Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Blue the Bore

I asked a Colorado gunsmith school to hot-blue my rifle. The students did not seal the chamber and muzzle. Although a beautiful finish was applied to the exterior of the barrel, they also blued the bore. The students did state that the hot bluing process cleans the bore and removes all traces of fouling.

� Is bluing the bore a problem?
� How will the friction between the bore and a bullet change?
� Will bore cleaning solvents remove bluing? Which solvents?
� Should I apply Ultra Bore Coat to the bore while it is so clean?

Bluing the bore is fine. I wouldn't think it's time to coat it, but I'd ask Doug.

Do new rifles have blued bores? If so, then shouldn't Ultra Bore Coat be applied when the barrel is new and clean?

Do you think that I should remove the bluing before applying Ultra Bore Coat? What solvent or compound should I use? I do not want to fire the rifle to remove the bluing because that would introduce copper fouling that I want to prevent.

pjf
IIRC any rifle that gets hot blued, get's the bore blued also. Why, because you don't want to be standing over a tank of hot caustic when the plugs blow out from the thermal expansion of the air inside the barrel.

I have a number of rifles that were blued as they were made into customs or semi-customs, and several factory-stock rifles that have been reblued--in all of them, the bore was included in the blueing. I used to use an automotive carburetor cleaner to swab out the bores before shooting them. Now I just run a brush followed by a few patches down the bore to remove any blueing salts, and put a few "fouling shots" down the barrel before sighting in or starting load development. All of them shoot just fine...