Lee Loader

I figured you all think that I have gone shotgun slug crazy, but not so. I continue to work with my centerfire rifles, prepping them for deer season. My choices this year will fall to my Rossi Rio Grande chambered in 30-30 AI and my SMLE Scout. Now, to back up.

Months ago I decided to polish the chamber on my Rossi 92 454 Casull. A case separation left a trace of a ring that I haven't been able to remove via the "shade tree" method. My research said to use a Flex-Hone chamber polisher. I watched the videos and read the instructions so I bought a 45 Colt brush and the Flex-Hone oil for the R92.

[BBvideo 560,340][/BBvideo]

I became curious about additional brushes as my SMLE's chamber looks like it has a matte finish and after hand cutting the Ackley Improved on my Rossi Rio Grande, I thought I would like to polish both of these as well. I contacted Flex-Hone, and sure enough, they have all kinds of cartridge specific polishers, more than any single source carries. They said that I could use the standard 30-30 Win with the AI and I waited about six weeks for the 303 British. The AI was uneventful.



In that I tend to ponder this type of work for a while, I finally decided to do it this weekend. I took both the Rossi and SMLE apart and got set up. Levergun polishers have a 14" wire shank and bolt action a 9". I was already prepped for the 303 being to short to reach through the action so I did what others had done, JB Welded the shank into a cleaning rod. The polishers are used with a hand drill.



The polishing process takes about 40 seconds. That's it, and the chambers look great. The instructions said to clean the chamber/bore with water and liquid detergent which I did. My garage sink hot water is set very hot so it cleaned it up quick with Dawn Ultra. I blew the water off with compressed air and then soaked the receiver/barrel with WD-40. I use it for what it is, a drying agent. Once the WD had dried, I used my normal lubricants and will assemble the rifles today.

As a note, the 303 British was not listed on the Flex-Hone website, but I read where it is best to call them. I wanted to ask about the 30-30 AI anyway and sure enough, they had the 303 British scheduled for a production run.

My enabler/gun smith/builder of 1/2 moa on demand rifles swears by them for fixing sticky factory chambers .

Do They make One for a .45 auto?

orerancher wrote:Do They make One for a .45 auto?

Yep, gon'na need to school them as they call it a 45 ACP!

http://www.brushresearch.com/brushes.php?c2=8

Select Silicon Carbide and 800 grit. I would get their oil as well. It's different than anything I've used.

Ranch Dog wrote:

orerancher wrote:Do They make One for a .45 auto?

Yep, gon'na need to school them as they call it a 45 ACP!

http://www.brushresearch.com/brushes.php?c2=8

Select Silicon Carbide and 800 grit. I would get their oil as well. It's different than anything I've used.

Thank You Sir!!

My 99f when I first aquired it used would fail to extract cases on occasion. My smith polished it and now no issues.

The trouble I run into here is that there are no gunsmiths in the driveable area. Oh, there are guys that call themselves gunsmiths because they built an AR, but they don't know the first thing about non-AR firearms.

To gear up to polish a chamber; hone, oil, and shipping are going to cost about $60. It would take me that in fuel to get my firearm to a guy that I would trust to do it the polishing plus about $80 for each firearm he polished, and I would not see the firearm for about three weeks.

The three hones, oil, and shipping from two sources cost me $126. I wish I would have thought to check with the manufacturer first as it would have saved about $20. So the polishing was about $42 a firearm.
Of course, I have brushes and oil on hand now, but I doubt I will have a use of them.

I always wanted to know someone who had used their hones. That is really neat. When I did engine work (30 years ago) we always honed the cylinder walls of the engine blocks. WD-40 is great for lots of uses, water displacement being the biggest one. Great post.

Ranch Dog wrote:The trouble I run into here is that there are no gunsmiths in the driveable area. Oh, there are guys that call themselves gunsmiths because they built an AR, but they don't know the first thing about non-AR firearms.

To gear up to polish a chamber; hone, oil, and shipping are going to cost about $60. It would take me that in fuel to get my firearm to a guy that I would trust to do it the polishing plus about $80 for each firearm he polished, and I would not see the firearm for about three weeks.

The three hones, oil, and shipping from two sources cost me $126. I wish I would have thought to check with the manufacturer first as it would have saved about $20. So the polishing was about $42 a firearm.
Of course, I have brushes and oil on hand now, but I doubt I will have a use of them.

That's the Problem Here...No Gunsmiths anywhere near here...
How fast do Ya have to turn the Hone?