Restoration of a .22 Short Rifle Mk II... found in a creek

[Patrick Chadwick]

Sorry Louis, my post had - apart from the usual typos - a factual error. The last sentence should read:

"This will drive out some hard rust from the grooves, saving save you hours of work with the bronze brush, and also produce a v. slight burnishing* effect that will let the bullets slide through the bore without being ripped up.

*not honing - no metal is being removed.

Once more, I seriously recommend that you try this method. You can't fill up rust pits, but you can blunt the edges so that they don't tear up lead bullets. I have shot some real horrors quite successfully, and reckon that if the pit is soft-edged and small (compared with the bullet length) then a properly lubricated bullet will just slide over the depression - like it does over the gas vent in a Garand, for example.

BTW, have you checked the muzzle crowning? Touching up the crown to have a bright line all the way around can produce significant improvement. No "counterboring", just enough to see the rifling profile at the muzzle.