I had a gun blued when I went to clean it after shooting it looked like varnish was chipping off inside of chamber. Do they nomally do this to protect chambers from blueing salt?

urdubob

You weren't by chance shooting Wolf/Russian ammo, were you?

no hand loads....

Urdubob,

No they don't coat the bores to protect them from bluing salts, everything gets blued. Take some Q Tips and some acetone and see if you can remove it that way. Don't forget to re-oil the surface so it doesn't rust.

Malm

Well, there went MY theory. For precisely *two* minutes, I thought I had it. Anybody else?

Just what i did...the acetone turn varnish cloudy.
Made it brittle. I have about 90% of it out having trouble with the deeper part of chamber even with a broze brush.

Get a shotgun bore brush and an electric drill. On second thought stay with the Acetone, you're less likely to damage something. Don't forget the oil.

Cold Bore, Wolf ammo would have been my first guess...

Malm