Bore ok or pass?

[Certus]

Hey guys.

1915 (year made) Winchester model 95 in 405.

Is this bore a deal breaker or ok? It has the 3 leaf express sites.

Debating whether I should get this or a 1923 Willy’s Knight..

 

[Ridge Runner]

Are you asking about the rifling?
It looks good: moderate groove depth and land height.
Using a good caliper to measure the bore diameter should confirm you have plenty of life left in that barrel.

 

[bruce moulds]

looks rough to me, but that could be the picture.
the basic rifling looks good, but if rust has done its thing it will foul, and possibly not shoot.
bruce.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Unless you're in to gambling, fouled barrels and projects, I'd pass. There are too many good rifles for sale at decent prices. Having said that, if I had my heart set on it, I'd slug the barrel first.

 

[Red Leg]

A rifle is the barrel. I would pass on that one. Then again, it likely won’t be the money pit the Willy’s will ..... says the fellow with the ‘41 Chevy.

 

[Von S.]

Certus

Well squire....... it is tough to absolutely judge that barrel from the picture.

Here's a novel idea.......take it to a "real" gunsmith with a bore scope who works on more than just AR's and isn't playing Earl -Sheib with mag wheel paint and see what he has to say?

 

[JimP]

You really need to take a bore scope to it, also you need to determine if it is just dirty or what actual condition it is in. It is very hard to make a judgment by a photo from outside of the bore.

 

[Shootist43]

If you can, run several patches through the bore with Kroil on them. Kroil is a rust eating solvent. After that wrap a 45 Cal. brush with 0000 steel wool then spray it with Kroil and run it through the bore. Do the whole process several times then take another look. This has worked for me on numerous occasions.

 

[curtism1234]

I guess have a different opinion than most. Just based on the pics, it looks like strong rifling with no real pitting that would affect accuracy. This rifle is over 100 years old; it's going to be hard finding a bore in better condition than this imo. It would likely clean up pretty well

But I can only comment on what I can see

 

[sestoppelman]

Agree with above. No need for a bore scope, whats the point? You can see in this good photo the condition. The only caveat I would offer is the muzzle; is it tight? Do the bullet test, drop a live round or dummy into the bore bullet first and see how much bullet it swallows. If the case mouth gets real close to the muzzle it might be too far gone unless there is enough barrel ahead of the front sight to chop a bit off to get back to good dimensions and recrown.

 

[fsrmg1]

Give it a good cleaning and see how she looks. Over the years I've picked up a few guns with bores that looked worse than that. It was all dust, dirt and old fouling. After a good cleaning they were smooth and shiny, and I was (and still am) very happy with them.

By the way, my original circa 1922 .405 WCF has the same 3 leaf express sights as this one. When I bought her, the bore was so fouled up it looked worse than the one in your photo. All she needed was a good scrubbing with Hoppes copper solvent and she came out shiny and loves cast bullets.