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190 Posts
Last year I bought 39M from a pawn shop, it was an OK deal for $325.00, maybe a little high but I'd seen parts guns (in peices) go for ~$275.00 and the poor ole girl needed some help, it looked sad. I had the money and the inclination and she looked like she needed a friend, ao I brought her home. She must have been someone's truck gun and it showed.
Some stuff I knew going in, other things I encountered as I'd worked on it.
When I got it looked like it hadn't been cleaned ever, there was so much goo and burnt powder packed into places in the receiver it was a whole night at the work bench with solvent, and old tooth brush, and toothpicks just getting it all out. The finish on the stocks was well all finished, chipped scuffed, cracked, and old. The stock had a couple cracks at the tang. The bluing in spots was rough and it had rust freckles in places. It had the wrong mag tube, it was aluminum and too short by 2.5", the action was in bad shape, she didn't feed well at all. It was missing the cartridge stop spacer and the ejector spring was broken. It had the biggest lever loop I've ever seen, I came to call it the "Gorilla Loop". I've got some pretty big meat clubs for hands but, even for me, it was HUGE. Even the trigger was covered in sticky grunge (eeeeewwww....)
Before Pictures:
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So for the last few months I've been gathering up parts when I could find them at a good price, some new, some used. New take off birch stock set from a 44 Mag 1894 $45, correct length brass mag tube $20, assorted springs, screws, parts etc $40, new square lever $30 and a new folding leaf rear sight $19.
Late last week the last of the parts arrived and I really went to work. Lots of cleaning, polishing, parts swapping, and some filing to fit the stocks. I also had a couple Uncle Mike's Saddle Ring Take Down Screws around so I through one on for fun.
Initially I thought I'd do a complete re-blue but, after lots of elbow grease, 0000 steel wool and, Hoppe's #9, she looks pretty good. Later I may just touch up a few spots with some Oxpho-Blue and see how it looks. There are still a few couple boogered screws I need to replace, just need to find them. I may add a Wisner's extractor and a front sight hood for good measure.
For now though she's looking good and running pretty smooth judging from the aluminum dummy rounds she's been flinging around the basement. So were going to the range on Saturday for a little outing.
When I said the Gorilla loop was huge, I wasn't kidding, here it is with the new factory square lever.
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Here's how she looks now. I wish my camera was better, it doesn't do it justice.
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She looks allot like her big brother now.
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A big Thank You to this forum for the advice, posts, stuff I've learned along the way.
Some stuff I knew going in, other things I encountered as I'd worked on it.
When I got it looked like it hadn't been cleaned ever, there was so much goo and burnt powder packed into places in the receiver it was a whole night at the work bench with solvent, and old tooth brush, and toothpicks just getting it all out. The finish on the stocks was well all finished, chipped scuffed, cracked, and old. The stock had a couple cracks at the tang. The bluing in spots was rough and it had rust freckles in places. It had the wrong mag tube, it was aluminum and too short by 2.5", the action was in bad shape, she didn't feed well at all. It was missing the cartridge stop spacer and the ejector spring was broken. It had the biggest lever loop I've ever seen, I came to call it the "Gorilla Loop". I've got some pretty big meat clubs for hands but, even for me, it was HUGE. Even the trigger was covered in sticky grunge (eeeeewwww....)
Before Pictures:
So for the last few months I've been gathering up parts when I could find them at a good price, some new, some used. New take off birch stock set from a 44 Mag 1894 $45, correct length brass mag tube $20, assorted springs, screws, parts etc $40, new square lever $30 and a new folding leaf rear sight $19.
Late last week the last of the parts arrived and I really went to work. Lots of cleaning, polishing, parts swapping, and some filing to fit the stocks. I also had a couple Uncle Mike's Saddle Ring Take Down Screws around so I through one on for fun.
Initially I thought I'd do a complete re-blue but, after lots of elbow grease, 0000 steel wool and, Hoppe's #9, she looks pretty good. Later I may just touch up a few spots with some Oxpho-Blue and see how it looks. There are still a few couple boogered screws I need to replace, just need to find them. I may add a Wisner's extractor and a front sight hood for good measure.
For now though she's looking good and running pretty smooth judging from the aluminum dummy rounds she's been flinging around the basement. So were going to the range on Saturday for a little outing.
When I said the Gorilla loop was huge, I wasn't kidding, here it is with the new factory square lever.
Here's how she looks now. I wish my camera was better, it doesn't do it justice.
She looks allot like her big brother now.
A big Thank You to this forum for the advice, posts, stuff I've learned along the way.
