Worn Rifling

Impossible to say.

You didn't even provide pictures, just a vague description.


Very few rifles are actually "shot out". Extremely few gun owners shoot enough rounds to do it. So what happened to it? Damage? Neglect?


Only way to know with certainty is go shoot it and see.

It could have been cleaned or transported in a not advisable manner. I knew a guy.. nevermind.
Shoot it and see how she does.. if it's bad, re-crown it. There is really negligible normal wear at the muzzle, save if it was abused.

Yeah, proof is in the pudding. You don't know how it will do until you shoot it.

What cartridge is it chambered for? Some wear a lot more than others.

Pictures are sometimes misleading...but that looks bad, real bad...no rifling in the last 1/4 inch or so, boogered up crown...looks like a shadetree gunsmith hack job.

Sorry...

You can cut 1/2 inch off and have it recrowned though, not a big job at all...but find a GOOD smith to do it.

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The crown is of no consequence as the rifling is bad for some distance into the barrel. A little image tweaking made it easy to see. If it were mine I'd cut it off to good rifling, wherever that is (looks not too far back, maybe 1/4-1/2) and re-crown. If you can't make that determination then take it to a gunsmith and have it done, it's not all that expensive.

IMHO, just shoot it and evaluate it. If it disappoints, take it to a competent gunsmith to cut 'n crown it.

I agree. Only one way to find out what the damage is.

I like this answer > just shoot it and evaluate it. If it disappoints, take it to a competent gunsmith to cut 'n crown it.

Looks like someone cleaned that thing a lot and with a brass or aluminum cleaning rod.

I certainly agree with trying it first


However I saw a YouTube on recrowning with a lee trimmer and believe it or not it works. Recrowned a mosin and groups significant improved to about 2".

Get the "large" Lee trimmer. Select a length gage for a caliber just slightly smaller than your rifle. E.g., if you're doing a .308, get the length gauge for 7mm. Get plastic straw (others have used aluminum can material) and slit lengthwise, make bushing that goes between length gage and the rifling of the barrel.

As square as possible, cut off barrel as needed. If not very square, fix with a file.

Insert spindle (length gage) bushed with plastic into rifle muzzle, use some sort of oil, and cutter surface will contact rifle crown and begin to cut. This is a slow process, go carefully, turn until you have a good flat surface.

Now take sandpaper starting with maybe 100 grit and working to 400 or 600 grit, punch circular hole to fit spindle, back with some paper towel up against cutter, and use trimmer to circularly sand down square over the cut surface until you get a mirror finish. This goes very quickly by the way.

Now use a BRASS screw with a head larger than the bore, made for a regular (straight) screwdriver, chucked into a portable drill. Fill the indent for the screwdriver on the screw with valve lapping compound from an auto parts store, drill turning slowly, lap the edge where the rifling meets the now mirror polished crown until you just have taken off the sharp edge and introduced a tiny tiny bevel.


I was amazed how well this worked on a Mosin Nagant that had been counterbored; cut off the counterbored portion, and then recrowned and have a real shooter as a result (3-shot groups at 100 yards <2" with handloads and pistol 7x scope). I also did this to a second Mosin Nagant with similar results. Other youtubes have just the file followed by sandpaper followed by the brass screw, but the use of the Lee Trimmer seems to give a very square and mirror finish crown -- for almost $0.

Unless it's keyholing @ 100 yds, then it'll probably be plenty accurate for deer hunting. If deer hunting were very difficult, I wouldn't see all those 7-8-yr old little girls' killing big bucks with their SKSs!

I bought a T/C contender where the previous owner ported the end of the barrel with a drill in his garage. his porting was to drill multiple holes and then conected the dots to improvise milling a right and a left 1/2 port. It gets even better, the drill went through the top of the barrel and tore up the rifling on the bottom. At the price I was paying I could afford to throw away the barrel and buy a new one. I figured I would shoot this bubba just to see what it would do and it shot as well as any new barrel would.

Aaaand..... did the porting work? Lol, just curious.

I agree with shooting it first then re-crowning of needed. Rifle barrels are fickle things. Sometimes a damaged crown or rifling positively destroys accuracy, sometimes it has a minimal effect. No way to tell unless you shoot it first.

I also agree that it looks like excessive cleaning, possibly from the muzzle end or letting it slap around loose coming from the breech end.

Aaaand..... did the porting work? Lol, just curious.

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i assume it worked, i did see flames jump out of the holes.

Over-zealous cleaning syndrome. More bores are ruined by aggressive cleaning than being shot out. Take a good look at the chamber side as well to make sure they didn't double this mistake.

You could back bore this barrel and then port the end. www.hcgrifles.com does a good job with this kind of work. Of course being a Remington 700, you could also re-barrel this action. There are a gunsmiths all over the country who can do that for you.

if it doesn't shoot just have it cut and crowned. most smiths will do this for between $50-80.
i had a columbian mauser with a pitted wore out barrel that would even grab a cleaning brush untill the last 3 or 4 inches of the barrel and had no rifling in the last 1/4" of the barrel but it still shot anything you put in it under 1" so shoot it before condening it

Looks like someone cleaned that thing a lot and with a brass or aluminum cleaning rod.

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No way that was done with either of those. I've used a brass rod my entire life and they just won't do that.....Let's not spread BS around.

HKGuns said:

No way that was done with either of those. I've used a brass rod my entire life and they just won't do that.....Let's not spread BS around.

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Thank you. I was too lazy to type it.

I've seen similar wear before...more than once...thats what happens when you push tight patches soaked with mild abrasives (JB bore paste, Remington 40x, etc.) through a bore too many times...it will wear the throat in a similar fashion, just depends on which direction you shove it in...

I still say somebody has cut that barrel, recrowned it...and used bore paste to try to smooth it up.