Hi guys, I have a question regarding barrel fouling.

I had a rifle built for me on a weatherby vanguard action (.308) about a year ago.
26" MAB (Austrlian manufacturer known for quality match barrels) chrome-moly blued match barrel, match polished trigger, Manners composite stock etc.
I shot it in properly like the gunsmith said I should, 1 round clean, 5 rounds clean etc for about 50 to 75 rounds. I've shot very small groups with it before (.3" - .4"), but unfortunetly its not very consistant.

I've fired about 1500 rounds through it so far and recently looking down the barrel with a light (the best I could do without a boroscope) I realised that there was pitting near the crown all the way back as far as I could see, about 1". Its probably like that the whole way down but I couldn't see any further.

I remember picking up the rifle with the new barrel that it was blued all the way through the bore aswell, in other words the bore wasn't plugged off when he dipped it.
This blueing is still evident in the rifling.
I've religiously always cleaned this rifle and oiled it, I don't think that the pitting could be from me letting it rust, considering in the last year I've been shooting it about twice a week and then cleaning it straight away.

Can this pitting be caused by the gunsmith blueing the inside of the match barrel? Considering its a chemical process that reacts with the metal (correct me if I'm wrong), I would think its the last thing you would want inside a match barrel.

Any thoughts, ideas or help would be appreciated by the people more knowledgeable on this topic.

Cheers

Attila

Blueing is a chemical process that does react with the metal but once it has fully run it's course it is now Black Oxide and just as much a part of the barrel as the steel itself. Th blueing process adds near zero in dimension to the steel. The steel does grow but it is in the millionths of an inch so in reality it is zero dimensional change.
I own several rifles with blueing in the bore and it is a common practice to not plug the bore due to temperature change in the blueing process. I was taught to not worry about bluing in the bore.

Now as for the barrel pitting due to being blued. I've personally never seen this happen. Pitting may be caused by a lot of different things. i.e. corrosion, or corrosive ammo, Hot loads, or over heating of the barrel. Since your barrel suffers from pitting near the crown I would not guess that hot loads or overheating are the problem. I would say it is more and issue with corrosion.

Now what do you use for a bore cleaner?
Does you area suffer from high humidity?
Is the rifle exposed to salt air?
Is there a chance there may be some other environmental effect causing corrosion?

It may be from impurities in the steel.

No its not overly humid, and I didn't live next to the ocean. I ALWAYS take care of my firearms and never let them rust. I've always run match ammuntion through it or descent quality hunting ammo, and I use quality cleaning brass brushes and clean the solvent out thoroughly after use.

I had a bit of a closer look again and it seems as if its only the first 1" in from the crown (all the way around in the bore) that has this pitting/damage, and then it just abruptly ends.
I had a look on the barrel manufactures site for some aditional info, it says that the first 1" needs to be cut off the fore end of the barrel before installation.
The gunsmith used a 26" blank and the barrel as installed on the rifle is 26".
I might have to have an inch cut off the barrel, and this pitting/damage only seems to be in the first 1" of the barrel.
Maybe I should have gone to a better gunsmith......pity I live 16,000kms away now otherwise I might have taken it back.

I'll have it looked at......its pissing me off.

Cheers for the responses

Attila

quote:

Originally posted by AFA82:

I had a bit of a closer look again and it seems as if its only the first 1" in from the crown (all the way around in the bore) that has this pitting/damage, and then it just abruptly ends.

Attila

Did you by any chance ever leave a copper solvent soaked patch in the muzzle? Some of the more aggressive solvents can damage steel with prolonged exposure. I had a barrel Parkerized once and the 'smith bead blasted it prior. Unfortunately, he didn't plug the muzzle and bead blasted the last 1/4 in or so of the bore and crown. Now it looks frosted under magnification.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:

quote:

Originally posted by AFA82:

I had a bit of a closer look again and it seems as if its only the first 1" in from the crown (all the way around in the bore) that has this pitting/damage, and then it just abruptly ends.

Attila

Did you by any chance ever leave a copper solvent soaked patch in the muzzle? Some of the more aggressive solvents can damage steel with prolonged exposure. I had a barrel Parkerized once and the 'smith bead blasted it prior. Unfortunately, he didn't plug the muzzle and bead blasted the last 1/4 in or so of the bore and crown. Now it looks frosted under magnification.

Thats what I was getting at with the sweets solvent. That stuff is nasty but damn it works

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:

quote:

Originally posted by AFA82:

I had a bit of a closer look again and it seems as if its only the first 1" in from the crown (all the way around in the bore) that has this pitting/damage, and then it just abruptly ends.

Attila

Did you by any chance ever leave a copper solvent soaked patch in the muzzle? Some of the more aggressive solvents can damage steel with prolonged exposure. I had a barrel Parkerized once and the 'smith bead blasted it prior. Unfortunately, he didn't plug the muzzle and bead blasted the last 1/4 in or so of the bore and crown. Now it looks frosted under magnification.

Anyone who bead blasts a crown AND gets into the bore is a Blacksmith not a Gunsmith. LOL

The gunsmith said that he did bead blast it before bluing it.
I don't think I could have ever left a soaked patch in the barrel, I always look down the barrel after cleaning.
Anyway I'm going to a gunsmith soon and after inspecting it properly I've have it cut down to 24" because the damage is about 1 3/4" into the barrel.

Attila

Well I took it to a gunsmith and had about 35mm cut off the end, the rest of the barrel is in excellent condition.
Unfortunetly when I picked up the rifle he said that his beadblaster broke so he couldnt hot blue it, so instead.........he painted the f***ing thing!
It boggles the mind why someone who proclaims himself as a gunsmith would do something like that. Now I can hardly close the bolt because of the paint build up and it looks horrible!
Jeez I'm a bad judge of technical competence.

Now I'm off to get it blasted and blued properly.

Cheers