Muzzle wear.

[Jim in Illinois]

Gentlemen,

I bought a muzzle wear gauge for my M1 because I had to know how much cleaning rod wear was present. It measured .3015. I'm guessing not too bad for a 75 year old barrel. My question is would muzzle crowning by a competent gunsmith remove this wear? Or should I leave it alone and just buy a .30 caliber bore snake for future cleaning? My goal is to prevent any future wear for the next owner of this rifle.

Thanks for your input. Jim

[M1ashooter]

Crowning can help and you can use rods along with a rod guide to help keep the it centered. How does the rifle shoot? It might not be worth the money if it prints on paper good.

[Smokey]

See how it shoots before you do anything with it. A lot of rifles measure a ME of 3 to 4 and are pretty accurate. What's important is whether the bore is uniform along its length (or better, gets slightly tighter toward the muzzle) rather than the land diameter.

[TJT]

Recrowning may or may not help with mw. Case in point--I have a 9-42 SA. It had mw that was .187" deep. A recrown would not have helped that barrel. I had it counter-bored for the .187" depth. Go ahead and crucify me now, I know. It restored the mw to a "0". Before the counter bore it would hold the 8 ring on an SR1 target at 100 yards. Now it will clean that same SR1 target. I'm not sorry one iota that I cb'ed that barrel. I buy guns to shoot, not hang on walls or store away in vaults. Only accurate guns are interesting. All my uninteresting guns reside with other custodians now.
Jon

[TJT]

I also check mw with a set of machinist's gage pins. A mw gage will tell you the mw. A gage pin will tell you how deep the wear is. That's a story for another time.
Jon

[TJT]

Forgot to mention that there are brand-new never-installed barrels that measure a mw of 2 or (slightly) more. As has been previously mentioned, DO NOTHING until you get it to the range. The proof is in the down-range performance. Keep us posted.
Jon

[lapriester]

Cleaning rod wear is generally not the cause of MW. Starting to worry about that now is a waste of effort anyway. Using a good quality coated rod, even without a PITA bore guide, will never cause any additional wear in your lifetime even if you purposely drag it inside the muzzle. Bore Snakes are nothing but a marketing gimmick that leaves your barrel dirty and gives you a warm fuzzy thinking you are saving your barrel. God forbid you ever break one because they are impossible to remove without the help and expense of a Gunsmith.

I've seen barrels far worse than yours shoot better than barrels in better condition. With 2-4 Average MOA rifle you normally won't see much difference in ranges to 200+ yards. If you intend shooting regularly at 400-500 yards it may effect accuracy a significant amount. Recrowning might do nothing but give you a nice, pretty, shiny crown. If the wear is deep, it will have little effect..or none. Only counterboring will improve that. By the time you're done with all that you would probably be been able to afford installing a brand new barrel.