Counter boring muzzle

[Oscarflytyer]

Picked up rifle recently. CZ24 7MM Brazilian. Has the requisite pitting of outside metal, and slightly beat up stock. Barrel looks like it has some pretty good wear on the lands. But hopefully not too bad to shoot ok.

This is one of the JC Light rifles. Never seen one before. It looks like it has an end can that was fitted (screwed?) onto the end of the barrel. Section is about 1-1.2" long, and has the front sight built into it.

Problem is, this section is has some bad rust in it. Almost looks like it was counterbored, and later rusted. I am afraid to try and remove/screw off the endcap, plus it would take the front sight with it.

Thinking about having a gunsmith try and counter bore last inch or so of barrel/endcap, to get to some decent lands and grooves. Anyone ever have this done?

Other option would be to cut the bbl and install a barrel "band" w/ front sight.

Don't mind altering it a little (either option above) for a shooter, but don't want to sporter it if I can help it. Guess I might also install a new barrel, but it is serialed to the action, and think it is a special contour for the JC Light version...

Thoughts...?

Information

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[jamie5070]

First I would soak the rusted area with a good penitrating oil or Kroil. Soak a patch and stick in the affected area and let it sit for a day or two and then scrub with a bronze or plastic brush. Do this several times. Then go and shoot it and see what kind of groups you get. Try a couple brands or loads if you can. Some rifles are picky about ammo and some rifles with bad looking bores will shoot quite well. I would do this first and let the results dictate the next course of action.
john

[Oscarflytyer]

I will give this a try. But thinking the rust is way past fixing... Who knows, might get lucky.

[Chuckindenver]

try ATF, and a brass brush..

[us019255]

JC Light rifles

Please pardon my ignorance, but enlighten me or provide a reference. I have never heard of a "JC Light rifle". A quick Google only yielded a JC Penney incident and JC Higgins firearm references.

[Oscarflytyer]

Real quick synopsis. VZ24 was contracted to China (iirc) and they couldn't pay for them. Specs had them slightly shorter and lighter (smaller barrel contour and 7mm) than regular VZ24.

When original contract couldn't pay for them, they shopped them. There was a small civil war of sorts in Brazil, and the 'rebels' bought the rifles - 15K of them is the number I have seen.

Before the rifles could be delivered to the 'rebels,' they were defeated. So the Brazilain govt ended up w/ the rifles. They issued them to police, etc. These rifles have two sets of serial #s on them (mine does, and all I have seen do). There is the original serial and the PM serial. PM is supposed to stand for Police/Military, I think. These were civilian rifles as I understand it and this PM serial designated it a police/military rifle for Brazil.

I am probably off and/or a bit sketchy on details above. Still learning these. I think there are references to them elsewhere in this forum, and also on another milsurp forum. Another recognizable factor about them is that most all of them have bad pitting under the wood line, and sometimes in the bore. They apparently weren't cared for too well...

[Oscarflytyer]

Update

Stuffed the muzzle w/ Kroil soaked patches - for about 10 days! Didn't intend for it to be that long, but... Removed them. Soaked a bronze brush in Kroil and spun it with a drill. Cleaned all the rust out of the muzzle. That was the GOOD news!

Bad news - I don't think I need to be concerned about counter-boring the muzzle! It looks like that has already been done - albeit not QUITE completely smooth bored!

Now to shoot it and hope for the best... Cross your fingers! If it will shoot even half decent groups (<= 6" at 100 yds - w/ my old eyes!) then on to stock work. Here's hoping...!

[Oscarflytyer]

Range update - It shoots. But it won't hit a silhouette target at 50 yds - at least not reliably. And if and when it does - the bullet is starting to keyhole. Not good at all. Was shooting 156 grn bullets, so somewhat long for caliber. Didn't matter. The muzzle wear is almost complete, in at least the last couple of inches of bbl. Fouling looked as tho one land very faintly runs nearly to the end of the muzzle. But other lands disappear before that.

Looks like I will talk to a 'smith and see what he thinks about counter boring 1-3" of the bbl. From the breech end, it looks like there should be enough lands left to stabilize a bullet and shoot ok. Time will tell.