Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders TC Strike with Armornite bore coating

The new Strike arrived today and all looks pretty good except for the bore.

I first put the gun together to make sure everything fit like it should then decided to swab the bore. Much to my surprise the first patch came out covered in what I assume is rust.

Ran 1 more dry patch with a little less rust then a patch with some penetrant on it to help loosen up any more of this reddish color stuff. 2 more dry patches and it seems to have cleared up.

Has anybody seen the same with their "coated" bore?? Sure didn't expect to see this since the bore is supposed to be coated to prevent any corrosion.

Sending an email to TC along with pictures of the patches to see what their response is. Sure hope the barrel doesn't have to make a return trip to TC.

Haven't wiped mine out yet, but I have seen similar "color" come out of new guns before. It was some kind of preservative. Was there any roughness or pitting? Rust has a smell if you check it before using solvent on it.

I'm hoping to go to the range with mine tomorrow. I'll run a patch through later and see what comes out.

No roughness or pitting. I just figured if it was indeed a coated bore then it should have been pretty clean.

I don't know what rust smells like but about all I could smell on the patch was what the whole bag of patches smells like.

FYI: I did remove the scope base to see how the factory supplied sight would work and ended up having to insert an allen bit in to the screw head and rap it a few times in each screw to make them easier to turn out. Used a 1/4" box end on the bit to remove screws.

If I had tried much harder before tapping the bit I would have rounded to screws out.



Factory supplied sights do not appear to be usable. The stock design is intended for a scope set up. I had to really drive my cheekbone into the comb and still was barely able to get the front sight down in the rear notch with the rear sight slid all the way up. It might work if the front sight were about 1/4" shorter, pretty tall at 5/8" form base to top of fiber.

I hope not too many guys buy this gun thinking they are going to use open sights.

I ran a patch through mine and it looks the same. Don't think it's rust, and the threads of the breech plug collar have the same stuff on them. Inside of the barrel is bright and shiny, very shiny.

I'm using a red dot, so the sights don't matter. Other TCs I've looked at have the same issue for me as you described. A G2 ML and an Encore both were unusable with factory open sights. So, I might add, were a couple of old Sakos, an FN High Power and a Forester that came with the factory peep. Must be my fat head.

I didn't look at the threads on the barrel yet. Yes my bore is pretty bright as well. May grab a 28 gauge bore brush for minor clean up chores at the range as easily as this thing breaks down.

I wonder how tight the forend screw needs to be? I can snug it up and then by pulling the forearm toward the barrel I can gain another turn. May be trial and error while shooting to see if it changes group size or POI.

Headed to the hardware store in a bit to get a little push on washer so the screw stays with the forearm and cannot come out.


Have used sights a few times on ADL/BDL 700s. Did have a New England arms shotgun once that was a smoothbore beaded gun but had a Monte Carlo stock, bead was almost useless. And yes I have a large head as well!

Was mainly throwing the sight issue out there for guys that may be unable to use optics on their frontstuffers and were leaning towards this gun.

Having a hard time deciding between a Burris FFIII or a scope.