If I somehow bought your old one from one of the owners since you then they sure did beat on it....
Got it out to shoot this past Monday. CCI Standard Velocity. First shot at 20 yards was dead on for elevation and two clicks to the right for windage. That put the next 5 shots right on the X with a roughly dime size group. And I'm not blaming the rifle. It's just my 70 year old eyeballs that even with the peep leave the target spot a little fuzzy and hard to center well. That plus dim lighting for a small peep aperture. So apparently the rear sight had not suffered much over the years....
Trigger during the work showed itself to be extremely crisp with no detectable creep but with up roughly around 10 lbs. Not sure if it came like that or someone altered it in the past. But for sure the sear on the trigger was pretty rough. I set up a little jig I have and stoned it smooth and to a slight lower angle. That has brought the pull down to a very crisp 6lbs as measured. As part of the restoration I'm going to work it out and use a slightly finer angle that is still self engaging but which will lower the pull to more in the 2 to 3 lb range.
Here's a few pics of the wear and damage from neglect and rough handling. Evidence of slight rust pitting, scratches, worn bluing around all edges, impact dings and scratchs in the wood and a very beaten up and worn butt plate.
I'm going to try to peen and burnish some of the scratches back as much as possible so that when I start to sand down and polish the receiver exterior and barrel that I only need to remove a bare minimum of metal. The intent is to get to a shiny but not quite mirror finish before bluing. Care will be taken to keep the various roll marks and stampings as intact as possible.
The wood will get the finish stripped off chemically or with a hot air gun and then I'll do what I can using water and a steam iron to steam back up most of the dings and dents. Then it's multiple coats over the whole winter of thin applications of polymerized tung oil for a low gloss down in the wood classic oil finish.
The butt plate is pretty much beyond saving. It's there but it looks like someone used the rifle for beating in circus tent pegs for years. I think I'm going to make up replacements in wenge hardwood that is very dark. One will be a crescent shape and the other a shotgun style. The wenge being hard enough to do pretty well at this.
Here's a few samples of what I'm facing.... Hardly a deal breaker but it's sad and also restorable... And I like doing this sort of stuff. The third shot, if wondering, is a close up of the minor but nasty rust pitting on the barrel.
