Is there a good guide (preferably with photos) to bore condition(s)? I am somewhat confused by the terms: minty, strong, bright, frosty, dark, etc. The Blue Book of gun values does a nice job on overall conditon rating but not on bore condition.
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Beginners guide to bore condition?
- Thread starter TFLeader
- Start date
you can check you tube and search rifle bore scope videos. You can see the different barrels and the conditions. Just look down as many barrels as you can. A good light helps......although if you dont clean a bore after corrosive ammo you will know what a rusty barrel looks like.
minty usually refers to a perfect or near perfect bore. Mirror like shine and sharp well defined rifling
strong usually refers to a bore that has wear but still has very visible rifling
bright is vague. rusted bores can be scrubbed bright, and unissued rifles can have bright bores because they were never shot. I don't usually put much faith in that term
frosty means just that. when you look inside the bore you'll see what looks like a matte, frosted finish in the grooves rather than a slick surface and shine. This is usually a result of light and even corrosion in an area that started to rust and was then cleaned
dark is usually used to describe a bore that's either not been cleaned or one that's been neglected and won't come clean
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I will add another bore condition term: sewer pipe. I had a Chilean Mauser once that the previous owner shot with corrosive ammo and then put under his bed without cleaning for 4 years. The bore was a sewer pipe.
40 caliber
NES Member
I had a sewer pipe once as well. it did not clean out. sometimes if dark , i have shot them clean. (not a sewer pipe). I believe it was just cosmolene i did notget out but who knows. All i know is I reamed it a ton and nothing happened. I put 150 rounds through it and it was better.
as far as my sewer pipe,I bought it from one of the distributors who said it was a non Russian Capture K98 "not a beauty queen" . They were not lying. I threw it on gunbroker and sold it (accurately described) for what i paid. Basically someone bought it for the stock
as far as my sewer pipe,I bought it from one of the distributors who said it was a non Russian Capture K98 "not a beauty queen" . They were not lying. I threw it on gunbroker and sold it (accurately described) for what i paid. Basically someone bought it for the stock
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It did not clean up. I even did my last ditch trick of desperation. I put one end of the cleaning rod in my drill and used a steel brush to power brush it clean. It got rid of the loose stuff and rust flakes but there were still bulges of solid rust in there that were not going away unless I rebored the bore. I did not think it was safe enough to shoot it clean as the pressure build up would have been unsafe. The metal all under the wood was real bad as well. It was a mess.
I picked it up from an old friend who was going through some tough times and really needed some money. He was selling everything but nobody else wanted this so I paid him $75 with a bayonet based on book value. It was more of a favor than anything else as I had no interest in it and figured it would be like a loan and some day when he got back on his feet I would sell it back to him. 10 years later he was still broke and I needed the safe space so I sold the gun and bayonet for $50 to a dealer and took a loss. That bore was beyond redemption.
I picked it up from an old friend who was going through some tough times and really needed some money. He was selling everything but nobody else wanted this so I paid him $75 with a bayonet based on book value. It was more of a favor than anything else as I had no interest in it and figured it would be like a loan and some day when he got back on his feet I would sell it back to him. 10 years later he was still broke and I needed the safe space so I sold the gun and bayonet for $50 to a dealer and took a loss. That bore was beyond redemption.
One of my best purchases I have made was a bore scope. It shows you things that the eye with a bore light would miss. It helps when buying a rifle at a show or dealer. Unseen I have had guys post " mirror bore" and when I looked at it with the bore scope it was so worn near the chamber area it looked like it had been cleaned with a wire brush on a drill.
Been thinking about buying a borescope, any recommendations?
I got a chance to try one of these over the summer http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...ent-lens-17-slim-borescope-kit-prod44685.aspx checked out my mosin......im did not like what i saw, it looked really nice to my eye. Still shoots decent but got some nasty pits here and there
I was kind of hoping that you would recommend something in the $100 to $200 range. I have seen some references to low priced automotive scopes used with large bore guns.
