Bringing Ganddad's 30-06 to life?

[PanhandlePilgrim]

Last year I got my grandfather's old 30-06 and I was hoping to upgrade the scope from the 1970s leupold and get a load developed for it, that is until I ran a bore scope through the barrel. It reminds me of looking down the barrel of an old WW2 cannon, at the bottom of the ocean. All I can say is: Yikes. Any suggestions for getting this barrel cleaned out? I'm willing to try first before I start looking for a gun smith that will be able to put a new barrel on it but there is significant pitting and obviously a lot of corroded copper. This gun has a great deal of sentimental value but I believe some restoration is in order.

 

[axeforce6]

Personally, I'd shoot it and see how it does. Boretech makes a good copper remover. Montana X-Treme copper killer is another I've use with good results. You can follow their cleaning procedures.

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montanaxtreme.com

 

[taba]

Grandpa's Gun Reborn - From Dust Collector to Long Range Precision Rifle Part 1

Loaded question: What if the law of the land prevented you from shooting, training, hunting or even owning an AR-15, an AK-47, or the highly anticipated Israeli Tavor? What if semi-automatic guns and full capacity magazines got banned? Or maybe these great parts of the gun culture were simply...

shwat.com

 

[Fatcamp]

Clean it and shoot it. Ya never know.

 

[6mm Remington]

Clean it and clean it again and then shoot it as others have suggested. Then take another look at the bore with the scope after a good cleaning. I'd take it out of the stock to be able to clean all the metal surfaces and protect it with something like Birchwood Casey's Barricade.

Nice looking rifle. Tell us more please. It looks like it might be a Husqvarna am I correct? Just a guess. If your getting a new scope how about refinishing the stock. That would make it look pretty sharp.

 

[rayporter]

you dont see quick-site see thru mounts often.

 

[packer58]

Like others have said, clean it well and shoot it ...... it just might surprise you ...

 

[TN2shot07]

Shoot it! My younger brother is still using an old hammy down 700 in 06, bore is pitted like hell but it’s 1-1 1/4 moa all day with corelokts. I put a new to him scope and rings on it last season, lot of years left in that old gun

 

[mitchellmountain]

Shoot it, I bet it surprises you.

 

[49ereric]

Need better pics especially of the throat. Hard to tell with what you posted.
JB bore paste or Losso bore cleaner will make it shine.
It will probably shoot fine as is. Frosted barrels often do.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

I kinda figured it would be alright once i cleaned it up but thought i would reach out. The throat looks alright. My grandfather was the kinda guy that pulled his rifles out in September and if he could hit a paper plate at 100 steps (notice I didn't say yards) he was happy. I'll bet the rifle doesn't have more than 500 rounds through it. The gun did however, travel hundreds of miles through the rainy Cascade mountains of Oregon and Washington hence the corrosion.

 

[Cahunter805]

+1 on running some JB bore paste down it also. I would shoot it as suggested by others.
Looks like an old Rem700. I’d take it out of the stock and give the trigger a flush out also.

 

[LoggerDan]

Kroil and marvel mystery oil and a quality rush and one piece rod.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

I ran some Butch's Bore Shine through and let it sit for several hours. I then ran the JB Bore paste through and followed up with a layer of Kroil. Here's some pics and I included some photos of the throat.

After
There is some serious pitting but it cleaned up pretty good. I could have done more, as there's obviously still some carbon in there but that's going to be the least of my worries at this point.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

I took the bolt apart and cleaned it up. Aside from some rust it wasn't in too bad of shape. I moved on to taking the stock off and I think a bedding job may be in order, even though there is a crack in the stock that i felt move when i put the gun back together, might be a lost cause there. I went ahead and swapped the trigger for one I had laying around from a custom gun that I replaced with a triggertech and I also chased rust and crud wherever I could. Next up will be to shoot it and see what I can get out of it.

 

[B23]

I don't really see any pitting but rather gobs of copper and I think the pitting you're seeing really isn't pitting but rather built up carbon. I see tooling marks which is common in factory barrels but don't really see much if any fire cracking and doesn't appear to have been shot very much. Until you get it cleaned down to bare metal it's still a little early to tell what condition the barrel is in.

 

[prm]

You can probably stabilize the crack. I had a stock strengthened with some small diameter threaded rods inserted in a stock.

 

[49ereric]

Barrel needs more JB or Losso which is faster but the barrel doesn’t look bad really.
I worked my M1917 barrel hard with losso and that crusty dark build up comes off but pits underneath. Didn’t hurt the way it shot at all.,
Then I redid the crown though and then she shot fine.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

Barrel needs more JB or Losso which is faster but the barrel doesn’t look bad really.
I worked my M1917 barrel hard with losso and that crusty dark build up comes off but pits underneath. Didn’t hurt the way it shot at all.,
Then I redid the crown though and then she shot fine.

There was a lot of pits showing up like you described. It definitely needs more work but that will have to come another day.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

You can probably stabilize the crack. I had a stock strengthened with some small diameter threaded rods inserted in a stock.

I'll have to do some searching around. I know I have seen this done in other guns before but have never done it myself.