rifle restoration project

[Brithunter]

This is a piece of Cows horn i used to fill the military butt plate tang on the P-14's stock:-

The buffalo plates will fit up to it and make hopefully a nice contrast.

 

[AndrewS]

That stock looks good. If you get stuck for a recoil pad, Kynamco sell the Silvers pad: http://www.new-kynoch.apt-sites.com/silvers.html

Andrew

 

[bewsher500]

so I started stripping the rifle metal work at teh same time and cleaned and polished it to the best of my ability. mixture of fine grade wire wool, various grades of wet and dry paper up to 2500grit and a polishing wheel with cloth disc and polishing compound.
the aim was to get it back to the "white" and remove as many dings and marks so when it is re-blued I get the best finish possible. It has taken a bit of a kicking but still has most of its original hardware, stand and 2 flip rear sight, front sight is missing a hood but I prefer it that way.
floor plate is in good condition, magazine block is relatively unworn (again indicating minimal actual firing)

remarkably few parts to a rifle and now some very shiney ones:

am in the process of sorting out the bluing tanks and chemicals. more on that later

 

[bewsher500]

buffalo horn arrived
£8! bargain,

 

[Brithunter]

Just a thought from a personal perspective this is. I would leave the bolt polished white. They look better IMHO and they don't show the marks from working the action as do blacked bolts. The Mauser extractor always leaves a track mark after a while where it wears the blacking away. Oh yes I would drift the fore sight blade out as well before blacking.

Looking good though although I am no polisher .

 

[User00003]

how do you take the blackening off a bolt handle whilst making it nice and silver/steel shiney?

 

[K333ROE]

Your a genius, and a perfectionist, wish I had your patience and talent, well done.

 

[mereside]

hey mate do you need the hood i have one here,i can send it with the stain its looking really good .i want to do my steelwork when i get my bsa up and running so its like new,atb wayne

 

[digger9523]

Buff horn will look gorgeous! I did this knife handle with it and some brass plate. Love the contrast and feel of the horn. Can't wait to see the finished rifle mate.

 

[j0e_bl0ggs]

how do you take the blackening off a bolt handle whilst making it nice and silver/steel shiney?

Acid to remove the black, polish for shiny.

 

[Brithunter]

how do you take the blackening off a bolt handle whilst making it nice and silver/steel shiney?

In normal use by using the bolt ............................. alot!

To refinish by elbow grease and polishing it.


Edit:- Doh! too late got bothered whilst trying to type and called away for a few minutes. Don't have access to acid so have to use elbow grease.

 

[bewsher500]

how do you take the blackening off a bolt handle whilst making it nice and silver/steel shiney?

it is a very thin coating and polished off very quickly. quicker on the bolt than the barrel I assume from being worn thin anyway.
Not a fan of silver bolts. I will keep the extractor and collar white and am going to polish the butt end of the firing pin so it stands out against the black bolt housing when cocked

hey mate do you need the hood i have one here,i can send it with the stain its looking really good .i want to do my steelwork when i get my bsa up and running so its like new,atb wayne

wayne that would be awesome!
tried to find one but its not the kind of thing that gets kept

cheers

 

[Brithunter]

tried to find one but its not the kind of thing that gets kept

Speak for yourself .

The good thing is that as P-H did both blackened and polished in the white bolts your will not be incorrect in any way:-

1200C with blacked handle body left in the white.

This is what I mean by the wear:-

1100M with bolt blackened.

1100 Deluxe with polished white bolt

1100 Lwt with just rear of bolt and handle blackened

Very worn one from a model 1000 again only rear and handle blackened and yes that is a braze line which is why after cleaning the crud off and finding this I rejected the rifle.

1200 Super again just the rear and handle blackened.

The choice is entirely yours but as I said it won't be incorrect either way .

 

[bewsher500]

finally got my Pachmayer Deluxe Field recoil pad from Midway (via Jupiter, Mars and the outer solar system!).
went for a slightly thicker one deliberately as I am gangly armed buffoon and need the length of pull

got some horrendous quotes to grind to fit professionally so in the spirit of all things Scottish I did myself.
not that tricky and the best part....you can shape to fit YOU! I shave a bit extra off the top and bottom corner/edge as I found it fouled my jacket armpit.
now mounts very smoothly.

I did make a slight schoolboy error by finishing stock before fitting the pad, but it just meant I had to be extra careful and touch up the edge when done.

next up is bluing!
As Baldrick would say "I have a cunning plan"!

(pad is deliberately off the wood to allow stain and oil inside the join)

 

[Cougar]

That finishes it off just lovely!

 

[Brithunter]

Nice.

The chap I use in Boston (Pete Whiley) charged me £25 to fit my last one and I don't have a single photo of it either . In fact he did two for me a Ribbed solid rubber plate on the P-H No4 Supreme and the slightly thinned vented pad on the P-H 1200V. When I acquired this one it had a new unfitted P-H thick pad but the LOP was too long for me so I got a thinner pad and sold the un-ground new pad to a chap in BC for one of his P-H rifles.

 

[bewsher500]

£25 I could swallow
2 hours at £40ph I couldnt!

 

[User00003]

a mate of mine got one fitted in a well known shop on Frederick street, £125...SLAP!

 

[bewsher500]

yep thats the one!! £40 per hour, expected time 2-3 hours....I assume plus VAT!

 

[BRORA260]

Pity you had not got and fitted your pad and grip cap before all your rubbing down and finishing, I can hear the cursing already. Not a bad finish though.