Taking off old crust

[charger]

I dont know if theres pitting under it or not. Its like a layer of rust on my oct barrel except smooth and above the surface of the metal. How would a fella take that off without getting into metal?

 

[Dr. Dickie]

Is this in the bore, or on the outside of the barrel?

 

[charger]

outside.some places 2" some 1/2 " like a thin hard crust

 

[Dr. Dickie]

Rust would be above the level of the metal (as it flakes up and off as it is formed).
Almost no way to keep from impacting the metal to some degree. Perhaps you might want to try some Naval Jelly with a bit of 000 steel wool to help remove the rust (this woks on other metals);
Before I did anything like that, I would try some Scotch pads (the scrubby plastic things) with some Hoppes #9 to see if it cut it at all. You then might want to move to #000 steel wool. However, once you expose the metal, be prepared to protect it quickly.
Others will no doubt have better ideas (as I have not had to deal with this condition of a barrel).

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Run a search under "brass wool" on the THR search engine, that should get you some info.

I've used oil and brass wool to remove scale in the past. The upside of brass wool is that it's softer than steel, so won't scratch up the metal like steel wool will, but will still peel flakes off.

This is just totally amateur info, if you run a search on the topic, probably someone far more skilled than me will have more detailed info.

I'd just avoid using steel wool on steel gun until less harsh methods have been tried.

-MV

 

[hoghunting]

I highly recommend Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner. It has done the best job of removing rust and saving bluing of any other cleaner I have used.

 

[Oldnamvet]

We aren't talking about a barrel that has been "browned" rather than blued are we? Browning the barrel (old guns, not new ones) used to be a common way to prevent deterioration. Once you had that fine smooth layer of rust and then oiled it, further oxidation did not occur.

 

[Biggfoot44]

While nothing will totally not impact the finish, but 0000 (four O) steel wool with oil is plenty mild.