Hi all,

I have a pre war mauser that happens to have a dark bore. I have shot a few animals at 250 yards. It always has shot where aiming. I have never shot it for group off a bench and plan on doing so asap. If it will group reasonable well then I shall keep it clean but not worry about it. I do want to know why do bores sometimes look so dark? It doesn't really look rough just it doesn't shine like my other rifles. If I cannot get 2" group at 100 I want to try a good bore cleaner... I basically use hoppies #9 and copper cleaner. What do you all recomend?
Thanks
Aaron

Try using a paste made from 50/50 Kroil and JB's. It is a really runny paste but it will scrup the gunk out of any bore. Use a good snug brush and keep brushing for 20 minutes or so and see how it turns out. I salvaged a couple very dark bores using this method.

I've owned a fare number of dark bored Mausers. Many of them shot with fare accuracy. I cleaned some of them about as good as you could and can not say I noticed any dfference in accuracy. The cleaning didn't hurt it any, however. roger

Aaron, if it's shooting well I'd just keep shooting it and cleaning it normally. Results count for more than appearance.

I wouldn't mess with it beyond normal cleaning. If it shoots good, its doing its intended job.

If it looks that bad, you could go with the put a bag over its head^H^H^H^Hmuzzle.