Barn find rifles cleaned up.

[ShadeTree]

Lot of work. Very happy with the results. All 3 rifles were stripped down to their bare receivers, internal parts cleaned up, wood and metal polished up, and of course chambers and barrels cleaned. Plenty of pictures if it interest you. I'll break them up into different posts.

A few before pictures of the 7600's just to show some of what is obviously dealt with when rifles are stored in damp conditions. It will get to anything and everything.

Rusted ring screws.




Underside of 1 of the 7600 barrels, don't remember which one.

 

[ShadeTree]

First up is the 30-06. This was the one rifle that was fully functional the way it sat, but took the most work in the end. Was way more corroded and what not internally than the other rifles.

They say not to take 760/7600 trigger groups apart. I do if needed. They are no big deal.

Pic of the 30-06 trigger parts. You can see the rusted seer along with the rusted rear trigger retaining sleeve. Cleaned them up and hand polished the sear and hammer face.



Stock of the 30-06 before. All the rifles wood didn't look horrible from straight on, but from any angle they had a hazy almost dusty look to them, that didn't wipe off.

 

[ShadeTree]

30-06 cleaned up. Trigger breaks at 4 lbs now, didn't test the weight before, but it was horrible with the rusted parts inside.

 

[HodgemanAK]

Solid work! Very nice.

 

[ShadeTree]

Next is the 7600 243 with the engraved receiver. This one really wasn't bad at all inside despite the action being locked up in the open position intially. Polishing the sear and hammer face got this trigger down to a consistent 3 lbs.

A before pic of the stock on this rifle. That haze looks like it would wipe off like dust, but it wouldn't. Took some polishing.




Cleaned up. This rifle has a darker rich looking wood than the 30-06 does.





The mark on the rear of the receiver is from a loose scope mount rubbing.



Pics of the engraving. Bears on the left side, whitetail bucks on the right.

 

[ShadeTree]

Next up is the Winchester M94. Rusty at spots, and just plain ole dirty and gummed up inside and out. I was a little leary of tearing this apart after tearing apart a Winchester M71, but this was easy peazy compared to the M71.

Like the other 2 it cleaned up very well. I was really happy with this rifle as it was the roughest of all of them when you really got to looking at it.

Some before pics.





Here's what 4 of the cartridges looked like that were in the sling of this rifle. Shows what moisture will do. I could barely get them out of the sling, they were galded fast.




Internal receiver parts after they were cleaned up. Didn't take a before pic, but you get the idea of what this rifle was like.

 

[Dr. Vette]

Great job! I'm impressed!

 

[ShadeTree]

After pics. I could see this rifle had some nice wood underneath and it cleaned up well. The bluing also polished up very nicely.













Pic of the internal. Clean as a whistle now and the action works slick. Rewarding work. Now I'm looking forward to shooting all 3.

 

[ShadeTree]

Last pic I forgot to mix this one in at the beginning. Pic of one of the 7600's with the butt plate removed showing the untreated wood. I removed the butt plate and treated and waxed the bare wood on all 3 rifles.

 

[ShadeTree]

Solid work! Very nice.

Great job! I'm impressed!

Thanks. I enjoy this kind of work a lot. Making something better than it was, and in the case of the triggers and probably the wood on the 7600's, better than they left the factory.

 

[djauofd]

Those are some really sweet rifles. Great work. A lot of time and patience.


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[ShadeTree]

Those are some really sweet rifles. Great work. A lot of time and patience.


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Thanks. I didn't keep exact track of my time but just a rough talley is somewhere around 15-18 hrs in all 3. Takes time to go over all the parts. I enjoy the mechanical aspect of it and the cleaning up and polishing is just good old elbow grease using quality products.

 

[djauofd]

Awesome [emoji122] y


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[cloverleaf]

Impresive work , friend. Did you boil the metal parts to restore the bluing? Got an ithica I should do that too. Just a little chicken. CL

 

[DrMike]

They certainly cleaned up nicely. You've performed yeoman's service in bringing those fine rifles back into the realm of both the useable and the desirable.

 

[ShadeTree]

Impresive work , friend. Did you boil the metal parts to restore the bluing? Got an ithica I should do that too. Just a little chicken. CL

No, that sounds like a lot of work. Ha.

On the outside metal work, pretty simple process. Deep clean initially with a soft cloth and a little oil. I use single knap cotton flannel. I just use mineral oil......cheap and effective. You can use as much as you want, but too much just means more to wipe off when you're done.

What you want when you're all done is just an oil residue, not oil itself. After that any rust spots were gone over with oil and 0000 steel wool. Clean all that off well with a soft cloth.

The final step numerous products would work, I prefer the Renaissance metal polish and wax. A little bit goes a long ways, don't put it on heavy.

Again a soft cloth, wipe it on.......scrub a little bit on any rough or dirty spots you feel. On a white cloth you will pick up some rust and dirt that you can't see with your eye. Let it dry just a couple minutes, buff it out by hand with a clean cloth.

When you can touch the metal without leaving a print, you know you got the wax off and are down to polished steel with just a protective wax residue.

There's no time frame to the whole process, it's done when it's done. How it finishes out is contingent on what's underneath to start with. Like my Father in law was fond of saying......you can't make chicken salad out of chicken s#&*. :lol:

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Shade you do excellent work. They really look nice. Hope they group well for you. That 30-06 would go nicely with your 35. Dan.

 

[ShadeTree]

Shade you do excellent work. They really look nice. Hope they group well for you. That 30-06 would go nicely with your 35. Dan.

Thanks Dan. Will shoot them all. The 243 will get put away and not get hunted more than likely. The other 2 would both make good hunting candidates depending how they shoot.

 

[ReloadKy]

Can't wait to hear how they shoot!!

 

[salmonchaser]

Really nice work!