I got a .22 Hornet in a gun trade. It is a Kimber of Oregon with really pretty wood. I knew it could have problems as it was missing a butt plate and had signs of use. But, the bore looked clean, it was cheap, came with a decent Leupold, and has very nice wood.

I chambered up a round and shot it off my backporch. Hit dead center of where I was looking. When I went to eject…extracting was difficult. When I got the brass out…there was roughness on one side of the neck.

Got another round (factory PPU). Inspected the neck before loading (nice and smooth) shot it. This time it was easier to eject but still a little sticky. Shot exactly to point of aim. The neck had exactly the same rough spot imprinted on it.

Loaded 5 rounds in the mag now and walked out to my range and put it on my bench. Shot a beautiful slightly less than 1” group at 100…exactly to point of aim. All ejections were sticky and all brass was roughened/imprinted on the neck in similar patterns and area.

I can’t see anything in the chamber with eye and light. I do have a little flexible scope I am going to get out and look in there.

Anyone seen something like this before?

Lane,
while it could be several things, from this

quote:

The neck had exactly the same rough spot imprinted on it.

it either has a rough patch/cleaned up pits, or slightly out of round (though that's REALLY an outlier) -

bore scope it

The brass betrays the issue. I run into these occasionally in the shop. Likely corrosion/fouling in the neck portion of the chamber. If it won't remove from brushing, I take a .17 cal or very worn .22 cal bronze brush. Then, pull off and wrap a few strands of Scotchbrite SS scrubber pad clockwise around the brush. apply some gun oil to the brush. Screw the brush into a length of sectional cleaning rod. Install this in an electric drill. "Feel" it into the neck area and give it a spin at medium speed for 10-15 seconds. Patch out and fire a test shot. Repeat if necessary.

https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-...1b92188d9a3662d8a546

It is called Rust; ferric Oxide. Common on abused rifles. Your chamber needs cleaned so as to remove it and be careful with that. I use emory paper or scotch brite on a stick, but please do not do anything I recommend. You an easily ruin your chamber/throat/rifle.
And depending on how deep the pits are, it may never be serviceable short of setting the barrel back and rechambering. Brass can adhere to rust pits too.

If your handy you can take a wood dowl split it a 1/4" put a piece of wet r dry 600 grt paper in thqt split, chuck it in in your drill press and polish the neck a little at a time, or take it to your favorite gunsmith might be a better option..

Your lucky it extracts. I have one that I bought new in the early 80's. It fails to extract about half the time. I have sent it back to the factory but they failed to fix it. I also bought the 22 rim fire & 22 Mag back then. The Hornet has a small extractor like the rimfires. Just poor engineering.

Thank you kindly all for help and wisdom.

1. Polishing: use a dummy hornet round (with bullet without powder or primer) screwed to a rod with some valve grinding compound on the neck. If that doesn't do it then:

2. Wire brush the neck area in the chamber, clean with brake cleaner, apply some jb weld to the same dummy ctg neck after applying release wax, chamber, wait 12 hours, extract, recut chamber with a reamer by hand

3. If that does not work, then set back one thread and recut chamber (well you may need to set it back more than that depending on where the roughness is).

4. OR recut chamber for K hornet for a 224 bullet if pitting is very shallow and close to the shoulder.

My guess is someone applied Butch's Bore Shine or some other aggressive fouling remover and left some residue in the chamber. That will eat your barrel steel if you leave it in there long enough.

ledvm Use a borescope to see exactly what you have there. My experience is limited. But, anything is possible with a used gun.

Valve grinding compound? NO; that stuff is very abrasive and will ruin your chamber; ben careful. JB weld in a chamber; I'm sorry but I don't agree with those suggestions; OP, be careful.

Any update on outcome?

Nobody seems to have mentioned the use of steel wool to polish the chamber. Fine steel wool soaked in WD40 or CRC-C56 removes surface rust or corrosion from blued surfaces without affecting the bluing so will do the same in the chamber, or barrel for that matter, without damaging the metalwork.

READ ALL. I had a K95 Blaser with some minor chamber rust in the chamber from being left wet for a couple of days. After talking to Blaser in Texas, he agreed with my assesment and it cleaned right up to 99% with just 10 or so revolutions of 0000 steel wool wrapped around a nylon brush. Leave the anti-rust coating on the wool. Note: This was a tight chamber to begin with that would 'grip' the case in sub 32 degree weather. It no longer had cold weather issues. Hope this helps.
Again - a bore scope will tell you exactly what the extent of the corrosion (if that is the case) is.
Take it slow and test after each step.

I have scoped it. It has a rusted chamber. Some of the rust has some brass adhered to it.

It looks polishable to me. My plan was to start least aggressive and progress as needed.

My plan was to get a bore mop that wedges tightly in the bore, soak it in kroil and then wedge it into the bore and let it soak.

After soaking in kroil was going to brush with bronze brush and the a nylon brush wrapped in a patch with JB Bore paste then rescope.

I think I will progress to the 0000 wool now and then them to SS Scotch bright if necessary.

Just haven’t gotten around to starting on it yet. Will soon.

Sounds good. Brass adhesion reminds me of some bum Hornady 22 Hornets that had case cracking near the base. One was nearly cracked all the way around. Gave the right side of my face a good spray. Still have the rest of the box. They are 35 grain V-max varmint loads. The chamber showed some light brass residue. I'll probably pull the bullets and toss the rest eventually. Keep us posted.

Hopefully it is just surface rust and doesn't show any pitting once you have polished out the rust. Yes go straight to fine steel wool and WD40. We also have a product called CRC 5-56 here which is much the same as WD40 and it works well with steel wool for removing rust. CRC 5-56 is all I ever use for cleaning bores and protecting guns. Doesn't affect stock finishes but spray down shotgun bores you think look clean and watch the plastic wad residue stand out. Good stuff.

Plug the barrel and fill it to the breech with evaporust. Leave 8 to 12 hours, then remove and clean out with a bronze brush. You might apply some JB bore paste or some very fine abrasive to a fired case, and spin it in the chamber to do a light polish. Personally, I prefer to wrap a dowel with 400 grit wet/dry to a tight fit in the area I want to concentrate on, and polish longitudinally, instead of spinning a case. You can accidentally cut rings that make sticking worse by spinning a case with abrasive.

Dave,
to evaporust, bluing is rust too -