Moving Forward: Rust

Good news! I went to the military and antique gun show today and found someone who can look over my newest Enfield. It's a dealer I've been working with for years, but I never thought to ask him until I saw him today. I decided to ask if he knew anyone and he said he'd be happy to do it himself. I trust the guy, so I set a date for the next gun show to bring it along for him.

Anyway, shootable or not, I am intent on keeping this rifle and keeping it in one piece even if it is a wall hanger. So I began step one today. Cleaned it down - just a basic cleaning - and got it oiled up. Got a ton of crud out of this gun, both black and brown.

The bolt looks like it is in good shape. The barrel... I don't know. I can see real nice rifling in there, but my bore snake needs a good washing now. It also seems it may be slightly pitted. Nothing horrible, but this rifle - if shootable - will never out shoot my Ishapore Enfield.

I've got some real tough spots on the rifle. So... what is the best thing to do to clean out this barrel and keep it from getting worse? Also, what should I do to not destroy the finish on the rifle? I know, the rust is eating through some spots on the finish, but I don't want to damage it any further. Just looking to remove what's there and try to keep it from rusting further. Most of the rust actually came off, it appears to be surface rust, but just a few spots are tough.

Outside the bore, don't get carried away trying to remove the rust. Neutralize it with Hoppe's or similar if it's "red". If it's "brown" (old rust) just oil it well and don't worry about it.

Clean the bore as well as you can without damaging the crown. It may shoot fine. Pitting is not always a huge deteriment to accuracy, it may very well surprise you. Enfields are much like Garands in that stock fitment often has more to do with accuracy than any other factor short of a really abused muzzle.

Just an update. The rifle seems to be cleaning up really well. I took advice here and am just using CLP and a lot of patches. The exterior looks 100% better, just cleaned down some of the rust and got some of the dust and animal (I hope) hair out of the crevices. I'm trying to get it cleaned up as best I can before the gun show where it will get inspected, this way it puts it real side forward. So far, very pleased with the looks. Even if it comes out of the inspection as a non-shooter, it'll look good up on the wall. :)

It would be interesting to have detailed the inspection done at the show. Many things to check aside from headspace and bore condition. Some can be done by "educated eyeball" and feel, but the inspector ought to be able to describe the checks as he does them!