RX for Frosted Lands?

Bought an Australian Number One Mark III, 1942 made today. Bore was a bit dark, but it looked strong. Took it out, shot four rounds through it, no problem. Brought it home and cleaned the bore out. It actually shines really nice, but I can see light pitting on the lands(raised part?) that some people call frosting. Is there a way to polish these down or is this just a permanent condition My other Enfields have mint bores. I'm just wondering how this will affect the performance. It performed well today.

If it performs well, I wouldn't worry about it.
It will get better with shooting and cleaning. Just watch out for metal fouling.
I have one to try, and the rifling is awful and also washed out, but I'm still going to try it. :-)

Had them before like that and they shot Very well!

Always remember this when it comes to rifle bores. Polishing, scouring, scrubbing etc etc...., whatever words you use..... are just other fancy words for eventually wearing it out. If it ain't broke, then don't fix it

Any time the good Captain speaks I listen and hesitate before contradicting.....so what follows is conclusions based on observation. I am more than willing to be told I am full of BS, but offer the following:

I have found that rifles with rough bores due to ill maintenance (i.e. bore rust) seem to benefit from a good bore polishing if done correctly. The done correctly part is important. Here are the advantages of same that I have observed:

1) polished neglected bores seem to show far less fouling tendency once the bore is polished
2) polished neglected bores are, in my experience (shooting on competitive targets) to be more accurate.
3) Correctly done it cleans up a wee bit of the roughness in a worn throat, though I have no idea if that really does much.

The only caveat to #2 above is in most cases the crown has been cleaned up as well, as typically when the bore is neglected the crown has some micro pits that need to be cleaned up. so # 2 might be due to that rather than the bore polishing, but I do not think this is entirely the case.

As far as what I mean about bore polishing. The correct way is to use a lead lap (either cast or a closely sized lead sling forced to shape) with a lapping compound like JB. This removes not only the rust, but also the removes fouling in the corners of the lands that polishing with a tightly fitting brass plunger and patch does not. I have also found that in-between stroked removing the lap and rotating it one land helps as well. This method will remove iron-oxide (rust) that a normal cleaning with a brass brush will not remove.

Ideally before you do this you remove all of the carbon/copper fouling with a carburetor cleaner. The other method I have not used, but have been told will remove rust quite well is white fruit vinegar. If I had an old rust pot I would try that but do not have any such project guns anymore.

On rifles that have had rust where the lands are rough I have found that lapping with the correctly sized brass plunger-patch and JB will clean the lands up and while it most definitely does leave the lands slightly rounded on the very edge, helps with accuracy. This is pure guessing but I think when the lands are rough you get odd fouling patterns that change shot to shot, as fouling builds up to be sheared off from following shots. In either type of polishing you are not over polishing, once the roughness is gone (you can feel it) you stop.


As to results: One of my Lee Enfield match rifles was an old Maltby 1945 gun which had a neglected bore I bought for 25 US from a friend. Horrible shooter. Did the entire bore polish, re-crown and set it up as a center-bedded rifle. Bore went from gray to pretty bight. Shot very well with old cordite loads when I could still get them. Best score I recall was a 468 out of 500 (dropped 10 in offhand), which with ball ammo out of a well worn service rifle.

Had an M14 match rifle (heavy Douglas 1-10, 6-groove , broach cut tube) which rusted up on a long drive back from a match (not bad, just slight bit). Cleaned it the normal way and did every thing I could to remove any crap. Did not shot well after on the 80/88 shot course, lots of fouling, so took off the flash-hider, did the lap and redid the crown. Back to normal accuracy and the tube lasted as long as I expected out of a Douglas tube (~4000 rounds) @ long range (they would shoot very well out to 5,500 rounds @ 300 yards or less).

The only downside is that is it is done incorrectly you could get some asymmetrically wear on the lands in the throat region. In my experience that kind of wear is an accuracy killer. So polishing a bore is something that requires some care to ensure the lap is pushed though the bore without any side to side pressure. As such I have found pulling directly with a bore guide to keep the undersized rod from making contact with the bore, the only contacting part being the lap.

Back in the early days of M16A2 match shooting, the loads were very hot and had a tendency to foul quite heavily, especially on hot summer days. It was a regular technique to polish every 300 rounds (with brass plunger and patch) or so with JB to keep the fouling from becoming excessive. Oddly enough those barrels seemed to give very long life, on the order of 5000 to 5,500 rounds of full distance accuracy (Krieger heavy barrel, 1-8 4 groove , cut rifling.) so the use of polishing does not seem to have affected life.

One shooters observations.

Frosting equals rust. If you don't actually remove the pits and rust then it stays. If you remove metal then you have a bigger bore. You'll have to choose...

any time I agree with Freddy 3 oh 3 I feel certain I am wrong. but in this case I agree with him on two counts.

1. Being full of BS.

2. Polishing the barrel to clean it up.

Clean it and be sure that what you are looking at is actually the result of corrosion and not lead, copper, or powder fouling. I use an oil based valve grinding compound and polish it up with very few strokes. As peter is correct, your wearing out the barrel by other means. Then I use a finer rouge to polish it further. This method wont hurt a bad barrel but will keep the pitting from gouging the copper cladding as the bullet wends its way down the barrel. Cant guarrentee it will save a barrel but it may delay the onset of sudden death syndrome.

I had a 37 commercial BSA III that was bad. I think I imagined the rifleing was there. I cleaned it up this way and out to 300 yards it shot much better. It really did nothing more than extend the life of the barrel, by how much I cannot say. but the serial numbers matched so replacing the barrel was not really an option.

Washing and polishing the painted bodywork of your shining MGB GT is one thing.
Getting a scuff mark out of the paint with an abrasive compound is taking the paint down
Taking that corrosion out is taking the steel down. You can call i whatever you like. You can use all the solvents, water, oil and finest crocus or 1200 rubbing paper you want. But guess what.........

Perhaps shoot is more, giving it a clean with decent bore/copper solvent end of each days run and see how it shoots - if it groups acceptably all good, then carry on enjoying it (the old - if it a'int broke don't fix it )
I've always cleaned all my .303's (No4's and P14) same way, with same stuff as i clean my Fullbore target rifles, although admittedly the target rifles have stainless barrels - seems to work, for me.
Never liked the idea of the paste type "polishing" products, it all sounds to "abrasive" to me - and you'd want to be 110% sure you got all of it out before you fired more rounds after cleaning i would think.

Got no dog in this fight, I just know these exist.

Tubb Final Finish Bore Lapping System 303 Cal

As stated in post 2 here, I have a MLE Mk 1 with a very bad bore. Very worn at the breech end, (Cordite) the rifling looks more Metford at this end!
Also, a loose bullet drops in about an inch further than the end of the chamber so it's pretty worn.
Used a bit of oil and wire wool to clean some of the rust out and fired it. About a 4" group at 110 yards.

Did the crown, as it had had maybe 3/8" hacksawed off muzzle and the saw marks still showed, then someone had chamfered the muzzle with a drill bit, and it had grabbed at one side, making a one-sided chamfer!
Tidied up the crown and tried two 3-round groups. (was getting late in the day and not best light)
First 3-shot group turned out I had one cartridge of a different make. The 2 Winchester 180 gr P-soft point went into 1-1/4" off a rest (110 yards) and the "Imperial" went I have no clue where!

Second 3-shots, (WW "Silvertip" I wanted to use up, 180 gr)
two rounds went 5/8" C-C, and the third opened up the group to 4"!

Part due to my eyes maybe. can't tell where front sight ends and black of the bull starts. also a heavy trigger pull.
Point being, that I think it wants to shoot still, even with a bad bore.
Shooting and cleaning will be what it gets from now on.

R.

To be honest, we/the crunchies were pretty brutal to the point of ruthless in our cleaning regime especially with machine gun barrels to the extent of using hardened steel* wire gauze to scrub them until they were shining....... But their barrel life was a speedy 10,000 rounds or so - or less if the gun or SF crews were using up the remaining ammo on a Friday afternoon.......

But the rifle barrels weren't subject to such harsh treatment. They remained good until the end all with a strict(?) supervised cleaning regime for several days afterwards. That's my experience. And the barrels lasted until the gauges or range tests said '....no more'

* don't believe it? Just take a new piece and look at the blue hardening and quenching colour around the edges

Given how easy it is to squint down the bore for a look-see it's not hard to understand why we fixate on bore condition. Strange how I have several rifles with mirror perfect bores that won't shoot even up to my own limited ability. As we all know, of equal importance are quality of bedding, quality of trigger, quality of ammo, and our own talent or ability with the particular sights fitted. I had a real eye-opener recently with a P14 with moderately pitted and dark bore. In its "original" much abused Eddystone "fatboy" stock it was consistently good for 4 inch groups at 100 yards. As a project I carefully conventionally bedded the barreled action in a new condition Model 1917 stock and, for fun, installed a Parker Hale sight. After bore-sighting and getting it zeroed out at the farm, I took it to the range to try to see just how good it could shoot- even planning to put it on the "lead sled" to take some of my bad shooting out of the equation. To get started I shot two 5 shot groups with handloads and commercial on the bench with left hand on sandbag. After retrieving the target I put the rifle away- two excellent groups with the handloaded group having 4 shots in 0.90inch. This is as good as my ageing eyeballs can shoot with aperture sights. My point is- if I was selling this rifle I would describe the bore (qualitatively) as: fair, with strong rifling but dark grooves and lightly to moderately pitted lands. So, I would strongly suggest checking and rectifying all other variables before attempting to polish out bore imperfections.

Ridolpho

Mike 16, Exactly what was BS in my post or other posts, I did not know I had that reputation.

There are many who simply have a problem with the cosmetics of a pitted barrel. The same goes for stock patches, import marks, etc, etc. I've been selling surplus military rifles for many years and I've dealt with, (or not in some cases), all of them. The gauges don't lie and the proof is in the pudding on the target at the range.

Before and after cleaning on my sniper T ~ Lede then bore in both cases the rifle shoots well so I just clean it and do not worry about the bore cam anymore

Cinders,

I think those bore -cams will have been the death of a good few barrels that still shot perfectly well. We do tend to get far too worried about them after seeing such pictures!

Yes, a rough bore may need another patch or two at cleaning time, but many can still shoot better than us blokes behind the trigger.
(Maybe we sometimes need an Excuse for our crappy shooting!!)

Cheers,
R.

I'm one eluded to by Brian, I love a shiny bore as a collector... I've shot ratty bores and they work fine if they are tight enough. I have a '94 Winchester rifle that shoots marvelously but can't really be cleaned completely...probably from corrosive primers somewhere back in 1906 when it started... It outshoots my 760 Remington in .308...

I'm not trying to be too critical Jim. I think we ALL prefer a bright, shiny barrel, nice finish and minimal handling marks when it comes to shelling out hard earned money for collector's pieces. Unfortunately, it's just not reality, especially when dealing with rifles that have been carried, used and worked on by the militaries of the world. For instance, I have a 1950 Long Branch for sale here that has the classic "frosted" bore throughout. It's seen a humid environment and the nose cap and buttplate also have some pitting present. The forend also has an Armourer's patch below the rear sight on the right hand side where there was a huge gouge. I also have an excellent 1945 Long Branch for sale that's near new condition inside and out. Both pass MoD gauging standards with flying colors and have been tuned and serviced by myself. I test fired both and the one with the pitted barrel actually shoots better than the one with the excellent tube! Go figure. I shot several 2.5" groups at 100 yards off the bench with it after a ragged hole check fire at 25 yds using Portuguese FNM Mk.7z ball.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brian Dick

Portuguese FNM Mk.7z ball

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And we've found that stuff is among the best ever made...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WarPig1976

Got no dog in this fight, I just know these exist.

Tubb Final Finish Bore Lapping System 303 Cal

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Ah! yes they do and for thier intended purpose they work well. I have never used them but I understand they are used to breake in a new barrel. Some use them because they believe in that theory when it comes to barrel breake in proceedure. Others believe strongly in other methods.

it is as Peter says. it does put wear on the barrel and does not actually address a worn or corroded barel.

just the controversy about breaking in a new barrel generates so much passion that I too will stay out of that dog fight.

dont know how it will impact effectiveness on frosted barrels.....frosted barrels.... thats too funny. how we come up with so many generalised terms to describe as painlessly as possible a worn out barrel.

Always run a patch through a barrel befor inspecting it if you intend to buy it. dealer should have no problems with that[COLOR="black"]

I think Roger Wedham in his excellent book " The 2012 Complete Book on Lee Enfield Accururizing"put it best when he stated that even a very worn out barrel may continue to shoot accurately Its justa question of for how long.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frederick303

Mike 16, Exactly what was BS in my post or other posts, I did not know I had that reputation.

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I'm merely trying to be agreeable with the consensus based on your perception.

As for your reputation , again... I Dont believe every thing I read on the internet as it might be BS.;)

Mike 16

Fair enough, the consensus disagrees with my point of view, though I still retain that view, based on match shooing experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frederick303

Mike 16

Fair enough, the consensus disagrees with my point of view, though I still retain that view, based on match shooing experience.

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And I respect you most of all for standing by your beliefs. What is the consensus anyway? nothing more than a herd of sheep.

Anyway.... back to the frosting.

I went to considerable length and effort to restore the shooting qualities of my 37 BSA III. It did not have all matching numbers but the essential parts all matched and would have been a good candidate for a restoration. Someone else also felt that way as the for arm had been split in the typical manner and a very nice and proper repair had been done. It was all blued rather than painted. The forarm woods were georgeous walnut but had been wet sanded to an hourglass shape and finished in some horrible plastic varnish overcoat. any way I sold it. But my point is that it had a matching barrel and I tried everything to get it to shoot. I felt that the methods mentioned above may have helped some but also i considered the possibility that my practice and evolving familiarity with the rifle may also improved its accuracy. I wanted to shoot it and I wanted it to be accurate as I am certain these rifles can be. but with accuracy only some what out to maybe 300 yards. it was a tough choice to sell it. My point is that I'm guessing many people have as a priority maintaining there rifle and barrel as a matched condition. and accuracy a close second concern.

some considerable blame has been pointed in the direction of the corrosive primers. they cause most of thier damage just beyond the chamber and just inside the muzzle of the barrel. my rifle had consistant wear through out the barrel. I dont know if it was 'shot out' or worn out from exessive cleaning.

I was severly warned about my cleaning procedure from a bench rest shooter. perhaps exessive cleaning out of fear of the corrosive prmer has caused damage to barrels. Corrosive primer residue is desolved with water not oils or many bore cleaning solvents. Also some solvents have amonia in thier contents. This, if left on a rifled surface will itself begin to rust the barrel after a short period of time. It can come out on a patch looking like a light brown copper color, copper not green color. most will assume its copper fouling and soak more amonia based bore cleaner in the rifle's bore. a viscious cycle that itself cane cause wear of the bore.

scrubbing the bore with an amonia based solvent and a copper wire brush will also leave green coloured fouling in the bore. its not comming from the bore but is residure remaining on the surface of the bore from the chemical reaction between the amonia based bore cleaner and the copper brush. when the patch is pushed through and it comes up green, the cycle begins again. some, myself included have gone as far and soaking the barrel for extended periods of time in.... amonia based bore cleaning solvents. this behavior over time wil eventually ruin any barrel.

some solvents include hydrogen peroxide, it does the same thing to your barrel. There are some bore cleaners that remove lead fouling, copper fouling. and powder fouling. some only remove one so you may have to select and use seveal brands to do all that needs to be done. another precaution is with leaad fouling. if you dont remove it and you alternate to a copper fouling removing solvent. keep in mind that the copper fouling removing solvent can get under the edges of the lead fouling and soak against the bore and cause corrosion thier too. It will appear in your barrel and a round patch or a circular rim of corrosion. if any type of fouling is an issue be as carefule with cleaning it out as you would with reloading. be detail conscious.

Once you have done all that you can to restore the life of your barrel. cleaning it is the next crucial step to preserving what you have left. cleaning a barrel is not a step but a ritual according to bench rest guys. You dont have to sacrifice a virgin. but ....

what about chroming the inside of the barrel and recuting it to specs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mike16

nothing more than a herd of sheep.

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In this case a herd of sheep with bags of experience behind them dealing with this very thing...as opposed to simple opinion.

Another few words for consensus is, as my wise old mum used to say '......the wisdom of the crowd is rarely wrong'. Indeed, our UK politicians have JUST learned this well used phrase or saying

so any way.... frosted barrels

Not trying to take it much further as even though its a paste; pastes contain liquid liquids are not compressible anyone tried this stuff just curious bit like fire lapping as well.............! Look no ear plugs.........!!!
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...28617741,d.dGo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

anyone tried this stuff

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Ok boys and girls, what have we learned today? That's right!!!, Never trust a fast talking Russian dude with finger tattoos......Ever. :nono:

Sooooooo........

Not to resurrect a dying thread, and with due respect to the chaps from the Canadian and British MOD on this board that, well make this board the great place it is......

There is utility in polishing (carefully......) to remove and iron oxide/fouling build up out of a bore. As described in my previous post on this topic, as if done incorrectly it could very easily do more damage than good. The polishing is only done to remove the surface residue that cannot be cleaned up the normal manner, if there was active rust in the bore then there will be some iron oxide on the lands and in the corner of the lands/goove that a normal brass brush + solvent does not get rid of.

Here is the reasons why a competitive shooter would say this and someone who is not into that esoteric activity might not see it that way:

In US competitive shooting in we fire a course of fire of 58 to 88 rounds in a day, with the long line (22 rounds) fired at the end of the day when the gun is fouled and has been for several hours. Now unlike simple accuracy testing where folks shoot a 3 or 5 group @ 100 or 200 yards we sit down and pound out the 2 sighters +20 rounds for record in 12 to 14 minutes, and if the conditions are good a rate 2 shots a minute for 5 minutes is not unusual. The barrel gets hot. Fouling patterns matter. Done at 100 to 600 yards (depends on the range).

When you do this you see effects you might not with the more limited testing at shorter ranges. Issues such as

1) The grouping gets bigger as it fouls/heats up.
2) The center point of the group walks as it fouls, then jumps back periodically as the fouling is sweep out (or so I guess).
3) Occasional flyers.
4) A 2 or 3 overlapping group pattern where the barrel seems to move its center point around in a distinct pattern.

These are things you see in competitive shooting you might not in shooting 5 shot groups at 100 yards. In particular flyers show up at long range that doe not seem to appear at 100 to 200 yards. Shooting books tell a different story, as shots are plotted 1 by 1 in slow fire, with the shot called and plotted. So any case in looking in my old shooting note books I have the groups to show with the No 4 Malty, that the grouping tightened up (1) and (4) were eliminated by judicious polishing and re-crown process. Range of test was at 100 to 300 yard on the 2 MOA NRA target. Prior the barrel would move around the target black, making good groups but very frustrating After it would hold the 9 ring (more or less).

Same was true in the note book of the M14 referenced prior., Only the pattern was 2 and 3, once again fixed by a careful polishing to get ride of any surface rust, black dark on the surface pattern that cannot be removed by a bore brush. The data book does not lie, the accuracy returned to its former quality tested at matches from 100 to 600 yards.

Both also had the crown redone at the time, but at least in the case of the M14, I very much doubt that was an issue (could have been with the Maltby). In the case of that M14 the barrel was removed at 3805 rounds, not far off the typical tube life for a Douglas barrel. 1945 Maltby barrel still sits on the rifle, well worn, bight bright looking (until you take a look with a bore scope)

So there you have it.

Reference:

Specification, S. A./462-P
Rifle No 1 Mk111
1938

42. Rifle, testing of, -
Every rifle will be fired at a paper target, with full sight, leaf and slide down, at a range of 100 feet, from a mechanical rest. trial shots will be fired, if necessary, and the foresight will be adjusted for lateral deviation, or will be replaced by another foresight to correct vertical deviation. Then five rounds will be fired from the magazine; if the rifle fails to put four shots out of the five into a rectangle 1- inch broad and 1 1/2- inch high, or if the blade, foresight, requires to be set more than .03-inch to one side of its normal position, the rifle will be returned to the manufacturer.

(My 2c worth: These are mass-produced, battle implements, NOT bench-rest rifles!)

To continue, ammo Note from the same source document:

43. Ammunition. - The ammunition for the above test will be specially selected to give good figure of merit.

---------------------------------------------

Thus, one needs "good" MkVll BALL to do the job properly. Random, "odd", "not-quite" Mk Vll etc. just won't cut it. MkVlllZ is not kosher, neither are home-brews using fancy boat-tailed HPs.

Had yet ANOTHER discussion with some chaps at the range this morning: apparently one of the Oz bullet-makers has twigged that there might be a market for a 174gn, flat-bases hollow-point with the same external profile, and, approximately the same static "balance" as MkVll ball.

I'll believe it when I see a box of samples, but it MAY be a start.

NOBODY is going to tool up to make "proper", compound-cored, MkVll projectiles unless someone stumps up for the first million.

there are ways to remove rust/corrosion from a barrel using electrolosis or electrolitic action or what ever the vendors call it. its essentially hooking a stainless steel rod up to a batery charger and sliding it down the barrel center and hooking the battery charger up to the rifle. essentially you are plating the stainless steel rod with rust from the rusted barrel. Called lots of things by many vendors. very effective too and well docummented process on you tube.

advantages are

it removes the rust/corrosion and not the good metal.

it leaves a nice etched kind of surface that you can fill up with moly grease and if you heat up the barrel carefully the moly will penetrate the opened pores of the metal and to a limited extent prevent additional corrosion but will provide a lubed surface to help the bullet travel down the barrel with less resistance and less wear on the barrel. you can then experiment with using less powder which will itself reduce errosion at the chamber end as well. it will not return "metford" rifling to grooved rifleing" if you know what i mean.

Polishing the barrel to remove corrosion is a limited proposition in and of itself. I know I mentioned using a lubed based valve grinding compound but it and polishing remove metal as well as corrosion. they work to smooth the surface but they remove the good with the bad. etching process''s work very well too. Brownells and others sell kits to etch barels,look at thier website but also check out you tube to get an idea of the theory and practice in action. its an amazingly simple process.

FWIW;

I have been trying to get a sows ear to shoot. Very rough bore and eroded throat. It's a MLE Mk 1 or I would not have bothered.
For a start, it showed promise, as with the rust the bore was 'furred up" to some degree, but as it was fired and cleaned, and the bore got smoother, it also got larger as the rust got flushed out, and now it is about hopeless.

I have tried different weights, and styles, and home-loads and it will put a couple in a small group, then the others off paper!
Tried a 3-shot group with Imperial 215 gr @ 110 yards, put them all in an inch, but two were badly keyholing. Fired two more and not even on paper.
The loads that showed promise for a start ( now the bore is smoother) just won't group.

My point being, if a barrel is a bit rough and groups, Don't wear it out more trying to get it polished up!

can you go with a larger diameter bullet?

what about chrome plating the barrels as done by our favorite soviet socialist comrads. chrome and recut comraden or is it comradski

Mike,

Larger bullets I think would mean cast, and I don't know if cast would work in a rough bore.
I should find a few to try before I invest in a mould. Thanks for the suggestion!

Chrome I know nothing about.

Cheers,

Richard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mike16

fill up with moly grease and if you heat up the barrel carefully the moly will penetrate the opened pores of the metal and to a limited extent prevent additional corrosion but will provide a lubed surface to help the bullet travel down the barrel with less resistance and less wear on the barrel.

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Any grease in a barrel or chamber will raise the pressures when fired. The heat of a cartridge being fired will evaporate any grease in the barrel. After a couple there will be none, let alone hiding in the pores of the metal. That's why we fired a pair of warming rounds before commencing practice...this isn't like an engine.

I'm not suggesting leaving the grease in the barrel and shooting the rifle. that is very dagerous and would not work. even if it did it would only work for the one each shot and then the barrel would have to be regreased.... where would you put the zerk fitting. no.... grease in the barrel is very dangerous. good point for those of us who dont know that. grease in the barrel...very bad. remove the grease from the barrel befor shooting the rifle.

grease in barrel...very very bad.

we are not talking about lead bullets with grease grooves either. I have no experience with that in .303 or the many mixtures involved in the grease used in the grooves. although I know moly has been used as a component of the mixture used in the grease grooves of those leaded bullets.


I'm suggesting putting moly in the barrel and letting it soak into the open pours of the rifle while it is brought up to a high temperature perhaps in an oven for some period of time then allowed to cool and then the barrel is cleaned in some way to remove the grease but not to remove the moly coating the bore and in the pores of the metal. sorry, I skipped that very important step, of removing any and all grease from the barrel befor shooting it. mea culpa.

shooting the rifle will possibly remove additional moly from the surface of the barrel bore but only a little more after which the remaining moly will remain. occasionally the process will will have to be repeated to restore the moly and its benifits. the process is repeated. dont forget to remove any and all grease from your barrel before shooting it.

I hope I dont have to mention that when you heat op the barrel you ought to remove the wood.

another point about polishing. Polishing may have a tendency to smear metal over rust /corrosion. so while your marveling at the beauty of shiny and more worn metal. it continues to rust/corrode under where the metal has smeared over it. making it harder to actually see and harder to stop. thats why the etching process has advantages.

chroming over a polished barrel may be problamatic for the same reason. chroming over rust and corrosion will cause the same problem as smearing metal over rust corrosion. etching metal prior to chroming over it does two things.it removes rust and corrosion that is deep down in the pores of the metal and between the grains of the metal and it provides a nice textured surface for the chrome to grip on so then at some later point when it is machined or cut for new rifling and later still when shot the chrome has a better ability to grip and stay put in the barrel.

etching also provides a nice surface for moly to attach itself to.

I dont know if you want to try moly then go with chroming the barrel. try one or the other but maybe not moly the barrel then try chroming it because moly can also penetrate deep into the barrel surface and is a pita to remove . chroming over moly. i dont know if that has been done but it would make no sense.

I know that once a barrel has been done with moly it is hard if not almost impossible to remove completely. very difficult to clean out the moly. not impossible but very difficult. keep that in mind if you experiment with moly then go on to experiment with other process's.

when you clean a barrel that has been moly'd. the ordinary cleaning process used after each shooting, that process can/may differ depending on who you talk to. there are vendors who sell moly for bullet coating too and barrel coating. they might be the ones to advise you on rifle barrel cleaning process after shooting and if you choose at some point to remove moly coating from your barrel.

chrome moly barrels not the same thing.

dont shoot a barrel with grease in it. very bad.

any nearby university that has an engineering program will probably have a set of books published by ASM, about 20-30 very large heavy volumes on all types of materials and process's. one will include a chapter on various types of chrome plating. its not the chrome plating process used on automotive bumpers. its industrial chrome plating.