Hi,

I recently got a used custom rifle with a bead blasted Stainless Steel Barrel. I would really like a polished look on the barrel. Is there anything a DIY'er can do at home to polish a bead blasted barrel? Or should I just get to like the bead blasted look, shoot it out and replace with a polised SS barrel?

Thanks
Andrew

Any gunsmith with a lathe can remove your barrel, polish it, and re-assemble your rifle.

You can actually do a pretty good job yourself at home. Take the action out of the stock and take the scope off. Start wth 150 grit sand papaer and go to progressively finer grits until you get the look you desire. I would sand the barrel elngthwise and do the final polish in a shoe-shine motion. Go to 400 or 600 grit and it will be very polished. You can go finer if you choose. Or any gun smith can do this for you.

Thanks for the replies. I was looking to avoid using a gunsmith. I think I will give Marc_ Stokeld's advise a try. I will carefully mask off the action with masking and duct tape and try sanding it as mentioned.

Andrew

I would reccomend going with emery cloth instead of sand paper. It lasts much longer than sand paper. I have found that if you cut a sheet of emery cloth into 2" wide strips (lenghtwise on the sheet) they work very well for doing the shoe shine method that Marc mentioned.

Very carefuly clamp your action in a very padded vise and holding one end of the strip in each hand oscillate the ends working evenly down the lenght of the barrel and all the way around the circumference of the barrel.

Best of luck to you.