Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Cleaning an old Winchester barrel

I've got an old Winchester barrel that still has some rifling left but w/a lot of gunk built up over the years. What can I use to attack this stuff to get it more acceptable? Thanks, powdr

Try WipeOut foam. It's safer than most other HD cleaners to leave in. Just squirt it in and let it set for anywhere from 10-15 minutes to a couple hours. Does an awesome job dissolving gunk. Buy the longer tube to put it in the barrel. After the gunk is all out polish it up with JB Bore...........

Kroil

Plug the breech, fill it up with Kroil and let it sit for 24 hours or so.
Phil

I went to Patch out a long time ago. Wipe out can get messy. I'll soak the bore with a wet patch and let it set. It still foams up, but not as bad.

For the outside bluing, use an older copper penny and oil.
You will be stunned at the difference it makes to remove rust, spots and make hte bluing appear again.
John

I would start with a Kroil soak in the bore.
AGW, you share some really great tips and I thank you sir!

Another vote for Kroil

Kroil !

AGW, do you use the penny as a scraper with oil for rust on a blued firearm? If not, how do you use the combination?

For rust on blued surfaces Frontier 45 metal cleaner is your friend. It does an unbelievable job without any harm to the bluing. Try one, you'll like it.

This ^^^

After the Kroil soak a thorough cleaning with JB Compound will remove still more crap from the bore. I have done this on several old Winchester lever action barrels and was amazed at the result. I use a bronze brush a caliber or so smaller than the bore I am cleaning, wrap a .30 cal. GI cleaning patch around the brush and apply the JB Compound to the patch. 40-50 passes thru the bore will remove lots of crud, may take a couple of applications for really neglected bores. I used this protocol to clean and restore accuracy to hundreds of barrels during the time I worked in the Browning Arms Gunsmithing Shop.