Posted by Steve Arnett on August 18, 2014, 10:09 am, in reply to "What to do about pits?"
Very relevant posts for me. My current project is hammer gun with the more-or-less typical pitting. I especially like the practical test of recovering a couple of wads for examination. My take would be that as long as the wad (especially the petals on the shot cup) are not damaged, then the patterns should be relatively unaffected. As for arresting any damage, I try to keep the bores wet with "Ed's Red", a home brew of equal parts dexron atf, low-odor mineral spirits, acetone, and kerosene. This doesn't quite have the "bouquet" of Hoppe's #9, but seems to have a very effective mix of detergent and penetrating agents. It works as well as anything I've tried on plastic wad and powder residue. Cheap, too.