I have been shopping for a krag barrel .. And they say dark bore .. I have no idea what this means ... I purchase a lot of guns and restore and resell them so the worse condition there in the happier I am .. Because you can get them cheep cheep and sell them hi hi ... So quite often there so durty you can't even see down the bore ... So I clean them and sometimes there still very dark inside .. So get my shotgun cleaning rod and swabe and but the rod in my drill place polishing compound on the swabe and polish the cartridge camber until it looks like a mirror inside ... And then I get my bore swabe and put polish on it and turn it inside the bore with my drill ... Some times it still dark so I get a new swabe and use diamond polishing compound and so up and down though the bore until it shines like a mirror ... Diamond dust comes in 400 to 50k grit .. And also there is a lot of metal polishing compounds you can get at Walmart ...  I always found it helps to have a nice shinny bore when you sell a gun ... What I have found is a shiny bore don't make you a better shot its just a marketing skeem ... Drak bores shoot just a good ....

It would seem to me that a dark bore could be like your bluing on the outside, a micron thin oxide coloring. I think clean would be best instead of polishing till bright. On the bore I think it would be impossible to polish and have the bore to be the same diameter from end to end with a rotary tool or swab.
I have seen gunsmiths recommendations on chamber polishing after reaming, if I remember correctly they wanted a finish similar to what 320 grit paper would produce with lines in it. The idea if the surface is too slick bolt thrust would increase as the brass would not be able to "grip" the chamber walls.

I have never done it but I have heard the correct way to lap a bore is to cast a lead plug in the barrel with string attachments in it so it can be pulled back in forth in the barrel. Then charge the lead with your diamond polishing compound without removing it from the barrel. By pulling the charged lap back and forth through the barrel, the bore will have parallel walls. If done correctly this would be less damaging to the barrel but the bore will be larger when you finish, which is really not a good thing.
Like on the bore a chamber that is already large is not going to be better off with any metal removal. Most original Krag chambers are going to be on the large side after 100 plus years of use.

My concern over dark would be the corrosive pitting.  Ha, what lies in the dark!
Vic

A dark bore may shoot well. It is never very gratifying to clean.

Patches tend to come out black & green forever. It is hard to know when to quit.

IMHO - 'Wire-Wheeling' with a drill powered cleaning-brush and grinding compounds may get things shiny, but, introduces lots of irregularity to the bore and probably worsens accuracy.

Lead Lapping, as some have suggested, has been a long used technique to improve pitted bores. It does change optimum bullet diameter.

I am a "bore" critic and have used a wonderful Hawkeye bore scope for years to closely examine firearms to determine the state of the bore and my cleaning progress. Simply looking down a bore at a light or with a bore light can frequently give false appearances of the real quality of the bore as when examined with a scope.

I have seen much damage done by overzealous cleaning. I would easily turn down a "mirror" bore or chamber that appears to have been cleaned improperly or polished to make an easier sale. I love getting a darker, dirty bore that I spend an hour or more cleaning well to have a great hidden bore reveal itself. I carefully use a new brass brush at times but I almost never polish with abrasives. As butler says above, many of us have found that even a dark, pitted bore can shoot quite well in an older rifle.

But, many uneducated and unaware buyers will be attracted to a shiny bore. Many are also attracted to a freshly cold blued barrel or a nice, shiny varnished stock.

So please limit your over polishing of your rifle bores. Once damaged, these bores cannot be restored to their original condition. It definitely will lower the true collector's value.

Well said, Whig. My Krag, which looked okay at first, cleaned up nicely with good old Hoppes #9 and elbow grease. It shoots great, and it’s in the discussion for the most accurate rifles I own.

I have been quite surprised at how many of the Krags I have gotten with horrible bores actually clean up really nice. I have a couple terribly pitted bores on nice outwardly appearing Krags and some wonderfully preserved bores on M1894 and M1896 Krags. That ammo back then was really corrosive!

I am one of the few weirdos who loves cleaning my firearms and bores but I detest over cleaning and "polishing" for looks only. I do believe in doing what we can to preserve the history and be good stewards of the classic military firearms that we are temporary owners of. The future generation of collectors who will be next in line to enjoy all of our Krags will certainly appreciate all that we do now to keep our Krags as original and correct as possible.

Afterall, the number of original military correct Krags will only go down as time proceeds! Especially when they are mis-handled, abused and dis-assembled and sold for parts.

A great thread, with well thought out solutions from experience. I have a Remington 1903A3 manufactured in 1943. It has been in my family since the 50's. When I became the custodian it shot well but the end of the bore looked like it had no rifling. Inspection with a loupe indicated the groves were filled with copper/gliding metal.  829 patches later with Hoppes #9 and judicious use of a bronze brush the bore was clean but not shiny, most likely due to the corrosive ammo that was in use in the 40's and into the 50's. It took a month to remove all of the layers of powder fouling and copper/gliding metal. I soaked it over night in Hoppes and then hit it with the brush and clean patches until they came out white. I did that virtually every day for a month until most all of the powder fouling/carbon and all metal fouling was gone. It shoots well and cleans much better now when it does get shot. A labor of love, but worth it.

Zgun

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The bore in my Krag did not look good when I bought it. I used a bench rest shooters cleaning method, and found a very good bore, which shoots very accurately. The cleaning method uses Krill oil, and JB's bore cleaning compound. I use it on all used rifles I buy, and it does an excellent job. ;)

Capt. Frank wrote on Mar 27^th, 2019 at 3:16pm:

. . . The cleaning method uses Krill oil. . .

Krill or "Kroil"? :-/

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I shoot 17 Remington and get copper fouling in the barrel ... Its so fast the friction melts the copper ... Anyway what I use is Montana X-Treme bore conditioner and it works very well ...

Back in the 60s the my neighbor fixed barrels that had a lot of pitting ... What he would do is he had a big handle off a old push lawnmower with a long steel rod and a washer  that was rounded off so 30 cal.   He would put the rod in the barrel and pore in bullet lead and use valve grinding lapping compound and run the plug up and down the bore and restore the bore and rifleings ... Back then a lot of people used cast bullets so if the bore was over sized it didn't matter ...

The old method, shockingly, would involve plugging the chamber with a cork or rubber block of some sort and filling the bore from the muzzle with mercury. Leave it in overnight and it would amalgamate with all of the lead in the bore and clean it right out. This method actually is one of the best and easiest ways to clean the bore of deep and compressed lead. Of course, we don't use mercury for this purpose anymore because of it's toxicity but what a great solution to a leaded bore!

I have lots of mercury and, as a former chemist, have experimented and played with it carefully. Even taught my kids, safely, about the amazing properties of this metal. I have never used it in a bore, though. Too easy to lose some of it and contaminate something (like me.)

So, now we use bore brushes, chemicals and brass screens to pull through the bore to get the lead out. Or, as some do regularly, shoot a few full jacketed bullets through the bore to clean the lead out.

Kroil is nice and one solvent/lubricant I use at times. I love Sharp Shooter's Patch Out/ Wipe Out which can be combined with their Accelerator solution. Brownell's sells these. This will quickly pull out copper from a barrel as well as deep carbon and lead. Amazing to see the patches come out dark blue with copper when I use these products.

But, everyone has their fav. I use some Hoppes but there are better chemicals.

My bad, Kroil.