White line spacers and thick varnish

[harrygrey382]

What was going on in the gun industry in the 70s and 80s? It’s like all the mainstream manufacturers clubbed together to put ugly details on everything. Quite a Nasty combo - I bought this Mauser 4000 3 years ago and been hanging out to p*ss the spacers and plastic finish off. Also wanted to reduce the LOP for the young fellas - who’d put a massive recoil pad on a 222 anyway?

So chopped the tip off and put it back on, hacked the recoil pad off and through all the ugly white bits in the bin. Fitted a vintage style Mauser butt plate (not technically correct by any means but I’m a sucker for anything that mentions it). I’m on about 5 coats of pure tung oil in so far, probably another five or so to go. It gives such a luscious feel and look to timber I love it. Sanded the checkering down in a few spots so it was a good excuse to give my new checkering tools a run.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder

 

[deerstalker.308]

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder

Agree. Personally never disliked the white line detail, the heavily vented recoil pads were of the era, they are what they are, but not the best looking; give me a silvers style pad any day.
That said it’s always satisfying taking a gun apart and refinishing it how you want it to look. Keep layering up that oil @harrygrey382 a few more coats to go!

 

[McKenzie]

I always despised the white space look too.

 

[Steff]

And I always liked the white spacers.

 

[Klenchblaize]

They turn a more pleasant faux ivory with age and application of a stock oil finish. That’s assuming you remove the high gloss polyurethane finish from birth.

K

 

[HonestJohn]

good work, but have to say, prefer an original look myself.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I agree with the above. The rifle was representative of a given time and aesthetic that I’d be happy to embrace as the ‘classic’ that it so clearly is. This would include installing a nice set of period Redfield rings & mounts plus a matching 1” tubed 3 - 9 variable scope.

K

 

[harrygrey382]

Interesting - there are more fans of them than I thought. Oh well - life’d be boring if we all agreed…

good work, but have to say, prefer an original look myself.

Thanks, although an original look can easily not include white line spacers and an oil finish

 

[Kalahari]

The spacers and tips to the fore end were of their era and I don't mind that, the thick varnish is quite another thing though completely horrible!

David.

 

[harrygrey382]

I agree with the above. The rifle was representative of a given time and aesthetic that I’d be happy to embrace as the ‘classic’ that it so clearly is. This would include installing a nice set of period Redfield rings & mounts plus a matching 1” tubed 3 - 9 variable scope.

KView attachment 279965

Awesome film, and you have a point - I guess I just associate the look with mullets, ugly cars and other various unattractive aesthetics of that period. It is a strong pointer to that period but one I’m not interested in partaking in - even though I was born right in the middle of it. Maybe that’s why I don’t consider white line spacers as something that needs saving - I spend a lot of my life keeping vehicles, buildings, guns, tools etc. “original”, unmodified, sensitively restoring them. But always older, with what I consider desirable features. Maybe it’s just my age - and I’m discounting anything made in (or after) my era as being “classic”. Or maybe as these are something from a more recent era that have no other key features such as iconic build quality or subtle details (eg an original a Oberndorf sporter or Jaguar XKSS). I’m my view white line spacers are just a crude, unnecessary and unaesthetic addition to what is often a classic and beautiful rifle. In my eyes they’re the ones altering the design of a classic rifle.

 

[harrygrey382]

The spacers and tips to the fore end were of their era and I don't mind that, the thick varnish is quite another thing though completely horrible!

David.

It was about 0.7mm thick in places, yuck

 

[enfieldspares]

What was going on in the gun industry in the 70s and 80s? It’s like all the mainstream manufacturers clubbed together to put ugly details on everything. Quite a Nasty combo - I bought this Mauser 4000 3 years ago and been hanging out to p*ss the spacers and plastic finish off. Also wanted to reduce the LOP for the young fellas - who’d put a massive recoil pad on a 222 anyway?

I used to call it "bastardised (faux) Weatherby" for there...Roy Weatherby...is where the blame lies. The UK and, less so, the continental European market is small, tiny, infinitesimal, compared to the US market. And the Americans wanted this and that God awful "skip line" or "Scotch" chequering so that's what the makers who exported to the USA, Parker Hale here, Mauser and etc in Europe made.

 

[harrygrey382]

I’ve got another theory - did any of the high end rifles of that period have white line spacers? Eg Rigby, H&H, Heym (not sure I can name any more that would’ve been going at the time) - were they more of a mid range feature? Often high end stuff is more timeless and uses less current fads

 

[Rory]

I like the change you've made, it looks very clean and purposeful now, a new lease of life.

 

[Bo Diddley]

They are of the era, just like "Bullseye" with Jim Bowen, the "Generation Game" etc, the good old days when I was a kid growing up, scrumping apples and shooting sparrows & starlings with an Original 35 in .22 flavor with a bent barrel I looked at rifles & shotties like these in Paddy Woods gunshop and dreamed of owning one

 

[Klenchblaize]

Awesome film, and you have a point - I guess I just associate the look with mullets, ugly cars and other various unattractive aesthetics of that period. It is a strong pointer to that period but one I’m not interested in partaking in - even though I was born right in the middle of it. Maybe that’s why I don’t consider white line spacers as something that needs saving - I spend a lot of my life keeping vehicles, buildings, guns, tools etc. “original”, unmodified, sensitively restoring them. But always older, with what I consider desirable features. Maybe it’s just my age - and I’m discounting anything made in (or after) my era as being “classic”. Or maybe as these are something from a more recent era that have no other key features such as iconic build quality or subtle details (eg an original a Oberndorf sporter or Jaguar XKSS). I’m my view white line spacers are just a crude, unnecessary and unaesthetic addition to what is often a classic and beautiful rifle. In my eyes they’re the ones altering the design of a classic rifle.

That’ll be a good reason to remove them!

K

 

[enfieldspares]

Here. especially for the OP, in all is pomp! White line spacers, skip line chequering. And with those other two classic abominations included in the price. A pistol grip on it with the bottom like "an 'orses 'oof" and a trapezoid section forearm. A rifle with with visual aesthetics designed to be most fully appreciated by the blind.

On the BRNO rifles made in that style in that time the forend tip wasn't even a separate piece of wood (or horn). They simply routed a groove at the end of the forestock and slipped into it a suitably "U" shaped piece of white plastic laminate. Then stained the wood forward of that routed groove a darker colour!

 

[Klenchblaize]

A rifle with with visual aesthetics designed to be most fully appreciated by the young or blind.

View attachment 279983

I’ve tweaked the last sentence.

K

 

[VSS]

The spacers and tips to the fore end were of their era and I don't mind that, the thick varnish is quite another thing though completely horrible!

David.

The white plastic spacers on the pistol grip I don't mind - as someone else has said, they mellow to a kind of ivory colour (which presumably they were meant to mimic?), but I think that the fore-end tips (usually rosewood or ebony) are truly ugly. For style a schnabel fore-end is hard to beat.