil and wax that "seems impervious to water". Looks nice, isn't shiny. I would post pics but that has never worked for me personally, in the past. Maybe try shooting it first

[duncan61]

Will these bullets work out of it or is the bore size wrong

Bullet Name Brand Stock Number Type
.308 dia. 110 gr. RN .308 dia. 110 gr. RN Pro-Hunter 2100 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 110 gr. FMJ .308 dia. 110 gr. FMJ Pro-Hunter 2105 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 110 gr. HP .308 dia. 110 gr. HP Varminter 2110 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. (.30-30) 125 gr. HP/FN .308 dia. (.30-30) 125 gr. HP/FN Pro-Hunter 2020 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 125 gr. SPT .308 dia. 125 gr. SPT Pro-Hunter 2120 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 125 gr. HP .308 dia. 125 gr. HP MatchKing 2121 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 125 gr. .308 dia. 125 gr. Tipped MatchKing 7725 Rifle
Ord

[Bent Arrow]

Why do you want to seal the timber? Are you going to hunt in rain? If so, there is polyurethane which is not in keeping with the traditional finish. This only matters if you want to maintain the collector value. I recently re-finished a butt with stain, oil and wax that "seems impervious to water". Looks nice, isn't shiny. I would post pics but that has never worked for me personally, in the past. Maybe try shooting it first

"reseal" was a poor choice of words. I want to keep the original look and finish. From what I've read boiled linseed oil is the right choice.

[Bent Arrow]

Will these bullets work out of it or is the bore size wrong

Bullet Name Brand Stock Number Type
.308 dia. 110 gr. RN .308 dia. 110 gr. RN Pro-Hunter 2100 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 110 gr. FMJ .308 dia. 110 gr. FMJ Pro-Hunter 2105 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 110 gr. HP .308 dia. 110 gr. HP Varminter 2110 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. (.30-30) 125 gr. HP/FN .308 dia. (.30-30) 125 gr. HP/FN Pro-Hunter 2020 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 125 gr. SPT .308 dia. 125 gr. SPT Pro-Hunter 2120 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 125 gr. HP .308 dia. 125 gr. HP MatchKing 2121 Rifle
Order
.308 dia. 125 gr. .308 dia. 125 gr. Tipped MatchKing 7725 Rifle
Ord

Have a look here.

http://www.castbulletengineering.com.au ... /310-cadet

http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/ ... pic?page=2

[duncan61]

Exactly what I was researching 30 cents is cheap to buy and a mould would make it even cheaper.What a fun toy to have.I had a greener shotgun with the falling block as my first firearm.Paid $200 at Geraldton 20 years agop

[Gwion]

OK, so now I'm looking for some advice on how to clean up the stock a little.. I'm definitely not looking to refinish the stock, just clean off the grime and reseal the stock........ There's a lot of conflicting info out there....

Strip the stock of all hardware. Use spirit of turpentine to rub it back with #0000 steel wool. Using fresh lot of steel wool, apply RAW linseed oil in a circular motion. Do this each day for a few days. It will take a good week to set up and not feel tacky. Give it one more going over with the steel wool and then buff it out with a nice soft cloth, like those micro fibre dust cloths that cost SFA at the supermarket.

[Gamerancher]

Lee Shaver, a prominent and well respected gunsmith and shooter in the U.S, recommends a technique using 0000 steel-wool to clean badly fouled barrels.
Basically, step 1 is to run a tightly oiled patch through the bore a few times. Then, unroll the steel wool and cut a piece roughly the same size as the patch and place it over the oiled patch. Run through the bore, it should be tight enough that you need to "bump" the cleaning rod to get it through. Repeat. It may take a few goes but he reckons he can clean the worst bore in about 15 minutes. He even now uses this method to "break-in" new barrels for black-powder shooting.
He states that the steel wool wont damage the bore in the barrel but merely "polish" it.

Also, once you get your bore clean, I suggest that you "slug" it to determine the actual bore diameter. Those .310 cadets can vary a lot in bore diameter.
Once you know your actual bore, you'll find you will get best results with a cast bullet about .001" to .002" over bore diameter.

[marksman]

I like the danish oil myself, cotton cloth and rub it in and wipe it off let it dry and repeat, may not be how it was finished originally
great job on the bore by the way

[Bent Arrow]

Thanks. I think this will come up OK. I've gone the simple and traditional approach of rubbing on raw linseed oil with 0000 steel wool and then rubbing off with a soft cotton cloth. Tonight was the second coat. This has left much of the character of years of use but is now looking cared for rather than discarded. A few more coats and it'll be done....