Refurbishing Talley aluminum mounts

[Guest]

I encountered a little issue earlier this week that I found a good solution to, so I thought I'd pass it along. I recently bought a Colt Light Rifle, which came with Talley one piece Ring/Base mounts (one for the front, one for the rear). I've never used Talleys before, so I figured this would be interesting. Well, the rifle had been sitting on the dealer's shelf for nearly a decade (these guns were only made in 2000), and the rings, while kept in the bag, inside the box, were significantly oxidized. They had a greyish cast to them, and appeared very dull overall, almost as though they had not been properly finished before bluing. It simply didn't fit with the nice satin matte finish of the rifle. Anyway, I figured the finish had oxidized significantly over time in storage, without a fresh coat of gun oil to protect it, and I started thinking about how to fix them without removing the finish. What I ended up doing was using a little Hoppe's Gun Oil and some 4-aught (0000) steel wool. I applied the oil with my fingertip, and then just sort of burnished the rings using a circular pattern with the steel wool. Aside from some hand cramps from holding the tiny little ring-base combo, the method worked well. I wiped the rings down after the fact with an absorbent cloth, and they look brand new. The finish now is a near perfect match to the rifle and the matte finish on the likely scope this rifle will wear.

I initially tried just oiling the rings, and wiping them down, but it did not satisfactorily remove the oxidation. Using the 4-aught steel wool did the trick, and there are no areas where the bluing is removed or thinned that I can tell. I'm really looking forward to assembling this rifle with a scope and testing it at the range. It's going to be a nice looking flat black combo, for certain.