I've got a 303 British Jungle carbine thats got a real dark bore. Whats the best way to make it shine? I plan on using this rifle for shooting cast bullets.

"Whats the best way to make it shine?"

Replace it. It has been ruined by shooting with corrosive ammo and not cleaning.

Sorry.

You probably aren't going to make it shine again, but I would respectfully disagree with the statement that it is ruined.

I've slugged bores so worn that they came out .316" on on a supposed .311 bore. Now that's a barrel that needs to be replaced.

If the rifling is still crisp, the rifle will probably be as accurate as it ever was. I have a Swede and a Finn with dark bores, and I sort of suspect they were actually blued. Both will do 2" 5-shot groups at 100 yards, with iron sights.

You might also try cleaning the bejabbers out of it with J&B, Sweets, and/or Wipe Out, to remove all traces of copper, and then breaking it in again. My theory is that if a barrel is never properly broken in, it just accumulates copper, which prevents the first few bullets from polishing the steel.

Get a 3-6 Volt DC power supply, current minimum 200mA!

Get a piece of metal wire 1-3 mm diameter, straight and about 10 cm longer than your barrel.

Get some industry strength ammonia 25% at best, but more than 10% at least!

Insulate the metal rod every 15-20 cm with electricians tape, so it won't shortcut up the barrel.

Incert a cork in the chamber of your rifle, stand it upright and incert the metal rod all the way to the chamber.

Fill the barrel with ammonia, right to the top. Tie a rag around the top to take any spills.

Connect the POSITIVE from the DC supply to the barrel of your gun.

Connect the NEGATIVE to the metal rod in the center of the barrel.

In 30 secs you'll see bubbels foaming at the muzzle. Thats what we want!

Leave as is for about an hour or so, but do check the rod at your liking (top off with ammonia). It will get progressively darker and filled with crud, as time passes.

After an hour or so, stop the cleaning, and rince the barrel thourghly.
If it's "spotless" then stop, if it's cloudy then degrease an repeat treatment.

BEAR IN MIND, THIS CAN BE OVERDONE!!!

This will get rid of crud accumulated over the guns lifetime, and will let you determine if the barrel is shootable or really needs replacing!

I have shot enough double rifles and old Winchesters with dark bores to know enough to test fire them before I judge them....Some of the worst bores I have seen shot the best.....

Best cleaner for dark bores is a 8 hour soak with Wipe out...then follow up with some JB and Kroil..repeat if necessary...Then oil bores profusly.

Ironically, shooting cast bullets through a barrel is an excellent way of polishing it. Lead is ever so slightly abrasive. I'd use Wipe-out a couple of times, and shoot it. You'll never get the pits out, if they are there, but pits don't kill targets.... JMO, Dutch.

Thanks for the advice. It sounds like I need to get some wipe out.

i have done the overnight bore soaking routine also and have had surprisingly good results using the old favorite, Hoppe's No.9.

Good advice all. Certainly try to clean it.

I have found that cleaning a "dark" corrosive fired bore is usually dissappointing. Especially the electrolytic, AKA foul out process. You suck the crap out of the pits and can be left with a moonscape.

The guy wanted a cast bullet gun. You need a smooth bore to do that very well. Otherwise all those caves and craters will tear chunks off the bullet and accuracy will be poor. Shooting jacked ammo in a nasty bore can be surprizing. I have a couple of rifles that have nasty looking bores but shoot fine, but, only with jacketed ammo. This seem to be most prevelent with low pressure stuff like Ray's double rifles of my old 30-30, and, of course, 303.

Hey, new barrels are available for 50ish dollars. You could spend a good portion of that on fancy cleaning supplies. Look at Shotgun News for suppliers. If it were me I would give it a good cleaning and see what presents. If I is nasty I would trim to length and screw on a new surplus tube and move on.

Jb bore paste-wrap a cloth patch around a tight fitting wire brush. Stroke your bore about 50 passes back and fourth. That should get it clean quickly.