Before inserting the Flex-Hone into your handheld drill, you'll want to strip the coating from the end of the shaft where it will be held by the drill chuck.

Polishing A Bore The Easy Way
A breakthrough occurred in the 1980s when Ralph Walker, a noted Selma, Alabama, gunsmith and writer ran across a tool called the Flex-Hone. The Flex-Hone is a patented polishing device produced by Brush Research Manufacturing in Los Angeles. The Flex-Hone looks like a three-inch nylon bristle bore brush with little balls of abrasive at the end of each individual bristle. Flex-Hones are available in medium to fine grits, or degrees of coarseness, and come equipped with 34-inch-long plastic-coated twisted-wire shanks.

When used with the special Flex-Hone oil, these abrasives really do a great job on a shotgun bore. In a matter of minutes I can smooth up a bore that would have previously taken me hours. Fortunately, Flex-Hones are available from a number of distributors, including MidwayUSA (Dept. ST, 5875 W. Van Horn Tavern Rd., Columbia, MO 65203; 800-243-3220; www.midwayusa.com) and Brownells (Dept. ST, 200 S. Front St., Montezuma, IA 50171; 800-741-0015; www.brownells.com). If you are a serious shotgun shooter or just like to have your guns perform at their best, this is definitely a product you'll want to try. The cost of a Flex-Hone ranges from around $28 to about $60, depending upon where you buy 'em.

While using the Flex-Hone is quick and simple, there are a few points you need to keep in mind. First, the Flex-Hone will not remove deep pits. If your barrel is severely pitted, you will probably have to first ream out the bore. You would open it up until you cut below the bottom of the deepest pit. On deeply pitted barrels, this could actually make the barrel wall so thin as to make the gun unsafe. If you have a deeply pitted barrel, have a knowledgeable shotgun specialist take a look at it. He should have the equipment to determine the depth of the pits and the safety of the barrel.

If you have a ported barrel, you shouldn't use the Flex-Hone over those ports. The small abrasive balls at the end of the nylon bristles may drop into the port openings as the Flex-Hone passes over them. The abrasive will quickly cut away the nice sharp edges around the ports, leaving larger, shallow, tapered openings. Believe me, this will not have a good effect on wads!

It is also best to keep the Flex-Hone away from the shoulder in the barrel where the rear end of the screw-in choke tube skirt is seated. There is a sharp shoulder, or ledge, and the back end of the choke tube fits perfectly against it. This prevents gas, plastic, and fouling from working under the choke tube. If that ledge is ground or polished down, you could create a situation where gas, powder, or fouling could work its way under the tube. In extreme cases this could seriously damage the tube or ruin the barrel.