Polishing a bore?

[4535jacks]

The bores of my shotgun look a bit rough with the initial signs of pitting in a few areas.  I have given them a good clean with bore cleaner.  Is there a way to finely polish or lap then to return them to their original smoothness?

[figgy]

You could use a metal polish and rod with a mop on a drill. 

[Old farrier]

Hi 

there’s lots of ways it can be done 

first if it’s a higher value gun take it to the gunsmith and get a professional job 

diy 

mop with fine emery cloth on a drill 

valve grinding paste on a cloth wrapped dowel 

you maybe lucky and find a set of bore honing stones on the net 

all depends on how badly pitted or rough the barrels are 

not you may well render the gun out of proof by removing metal from the bores and alter the choking 

[Gunman]

Aluminum rod 3/8" slit one end about 2&1/2" .use a strip of  emery cloth [220 grit] padded out with a piece of foam rubber or similar to make a firm fit in the bore .Lap up and down a few times . Then clean out bore with a cloth and repeat with finer cloth / paper and finish with 400/600 wet or dry .

This the way we used to polish bores after blacking and if they looked dull when a gun was serviced . Although we used our honing machine as a driver and hand held the barrels wrapped in paper to avoid marking . Therefor I suggest you use the following way .

1 make sure the barrels are securely held in a well padded vice . 

2 use a power drill to drive the rod but only at 350 to 500 rpm. The barrel will get hot so dont over do it . 

3 no need for oil .

4  dont worry about "proof" unless the gun is marginal as you will  be removing so little that most gauges wont even register .

5  if there is leading in the choke cone then turn cloth a couple of times until it has gone .

6  with patience and coarser grit cloth you can remove more metal . BUT doing this can result in pits being elongated [ drawn out in a circular way ] making the barrel look worse than when you started so not advisable .

And last of all if the gun has multi chokes take these out first and polish out separately held firmly with gloved hands on a short spigot lap.