Muzzle trashed...

[Jim Watson]

I once made a similar mistake.
I looked down a rifle barrel and pronounced the roughness to be rust from corrosive ammo.
I shortly became a laughingstock when it was found that the roughness blew out when shot, leaving a bright bore. Apparently house dust on oil.

 

[s&wchad]

Got it!... finally. Thanks to all comments and pulling me back from the dark side...

There's still some build-up of crud near the port, but you made a lot of progress.

Soak the end of the barrel for another day or two. Try wrapping some Chore Boy around a brush, chucking it up in a hand drill and going at it again.

Only shoot jacketed bullets.

 

[Autonomous]

Coated should be fine.

 

[cololab]

Terrific news! I had no idea that there was no rifling under that ugly looking area and that it was lead buidup rather than some type of damage to the barrel.

 

[MetalMan]

That is some nice work! Congratulations!

Now looking forward to the range report.

 

[oink]

Truly amazing. Good job. I had no idea the barrel was made like that. It sure looked like a badly eroded rifled barrel.

 

[stansdds]

Now that it is free of lead fouling, no more plain lead bullets. It boggles my mind as to why the porting was done in that fashion. Reaming the bore in the area of the port actually decreases the efficiency of the port and creates a fouling nightmare.

 

[AlHunt]

I love it when I blunder into these threads late and get to read the whole thing in one sitting.

Early on in the saga I was screaming at my screen "Counterbore the stupid thing and be done with it!" Then a surprise turn of events when the protagonist rips victory from the jaws of bitter defeat! A pretty thrilling roller coaster ride, before I've even finished my first cup of coffee.

Probably still it needs to go back for the recall. I'm surprised they gave you a sort of verbal option to not send it. Going full auto would be kind of a big problem.

(side note - the seller claiming "as-is" on an undisclosed problem for an item the buyer couldn't physically inspect is pretty sketchy)

 

[AlHunt]

You can find it online, at Walmart or at many grocers...

Tear a piece off, wrap it around an undersized brush and go to town...

Just a warning - Chore Boys are pure copper. Cheap alternatives are often copper coated steel.

 

[stansdds]

Just a warning - Chore Boys are pure copper. Cheap alternatives are often copper coated steel.

Yep, that's why I usually say "genuine Chore Boy pure copper pot scrubber".

 

[fleaflop]

I love it when I blunder into these threads late and get to read the whole thing in one sitting.

Early on in the saga I was screaming at my screen "Counterbore the stupid thing and be done with it!" Then a surprise turn of events when the protagonist rips victory from the jaws of bitter defeat! A pretty thrilling roller coaster ride, before I've even finished my first cup of coffee.

Probably still it needs to go back for the recall. I'm surprised they gave you a sort of verbal option to not send it. Going full auto would be kind of a big problem.

(side note - the seller claiming "as-is" on an undisclosed problem for an item the buyer couldn't physically inspect is pretty sketchy)

You got it Al,... yes, yes, and Yes. My feelings exactly. I left a bad feedback review but very unsatisfying, because in this case amounts to less than a slap on the wrist. Ive always wanted a full auto weapon, but I just want to expect it when it happens....! She is on her way to Springfield now and Ive asked to be notified of the findings.

 

[AJ]

You got it Al,... yes, yes, and Yes. My feelings exactly. I left a bad feedback review but very unsatisfying, because in this case amounts to less than a slap on the wrist. Ive always wanted a full auto weapon, but I just want to expect it when it happens....! She is on her way to Springfield now and Ive asked to be notified of the findings.

I would build M1911's when I was stationed in Ca. Built one on an aftermarket frame from a local gun store in El Monte. Figured out later the disconnector pin was drilled a touch low. This caused the pistol to go auto. Welded a new tip on a disconnector and it worked. One of the local policemen wanted it in the original configuration (auto). Sold it to him as a semiauto and he changed the disconnector back to the original.

 

[LVSteve]

I once made a similar mistake.
I looked down a rifle barrel and pronounced the roughness to be rust from corrosive ammo.
I shortly became a laughingstock when it was found that the roughness blew out when shot, leaving a bright bore. Apparently house dust on oil.

Warned my FFL that an incoming Mosin M28 was a bit 'rustic' with a large stock repair. He called to say it was in and that there was 'rustic' was coming out of the muzzle. Uh-oh!

Got it home and applied foaming bore cleaner to see what could be done. Two doses of that and a run through with a nylon bore brush revealed that the 'rustic' was petrified Finnish sisu grease. The bore was very well preserved underneath.

 

[stansdds]

Warned my FFL that an incoming Mosin M28 was a bit 'rustic' with a large stock repair. He called to say it was in and that there was 'rustic' was coming out of the muzzle. Uh-oh!

Rustic coming out of the muzzle, that's funny! LOL!!!

 

[murphydog]

A satisfying cleaning job. Now don't let it get the way it was again.

 

[Sgt. Buzzard]

In the mid seventies I was reloading .38's and playing around with standard and hot upside down wadcutters. Had a brand new mod. 19. After a very long day in the dumps of Jersey shooting rats, cans and bottles I came home to a barrel that looked like that.

Soaked it in #9 and cleaned the hell out of it with soaked wire brushes etc. No luck. Came across a cleaning tool that screwed onto a standard rod. It was tapered like a compression fitting and you put on a round brass mesh screen ( think faucet washer) and pulled it through the barrel. I'd reverse the screen and do two pulls per screen, soaking in #9.

The smart reloaders at the time would follow up their shooting days with a few FMJ's to clear the barrel. I backed off hot lead loads, stopped doing 500 round days and would finish up with 6 jacketed rounds. It seemed to work.

It looks to me like a reloader was using cast bullets for hot SD loads.

 

[stansdds]

In the mid seventies I was reloading .38's and playing around with standard and hot upside down wadcutters. Had a brand new mod. 19. After a very long day in the dumps of Jersey shooting rats, cans and bottles I came home to a barrel that looked like that.

Soaked it in #9 and cleaned the hell out of it with soaked wire brushes etc. No luck. Came across a cleaning tool that screwed onto a standard rod. It was tapered like a compression fitting and you put on a round brass mesh screen ( think faucet washer) and pulled it through the barrel. I'd reverse the screen and do two pulls per screen, soaking in #9.

The smart reloaders at the time would follow up their shooting days with a few FMJ's to clear the barrel. I backed off hot lead loads, stopped doing 500 round days and would finish up with 6 jacketed rounds. It seemed to work.

It looks to me like a reloader was using cast bullets for hot SD loads.

That tool would have been a Lewis Lead Remover and they work great on leaded barrels. The poor man's Lewis tool is good fitting bore brush with strands of Chore Boy pure copper pot scrubber material wrapped around it. Pull it through the bore just like the Lewis tool, works great.

 

[Tom S.]

For the life in me I can not figure out why you don't ask for a return label from S&W and send it in or why it wasn't returned to the seller. Send it in both for the recall and for the barrel.
Problem solved...

S&W doesn't replace dirty barrels, unless of course you are willing to buy a new barrel.

OP, nice work cleaning the crud. You will find similar build up in flash hiders, muzzle brakes and sound suppressors. I used to soak parts in the old formula of Hoppes #9 for such work. The newer formula works but not as well. Chore Boy pads and dental picks help as previous posts state.

 

[fleaflop]

I cant get over the strange design of the barrel tip. Does anyone have weapons,... pistols, rifles anything with a ported barrel, and does it have a larger inside diam. like the photos? It would seem to me the barrel stops where the rifling stops, and the extra ported section is for muzzle flash release or counter flip in recoil... Someone do a head to head with a non- ported model....Lets see what the designers had in mind with this brew!

 

[AJ]

I cant get over the strange design of the barrel tip. Does anyone have weapons,... pistols, rifles anything with a ported barrel, and does it have a larger inside diam. like the photos? It would seem to me the barrel stops where the rifling stops, and the extra ported section is for muzzle flash release or counter flip in recoil... Someone do a head to head with a non- ported model....Lets see what the designers had in mind with this brew!

I have seen rifle barrels counterbored like that. Primarily on M1 Garands to "freshen up" the rifling. The cause is from cleaning with a steel cleaning rod and allowing it to drag across the rifling at the muzzle. This destroys the accuracy as it wears down the rifling. The muzzles are rebored as much as 0.5 inch to regain accuracy.

Never have seen it done in a handgun like your is though. I have owned two ported handguns so far in this trail of tears. One was a IPSC M1911 in .45 ACP. That one had a large port screwed onto the end of the barrel. The other is a Ruger SR1911 in 10MM, that looks as if it has been sent to Magna Port for the porting.