1891 Long Rifle

[Aragorn243]

I spent a couple hours cleaning it this afternoon and I'm not seeing a great deal of improvement. I'm going to oil it and put it back together. Maybe next range day I'll take it out and put a few rounds through it.

Sadly, it passes the bullet test with flying colors so the muzzle isn't worn.

I run patches through it and they end up leaving some threads behind. There are places it passes though OK and other it really tightens up in so it's either more pitted in places or eroded out in places or both. I can see rifling all the way through but can't tell if it is all connected or not or if some is eaten away.

When described as a sewer pipe, I"m talking about the interior of 100 year old cast iron.

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[Aragorn243]

Back together, still doing some work on it. Bore still rusty, haven't taken it to the range yet to see if that will clean it out any better. Tried to take a photo of that but I cannot figure out how to do that.

Stock isn't bad, a couple of deep gouges but they don't really detract much from the overall rifle. I polished the end of the barrel to get the rough "naval jelly" area out and cold blued it. Blended well. Bolt knob made of harder material and I'm still working on that. The cartouche is pretty hard to see in the photos but it is a Terni cartouche from 1931 so it went through a rebuild at that time. Front barrel band was polished a bit and cold blued as it saw the "naval jelly" treatment also.

























I am pleased with the exterior, it's not a bad looking rifle, just wish I could say something good about the bore.

[oldpaul]

Some years ago I bought an M95 Steyr long rifle with a bore similar to what you describe, good rifling but pretty uniformly corroded. I used JB bore paste from Brownells multiple times and although the bore improved noticeably, it is still pretty rough. Accuracy is not up to Ross MK III or Berthier standards but it is adequate for its purpose and era. Regards. Tom

[Aragorn243]

I've been a bit nervous about putting a round through this. I stuck a handgun cleaning rod in the end a few weeks ago, not sure what prompted me to do this but in any case, it stopped about six inches in. I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but this bothered me as it's an obvious constriction in the barrel. Yesterday I went through my drill bits and found one that fit nicely in the barrel. Dropped it in, stopped six inches down. Tapped it through and it stopped three more times. I repeated this process about 30 times until the bit drops freely through the barrel. Then I killed another bore brush with rust break free. Bore actually is looking better now. Rifling looks more uniform the entire way through although there remain some spots in the grooves that appear to be filled with rust.

Probably keep working at it with cleaning rods and brushes. I don't want to split or ring the barrel.