Sliver
The pitting on my .410 is far deeper then what I see in your picture, and like I said .410's commonly generate much greater chamber pressures then the larger gauges (comes from pushing a long shot column down a narrow barrel). I don't know about jOe but I get a real kick out of putting some crusty old sxs back to work. My oldest gun is a 9 gauge Manton built around 1850, it was really satisfying dropping a pheasant with that old gun. BTW it doesn't cost too much to freshen up a gun (not restore, just clean up and make it look presentable). Restorations can cost big $$$'s, but if your going to use the gun as a shooter why go to the expense, just freshen it up and have fun with it.
For me freshening up means:
1. If needed, soak the stock in acetone, repair any cracks (and there's many ways to conceal crack repairs).
2. Remove surface rust from the frame and barrels with 0000 steel wool and oil, leaving the age patina mostly in place.
3. Degrease and rub down the barrels with cold blue, sometimes 2-3 times to make the barrels look better (the cold blue makes the brown rust deep in the microscopic pits (from rust the original rust bluing) turn black.
4. refinish the stripped stock with 9-10 coats of Tru-Oil.
5. Clean, usually by soaking the frame in Coleman fuel, then using a spray cleaner (for car brakes) equipped with a long plastic tube to get into tight spots and finally blowing dry with an air hose. After cleaning I lubricate with spray oil, leave it to drip clear of excess oil overnight and put back together (on boxlocks I do not take apart if unnecessary).
Seems like a lot of work, but it isn't and you can take a clunker and make it look and function very nicely for maybe $20 total cost.
Steve
Steve
