How serious is pitting to a firearm? There is a revolver for sale with some pitting. This will be a shooter.

If the bore is good and it's mechanically sound it's OK. You can live with the pitting or even clean it up. I've heard of some people soaking guns in Kroil with good results. Cold blue such as Oxpho Blue can stop pitting if gun is taken care of. A coat of Rig grease or Ren wax helps. A cold blue product like Oxpho can be used in spots without removing the original finish and can slow or stop rust with proper care.

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Mike, AmVets Member, Navy Vet

As long as the pitting isn't so severe that it has compromised the structural integrity of a critical component, then typically it isn't a reason why the firearm in question cannot be fired.

For the most part, pitting is a cosmetic issue. As long as you catch it before it has gotten so bad that a critical component has deteriorated past the point of being structurally sound, pitting can usually be dealt with in such as way as to clean it up and prevent further corrosion of the metal. It will never be of showroom quality, but it should be safe to shoot.

Even pitting in the bore doesn't make the gun unusable, and the accuracy won't be impacted too bad, but lead bullet ammo will cause leading in the bore and be difficult to keep clean.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Unless it is a give away, I'd pass.

I have several old firearms that have pitting on their exterior surfaces, some have a little pitting in the bore, one has a bit of a frosty looking bore. They all shoot just fine, but pitted or frosted bores can be an issue with swaged or cast lead bullets.

I have a P08 luger 9mm that has a bore with frosting the whole lenght. It shoots just fine and is accurate too.