Antique rabbit gun (pic heavy)

[RMXC51]

My uncle recently gave me this F/N single shot .22. It belonged to my grandfather and possibly great grandfather, who my dad and uncles never met. I'm the only one in the family with any interest in looking after it. It has "1926" carved in the butt, but may be older. So far I've cleaned the bore and wiped all metal surfaces with CLP. But what to do about the stock? It looks to have had some sort of varnish or shellac on it, which is mostly gone. I want to preserve the rifle as is - as I understand it, a mint example is only worth $80 or so, so this is just for family history. I don't want to do anything radical to alter it, just preserve. I was thinking of just adding tru oil to the stock. Anybody got better ideas?

 

[plinker 777]

use a gel stripper to clean the varnish then apply linseed oil.....lots of linseed oil

 

[horseman2]

I had one similar to that about 25 years ago. My father-in-law traded it for a case of beer. It had been used on a fishboat to shootbig salmon, dogfish and probably seals. When the rust started to eat into the metal it was painted black. The firing pin could be rotated 180 degrees so that a new surface could be had once the worn surface would no longer fire a round. However that other side was sharp and would pierce the rim. It would also fire on closing the bolt occasionally so the stock was burnt and the barrel made into a "U" to go out in the garbage.

 

[mikeystew]

I tend to think that our forefathers would have refinished guns like this rather than letting them degrade further. I highly doubt anyone who grew up during that era would look down on somebody, especially a descendant for wanting to bring a little bit of life back into the gun so dont feel bad about going to work on it.

you should strip it down with a gel stripper like suggested to preserve the natural character of the wood, and re-finish with lots of linseed oil, or tung oil/mineral spirits. You are best not applying new finish over the old flaky stuff or it wont seal into the wood properly and will need refinishing again very soon.

Good on you for adopting a family heirloom and preserving it for future generations!

 

[impact.ca]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOBucc2uDKo

that is a cool gun, here is my go to Rabbit gun

 

[.17]

I think the gun looks great as is.

 

[BCRider]

Well from the way it's flaked off I'd say the original finish was a varnish or lacquer. Given that the finish is missing from parts of the wood it's not practical to "preserve" it since some of it just plain isn't there to preserve.

Certainly you could leave it as it is and just ensure it's kept dry. But if you want to make it durable for the next 90 some odd years I'd suggest that the option of using stripper to remove the current finish and then oil it with boiled linseed or tung oil would leave the wood's patina intact while replacing the finish with one that is going to resist stains and water damage far better. If you should decide to go this re-finish route I'd suggest the polymerized tung oil finish sold by Lee Valley. I've used this for a few stocks and grips now. It builds up quickly and gives a really nice water resistant finish in about 3 to 4 coats.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20050&cat=1,190,42942

You'd likely want to very lightly sand any splintery spots of the wood around the butt to avoid the strands catching and being ripped free. In this case don't think of it as damaging the stock but of preserving what is left. This assumes that you're going to continue to use the gun and shoot it. If it'll be kept as a family heriloom without using it then I'd suggest you just oil the steel and leave the rest alone. But if it's to be a user gun then do what a user would do to maintain it and consider YOUR changes as part of the history of the gun to be handed down.