Polishing Savage bore?

[gunny]

I'm sure this has been covered before about polishing. I talked with a gunsmith and at first he talked about using 800 grit Brownell's lapping carbide which is in oil or a 600 grit which didn,t have carbide and was softer. I told him i was concerned about possible barrel damage ,especially if i did,nt do it right ? Then he said i should clean it good then polish it . Ive got Jb bore cleaner.What is a good and economical way to remove plastic ?Thanks for any input. Don Go Pack Go ;D ;D

[12ptdroptine]

I know enough about this to tell you to BE CAREFUL! It can have adverse effect's on your barrel if you don't do it right...If your talking a PacNor They will hand lap the barrel for you to a "match grade" for another 20 ish...anytime you use abrasive you are removing metal.....scratches go down...so those who say you are "removing "the scratches are wrong...you are removing the higher metal around them..thus increasing bore diameter....And I have read many post's here about ppl polishing there savage bore with no improvement unfortunately

[mike3132]

Jan 22, 2011 9:37:58 GMT -5 gunny said:

I'm sure this has been covered before about polishing. I talked with a gunsmith and at first he talked about using 800 grit Brownell's lapping carbide which is in oil or a 600 grit which didn,t have carbide and was softer. I told him i was concerned about possible barrel damage ,especially if i did,nt do it right ? Then he said i should clean it good then polish it . Ive got Jb bore cleaner.What is a good and economical way to remove plastic ?Thanks for any input. Don Go Pack Go ;D ;D

The J&B will remove it. I mix J&B and Kroil together on a old .50 brush with a patch wrapped around and start scrubbing. You would be surprised how much a good cleaning can improve accuracy. We used to advise guys to do this when their guns wouldn't shoot and it helped many of them. Mike

[dannoboone]

You mentioned Brownells. They also have both Shotgun Wad
remover and ML Sabot Remover (same stuff, different label).

That darned burned plastic can sneak up on ya. When I was
still using the rough .50 factory barrel, it would be shooting great.
A few shots later, it would be shooting a shotgun pattern. I would
have to get the plastic out every 4-5 dozen shots. I clean the
PacNor barrel once a year with the Sabot remover "just cuz", and
get hardly any at all out of it.

[pointman]

I know enough about this to tell you to BE CAREFUL! It can have adverse effect's on your barrel if you don't do it right...If your talking a PacNor They will hand lap the barrel for you to a "match grade" for another 20 ish...anytime you use abrasive you are removing metal.....scratches go down...so those who say you are "removing "the scratches are wrong...you are removing the higher metal around them..thus increasing bore diameter....And I have read many post's here about ppl polishing there savage bore with no improvement unfortunately

I am getting ready to order a pac nor, is it worth the extra money to have the barrel hand lapped to "match grade"?

[Richard]

Point man.............probably not? I have seen them with the $20 extra treatment and with out? Thru my Hawkeye Borescope, at 8X magnification, I really have not noticed any difference? I would suspect in a ML, you will not notice the difference? That being said and price you are already spending on the barrel, I don't think an extra $20 is going to break the bank ;D
Richard

[onecardchuck]

I have a different opinion.

I agree with give it a really good cleaning first then check your accuracy.

If you still want to try to get a little more and I stress a little more 600 grit is more of a polisher than a massive metal remover. As long as you evenly distribute the 600 grit paste in your bore you are not going to ruin your barrel.

Things I would check for after a good cleaning and before I decided to bore polish. Is load a snug bullet/sabot with no breech plug in the gun:
1) Does the bullet/sabot load smooth all the way down the bore or is the loading processes
more jerky and stop and go.
2) Do your sabots after loading show signs of scraping or tearing.


These are the things a bore polishing can help with, and sometimes get you slight accuracy improvement.

Hope this helps,

[pointman]

Thanks Richard

[10ga]

This is what "beartooth" has to say.
beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/48
I have polished or lapped almost every ML I have and many that belong to other people. It has improved accuracy in all most every case. The ones where it didn't improve were severely abused, "read not cleaned" BP guns that ended up as wall hangers, rebarrel jobs or throwaways. I usually go pretty slow and use finer grit than beartooth but about the same process. With a ML with removeable breechplug it can be a bit more complicated but the results are worth it. If you want to see what "polished" bores are like check someone who shoots patched roundball competitevly and a lot or someone who shoots paper patched bullets. Those bores usually look like mirrors.

[10ga]

For plastic removal in MLs and shotguns I use Ed's Red. Use it for most barrel cleaning. Bob