I have a few old hammer L.C. Smith's with Damascus barrels and looking down the barrels they look to have pitting. I ran a bore brush through them with some Hoppe's and then followed with a cotton swab. I could not get the swab to come out clean no matter how many times I brushed it and swabbed it. I am now wondering if they are not pits but fouling from black powder with plastic wads. I had even bought a bore hone in 400 grit and 800 grit using their solution and using an electric drill to run it. Didn't change the results. Next I am going to put the barrels in a vice and use my bore gage to see if going over some of these pits/fouling if the needle goes to the minus side to see if it is build-up and not pitting. I had read something a while ago that kind of made sense, a person on a forum was asking what he should do about some pits in his barrels, a reply was to go to an area that was open, shoot a round and find the wad, it the wad was not misformed the pits were not that deep.
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