Barrel pitting

paddyjj

I recently inherited a Baikal OU shotgun. It was my grand fathers gun and I took it on. Now I've got my license so I'm legally the owner .

I am aware that the gun isn't worth much but a hardy gun all the same. However during his last years the gun was neglected and has some surface pitting on it. Here is a picture of the worst part of the pitting.


Can anyone suggest what I can do to clean it up and more importantly is it still safe to fire magnum rounds? Its a IZH-27 which is proofed for 3" magnums.

There is no pitting inside the barrel as it was ran through with grease. Once I cleaned inside the gun it came up shiny as anything with no deterioration at all.

Grizzly 45

Nothing to worry about!:D Abit of pitting outside can happen to the best of guns.If the bores are clean and bright you are good to go.Also,if the gun is prooved to 3in magnums it should be fine.Take the fore end off and look along the lower barrel or around the chamber sides or upper barrel for proof marks.Somtimes it will say wether it is prooved for a specific load.

landkeeper

i wouldn't worry about that some very fine wire wool and gun oil would clean most of that away it looks to be more on the rib than the tube anyway,
afaikr with those old baikals the barrels were hard chromed internally anyway
as said above just check what it is proofed to shoot

Ghost.

I wouldnt go at it with wire wool. You will harm the blueing on the barrel and I will look far worse. Ive seen it done to an old shotgun that had the same problem.
The pitting looked cleaner but the bluing looked crap afterwards. A but of pitting on the outside is no harm. A good rub with an oily rag regularly would be what I would do with it.

landkeeper

i did say very fine wire wool and if you do it with plenty of oil it'll remove the rusty bits as they tend to be slightly raised

Ghost.

You did say fine wire wool. You are probably right, maybe it works. The one I seen looked like a brillo pad was taken to it and got a good scrub. Not gentle. The rust and pitting got cleaned up. But the bluing was a mess afterwards.

sfakiaman

I'm not too keen on terms like fine or coarse for abrasives as they are rather subjective. If you use 0000 steelwool with oil and rub in line with the bore of the barrel it should clean up. As Grizzly said, check under the forearm for rust as it's the hidden places that may give trouble.