Sorry for the long read, but this was almost 2 years of work
I will start by saying I am not a gun guy, but I guess I am now!
I had a .22 as a kid and I still have my Benjiman pellet gun plus a couple of shotguns, but I have always been a bowhunter. So this is actually the 1st deer rifle I have ever owned!
I paid $50 bucks for this rifle from Bones and it was TOTALLY TRASHED! He got it in a trade/cash deal and it originally came with a nice Leupold scope on it; and that was all he wanted off the rifle, so he removed it and passed the rifle on to me.
Sorry but I do not have any actual BEFORE pics, but YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS THING!!
It was COMPLETELY COVERED end to end...and I mean EVERY SINGLE INCH in OLD cloth camo tape! Trigger, stock, barrel, scope, rings, bases, EVERYTHING!
My son and I spent 1 1/2 hours on the kitchen island with GoofOff and Lighter Fluid and finally got all the tape off. Underneath it's mummified exterior I discovered I had a 1973 Ruger M77 .270 with a glass bedded barrel and a Timney Trigger.
ALL of the finish was pulled off the stock, but the wood was nice. It had a huge scratch in the shape of a 9 on the forestock underside which I completely got out. The barrel was almost silver with no bluing and completely trashed.
I sanded and sanded and eventually took the walnut stock all the way down to 800 grit and discovered it had some good wood with some really nice quarter-sawn ripples. I then hand-rubbed 9 coats of Tru Oil and completely ( FINALLY!) got the grain to float out, which was no simple task!
I took the barrel down to where it was completely silver and then re-blued the entire thing. I re-painted the magazine and trigger guard, added a new BSA 50mm 3x9 scope with flip caps + new rings and bases, installed a new Limbsaver Recoil Pad (MAN, is that thing NICE!) and a new sling.
I just sighted it in and it was dead on at 100 yards.
Took almost 2 years of farting around with it (most of the time was in the stock) but finally got it finished just in time for the end of the S. Texas season!
Here are a few pics that don't do it justice...
J.P.
I will start by saying I am not a gun guy, but I guess I am now!
I had a .22 as a kid and I still have my Benjiman pellet gun plus a couple of shotguns, but I have always been a bowhunter. So this is actually the 1st deer rifle I have ever owned!
I paid $50 bucks for this rifle from Bones and it was TOTALLY TRASHED! He got it in a trade/cash deal and it originally came with a nice Leupold scope on it; and that was all he wanted off the rifle, so he removed it and passed the rifle on to me.
Sorry but I do not have any actual BEFORE pics, but YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS THING!!
It was COMPLETELY COVERED end to end...and I mean EVERY SINGLE INCH in OLD cloth camo tape! Trigger, stock, barrel, scope, rings, bases, EVERYTHING!
My son and I spent 1 1/2 hours on the kitchen island with GoofOff and Lighter Fluid and finally got all the tape off. Underneath it's mummified exterior I discovered I had a 1973 Ruger M77 .270 with a glass bedded barrel and a Timney Trigger.
ALL of the finish was pulled off the stock, but the wood was nice. It had a huge scratch in the shape of a 9 on the forestock underside which I completely got out. The barrel was almost silver with no bluing and completely trashed.
I sanded and sanded and eventually took the walnut stock all the way down to 800 grit and discovered it had some good wood with some really nice quarter-sawn ripples. I then hand-rubbed 9 coats of Tru Oil and completely ( FINALLY!) got the grain to float out, which was no simple task!
I took the barrel down to where it was completely silver and then re-blued the entire thing. I re-painted the magazine and trigger guard, added a new BSA 50mm 3x9 scope with flip caps + new rings and bases, installed a new Limbsaver Recoil Pad (MAN, is that thing NICE!) and a new sling.
I just sighted it in and it was dead on at 100 yards.
Took almost 2 years of farting around with it (most of the time was in the stock) but finally got it finished just in time for the end of the S. Texas season!
Here are a few pics that don't do it justice...
J.P.
Attached Files
. How did you handle sanding down the checkering without losing most of the detail? Mine has a glossy finish, and I want to clean out the checkering, then do an oiled finish, I think, but I'm not sure how to get the glossy finish out of the grooves.
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