Two Year Project Complete! Ruger M77 .270 Full Restoration

[Cottonfish]

Excellent work, sir! I'd be afraid to scratch it up with use in the field.........

Stu

[tx_dropem]

awesome job, great looking rifle!

[txdukklr]

wow great job!

[dozer]

Randy, the very 1st thing you do is strip all of the old finish away. I kept the front sling screw in the stock after I dissassembled it and backed it out a few turns so I would have something to hang it by. I took a coat hanger and wrapped it around the screw and then bent the other end to make a hook to hang it by.

Then I sprayed the entire stock with a top quality spray stripper (from Lowes or H.D.). Let it do it's work for about 10 minutes and then I sprayed all of the dissolved finish off with a hose with a high pressure nozzle. Wipe it down and dry it off and this should get everything out of the checkering. If it doesn't, keep applying the stripper to the checkering only and washing/blasting it off until all the finish is gone.

I let the stock dry for about 3 days before I started sanding on it.

Make sure and mask off all the checkering before you start sanding. Then, and this is super-important; DO NOT PUT ANY FINISH ON THE CHECKERING until the very last coat of Tru Oil!! Once you are done with the last coat, let it dry, then remove all of the masking tape, and appy the finish to the checkering.

I used a soft wire brush on a grinder Dozer, but you can use 400 grit sandpaper as well. They key is the steel wooling between each bluing. I had never messed with this before and the process is pretty wild! It blues it INSTANTLY (heck, it's an acid!) so you have to be quick about things and DON'T go over what you just did again. Just do one pass at a time and use the 0000 steel wool in between coats.

I'l try to post some better dtail pics once I get better photo light this morning.

J.P.

Thanks JP. You have inspired me to work on an old Winchester 300 mag I took on trade that does look like a "tent stake"

[westguy76]

wow, great job there. you have something to be proud of there, something you can't buy. pride of workmanship. kudos!

[Humper]

man...that is sweet JP....I have an old marlin 30-30 I can send you while the process is still fresh in your mind

[ChickenWilly]

You did an awesome job on that! Looks like a brand new rifle!

[jpbruni]

man...that is sweet JP....I have an old marlin 30-30 I can send you while the process is still fresh in your mind

You'd have to twist my arm pretty hard and flash a lot of cash before I'd dive into this again Jeff It was not what I would call a FUN project ...Is it a lever action???

J.P.

[Humper]

...Is it a lever action???

J.P.

yep...that's why I want someone else to screw with it

[WyoHunter]

Beautiful restoration job! Congrats on a job well done!

[roberts]

You did an excellent job on the restoration. Gun looks awesome.

[stickman]

I had that exact rifle and deeply regret selling it after seeing your work. I just did'nt want to mess with the refinish job. Anyhow, enough sulking. Great work amigo! I'd be willing to bet you could make some good money refinishing rifles.

[Burnadell]

Thanks for the info, JP and Savagehunter.

Again, great job, JP.

[Branham]

WOW! That is an awesome looking rifle. Thanks for the 'how to' information as well.

[VorTexan]

I have one of those and wouldn't trade it for the world.