Refinishing a old No4, Pics for progress.

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greyman441

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So I was at the orangeville gunshow today and came across this savage no4. The bore was a little iffy so I got it for a good price. I brought it home, found out it is all matching and has the milled bands. Also everything is savage marked which leads me to believe it is all original. So I pulled it all apart and under all the wood was a rust/green colour. Almost looks like paint, doesnt come off very easy. Any ideas? I heard about no4 with green paint being jungle service but not sure where they painted it.

My plan for this one was to reblue it and refinish the wood with some BLO. I think it would look nice in the end, what do you guys think? Think it would be better to leave it as is or clean it up a bit?

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Leave it alone, you will do more harm than good. Green paint is normal used as protection for use in tropical climate. Black paint (Suncorite) is also proper for a rifle that was in British Service.
 
JP said:
Leave it alone, you will do more harm than good. Green paint is normal used as protection for use in tropical climate. Black paint (Suncorite) is also proper for a rifle that was in British Service.
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I agree. You will remove value, not add it.

Doesn't mean you can't:

Wash the wood set by hand with dish soap, while you have it apart. (they can be really filthy)
and
Hand rub in successive coats of BLO, letting it sit for a bit and then polishing it off before it hardens at all. That was normal Enfield rifle maintenance.

And get the bore clean.
 
JP said:
Leave it alone, you will do more harm than good. Green paint is normal used as protection for use in tropical climate. Black paint (Suncorite) is also proper for a rifle that was in British Service.
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Ditto to this. It looks like it's in great shape. Rub the wood lovingly with BLO, clean the action and barrel and give it some lube, then shoot the hell out of it. Keeping it original retains/increases its value and will go further to preserving it than a full strip and resto.
 
The bore is shootable. It is 2 groove but does have some light pitting throughout. Still has strong rifling though. I cleaned up everything and there was some oil, grease dirt, mud, everything on and in this gun. Under the wood was actually clean. I have no idea what year it is as it is not marked. I did a little searching and it is probably late 1943-early 1944. Serial number starts with 87C. The bolt matches as well as the forstock. Looks like it was untouched since service. It probably sat in a basement for the past 40 years. Looks like it would be a good shooter. Ill have to see if I can hit the range here soon and see how it shoots. It definitly looks alot better will all of the junk cleaned off it.
 
"Restored" it will be just another average No.4 and less interesting for the loss of history, so to speak. By all means clean off the dirt, but I wouldn't strip off the tropical paint or strip/steel wool the wood.
 
So I gave it a good oiling and left it the way it was. I like the history behind it and im sure everyone else does too. The only problem is bubba decided to grind the US PROPERTY off the receiver for some reason. I dont know maybe he was dumb enough and thought it was taken from the US. Thats the only logical reason I can think of. Here is a few pics cleaned up.
Oh BTW i couldnt remember which way the sling went on so if it is backwards let me know.

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gorgeous...please don't do anything else except maintain it

anyone who wants to unload a collectable Enfield please PM me
 
It was not uncommon for British soldiers to grind off the US Property mark so it may be part of it's wartime history.
 
points said:
It was not uncommon for British soldiers to grind off the US Property mark so it may be part of it's wartime history.
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With all due respect, the British soldier who ground anything off his rifle would find himself a prisoner under escort very quickly. It is generally agreed that it was other countries to whom these rifles were supplied who ground off the US property marks. I believe Peter Laidler over on the milsurps forum has said that as far as he knows it was never policy to do so in British service. If it had been, you wouldn't see those grinding marks so poorly done and often left unfinished. That would never happen as part of an official modification.

More likely it was done by a company which bought these rifles from the UK or some other country and was concerned about getting them into the USA with that mark still on them.
 
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Looks good as is, I have a Savage that I am re-stocking to full wood from a sporter, it also has the US Property script ground off. Otherwise, the metal is all great.
 
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