Had one of the local cleaning companies drop off 8 guns that were in a house fire to be cleaned. The only damage is they smell like smoke. The guy that owns them doesn’t clean them either. One of them is a CVA bolt action muzzle loader. I pulled the bolt out and noticed the breech plug was real dirty. With a tussle I got it out. The bore was even dirtier. I have no idea how long this thing has been sitting dirty, but it’s been a while. I cleaned the bore the best I could but it is pitted and corroded. When I was running the patches through it i could feel the corroded spots. Do you think this is safe to shoot? Or will it just be possibly inaccurate? It’s hard for me to believe how some people neglect their guns.
You don’t state how deep the pitting is? In an extreme case of very deep pits it could be dangerous. Most likely it will be fine. Sometimes the pitting cause’s accuracy problems and sometimes it doesn’t. I have seen some really rough and pitted bores that shot very well.
Reply:
I really don’t know how deep the pitting is. But there are some pretty big spots and like I said when you run the cleaning jag and patch through the bore I can feel the rough spots on the ram rod. Is there a way to measure the pitting? I don’t see how to get in the bore to measure.
Answer:
I don’t know how you would measure it either but I figured you could look and tell if the pits are like holes or just surface pitting. As far as feeling the patch when it goes down the bore you will feel even slight surface variations or slight rust. If you are worried about the safety of the gun tie it to an old tire and tie a string to the trigger and pull the trigger from a distance. (Preferably with something between you and the gun…..car, truck, tree etc.) This sounds like a gag but that is how we test fire a gun we think might be dangerous, or when we proof a muzzle loader barrel.
