[FloridaAKM]

A friend on this board picked up three barrels at a funshow last weekend in 30.06 caliber for the 1919A4. They are in varying condition from worn rifling, to pitting in one side (inside) of a barrel that sat for a period of time in one place allowing pitting there. I can't guage the barrels as I have no tools to do so for the chambers. I am guessing that this pitted barrel would be a good blaster barrel as I have a pile of 30.06 tracer ammo to shoot. Any comments??

 

[ali059]

I would also curious on this as I have a few barrels with the same problem. These are NOS never shot barrels and have some minor pitting in the rifling. One or two with a small amount of pitting in the chamber.

My thinking is IF the shell extracts it sould be fine????I do not know for sure.
The pitting in the rifleing should work out fine, just decrease the accuracy? Is there a guage you can buy to check the chambers? Is there something you can buy to clean up the chambers?

I have an old british 303 that has a pitted bore and shoots great and it is fairly accurate.

 

[Mouse]

Pitting isn't necessarily a sign of a bad barrel. I would be more concerned if the rifling at the throat and the muzzle are worn. Pitting might bring the price down but it isn't an indicator of how it will perform.

 

[bigblock]

I bought a 3006 barrel that had pitting in the chamber and no matter how I headspaced it the bottom of the case swelled pretty bad. I would invest in a $20 case stretch gage from Brownell's. My cases were so bad they wouldn't even fit in the gage.http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=271313

 

[FloridaAKM]

The chamber on the barrel in question is slightly rusty on the surface, but nothing that a little polishing won't cure. I am going to take a guess that these barrels are not chrome lined. It was not offered in that time frame was it. Also, this barrel was put in a lathe and turned down slightly, leaving wide lathe tool cutting marks between the booster contact area and the trunion contact area. The mentioned area is arsenal marked with BA stamping and part numbers. I just never have seen a barrel cut like this. It will work fine IMHO.

 

[Mouse]

I bought a 3006 barrel that had pitting in the chamber and no matter how I headspaced it the bottom of the case swelled pretty bad. I would invest in a $20 case stretch gage from Brownell's. My cases were so bad they wouldn't even fit in the gage.http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=271313

Ummmm.... A pitted chamber is a whole other story.
If the chamber is pitted it's most likely toast.

 

[bigblock]

Ummmm.... A pitted chamber is a whole other story.
If the chamber is pitted it's most likely toast.

Yea the barrel became a target.

 

[ohioblacksheep]

Light pitting in the rifleing shouldn't be to much of a problem for a blasting barrel. As far as the chamber, if you can clean it up well enough that the cartridges extracts your good. The only real way to know would be to try them..

Pay REAL close attention to how DEEP the pits are in the rifleing. I've come across a couple the pits were so deep I was afraid to turn them down.. BTW, all the barrels I'm refering to were the ones I've seen while makeing them into 1917 barrels for my jackets. I've seen a few that might have been OK for A4's but 1917 barrels get 5 lbs of steel taken off.

On the BA marked barrels, all the ones I've seen have those ruff tooling marks between the booster and trunion contact areas..Could be there all that way.....Lou

 

[Lucky#13]

On the BA marked barrels, all the ones I've seen have those ruff tooling marks between the booster and trunion contact areas..Could be there all that way.....Lou

That is absolutely correct. I have seen quite a few BA barrels and all have that course turned surface. That's one way to spot them without looking at the marking!

 

[FloridaAKM]

Thanks for all the great info. I will go ahead with the build in 30.06 and see how well the gun runs, then check the accuracy. After all, if you have a gun with a primo barrel and won't shoot it like you stole it , it's really not worth having..

 

[ali059]

After some researching last night I found that brownells has a chamber reamer. I am thinking of buying one to see if that helps cleaning up the chamber. They have two different types and I am thinking of going with the rough cut one as it does not cut the shoulder. My other thought is to use a chamber hone to clean up the chambers a little more.

I also found that they have fire lapping bullets, these will clean up a barrel nicely. They use a abrasive compund and you load the bullets up and shoot them. It really cleans up the barrel nice. It will also tighten up accuracy.

 

[kkkriverrats]

Pitting ?

The biggest problem with pitted bores is that they are very difficult to clean and keep clean, rough chambers may cause extraction problems.

What you may be seeing as pitting might be just a very dirty barrel. I have cleaned up a few barrels that looked hopeless, and they turned out to be reasonably good shooters. Before spending a ton of money on reamers, you might try a couple of things. I WOULD NOT USE THESE METHODS ON A VALUABLE FIREARM. We are talking about attempting to restore a 1919 barrel to reasonable firing condition.

First use a good penetrating oil like Kroil and a new bore brush, soak for a half hour and brush in the direction of bullet travel. I have had much better luck with the Kroil than with any other bore cleaner. Kroil has a very distinct odor, but , hey, you are cleaning up the bore not going to the prom.

I have a one piece stainless cleaning rod that I use for only this purpose. After about 50 strokes (with the brush) run patches until they come up clean. Pull off a small tuft of 000 steel wool and thread it thru the patch holder so it will be a snug fit in the bore, soak in Kroil, 50 more strokes, patches, switch back to the brush. Keep repeating and checking the bore with a good light. Remember you are CLEANING the bore not trying to remove the lands, and it's only going to get so clean. When you think it's clean (it won't be) put some "Final Buff" a PPG product that is used in the automotive body shop business, or some jewelers rouge on a patch and take about 10 strokes on the cleaning rod, back to the Kroil, brush, steel wool, patches. Sometimes an overnite soak with Kroil and repeating the process will be necessary The chamber can be polished the same way using a pistol cleaning rod with the handle removed chucked in a drill. Either discard any of the cleaning tools or keep them seperate from your other cleaning stuff when you finish.

Another thing to keep in mind is a 1919 is not a benchrest rifle, what most of us are looking for is functionality, not 1/4 MOA accuracy.

 

[ohioblacksheep]

Alio59,

A couple of thoughts for you to keep in mind.

Most of the Military barrels I've dealt with have a slightly bigger chamber than sporting and target barrels, which are what the chambering reamers Brownell sells are used for. There not going to do you any good for removeing pits in the 1919 barrels without going deeper.. It is something that could be done and you could probibly get away with going in about 1/4 in. but you'd have to be able the trim the THREADED end and rethread and re notch the lock spring groves..

I've known guys to use the fire lapping bullets and have had good results with New barrels. The lapping is for removeing burrs and such from tooling marks in the rifleing.. The only thing your going to do in a pitted barrel is load up the pits with the lapping compound...Lou

 

[Bill S]

.......I am guessing that this pitted barrel would be a good blaster barrel as I have a pile of 30.06 tracer ammo to shoot. Any comments??

I'm guessing that you're afraid of damaging a good barrel with tracers and therefore want to run them through a "blaster barrel". I've heard two different beliefs on this topic, and maybe some people can jump in here with the real story. First belief is that tracers damage barrels because of the burning compound inside the tracer. The opposing belief is that tracers don't fully ignite until they are quite a ways out from the barrel, and therefore do no damage to the barrel. Anyone care to offer observations and ideas here?

 

[FloridaAKM]

The tracer issue is a two pointed situation. 1st, 30.06 pulled tracers are cheap to reload & they are said to only light off 25% of the time from the lot I am using. I am NOT looking for a fire storm by any means, just a cheap shooting round for 1919 plinking. The second issue is tracers do corrode the barrel on non chrome lined barrels; don't ask me how I know; which this 30.06 BA barrel is a non chromed barrel. The barrel came from a lot of three that varied in problems & was inexpensive.
The way tracers function, as I see it, they do the initial ignition in the barrel with the loaded compound set not to trace instantly, but wait a split second for the bullet to get away from the shooter to start visably burning; this protects the shooter. The compound still initally ignites in the barrel leaving salts of the burning compound on/in the metal as do older chlorate primed corrosive primers do. If after the shooting is done, everything is scrubbed out properly with something (ammonia) that will clean out these salts, everything should be good to go. Still a regular cleaning should be followed after this previous procedure.
Now, there are folks out there who know much more than me about this subject; it is time for them to add to the knowledge of this thread.