The bore on my recently acquired sporter Krag carbine looked like it had not been cleaned in 50 years.  Fortunately, the lands look good even if the grooves seem to have an accumulation of buildup.  I have worked in solvents and brushed a good amount with some little improvement.  The grooves seem almost lumpy rather than rough, but not smooth. Near the chamber, the grooves seem to have a stubborn buildup under "down hill" edge of the land and up to its top.  I detect no throat erosion.  At present the bore is soaking in Kroil.  I will brush again, but I wonder if some shooting might loosen up the junk in the grooves.  Can some of the junk be shot out?  Has anyone has success in cleaning up these old bores?  Is there a better way to do this?  I am really looking forward to shooting this dignified old rifle and am really pleased that I have it.  Thanks for your help and advice.

Looks like mine is about a 3.  I'll try working on it some more and shooting it.  My first look down the bore from the muzzle with a patch in the back of the receiver, to catch light, showed a completely dark bore.  It turned out someone had shot a 30-30 in a 30-40 and the ruptured case was still in the chamber since the extractor would not pull it out.  This dignified old rifle was a gift from an old friend and I will treat it with respect.  Generations ago someone made a carbine from an 1895 rifle with 22 in barrel, shortened forearm with schnable fore end a internal barrel band, added a pistol grip, skillfully, and a butt pad.  Thanks butlersrangers for your response.

Ooops, looks like I need to know more about image posting.  Sorry.

Thanks Butler.  I did buy a used barrel to replace mine. It's at the gunsmith now. I was interested in the forums reaction to the photo, but I haven't mastered succesful posting of photos stored on my computer.

I picked up a scoped 98 Krag with a #4 condition bore as described. I think it was fired with corrosive ammo and put away uncleaned for decades. I used Hoppes #9, Sweets 7.62, Kroil, JB Bore Paste and Bronze wool on the bore. The bore is still dark and patches still come out with some black on them.

The rifle still shoots cast bullets in 5 shot groups of 1.5 inches or less at 100 yards. Amazing!

Another photo of the barrel. (not)
A real sewer pipe.

ButterBolt:  I am not computer tech savvy.  I store my pictures, for posting, at low resolution (.3M digital camera shots) on my computer hard drive, as photos or documents.  When I am making a posting or reply on the KCA forum, there is a 'Browse' button near the bottom of the window.  If you left click on this button, you are taken to your images in the Documents library.  Select an image and left click on the 'Open' button.  You will be returned to the message window and the title of your image will be in the Browse box.  You can then post your message and one image by left clicking on the 'Post Message' button.  If you attempt to  'Preview' your message and image, you will lose the attachment and have to go Browse for it again.  If the image has too many pixels, you will get a 'posting error message'.  (Wow, I just learned to use the 'Attachments+' box to add another image to a posting)!

ButterBolt wrote on Feb 7^th, 2014 at 3:12pm: