Lookie what my uncle gave me

I'll see what I can find.

As far as the outside, should I try to shine it up, or leave it as is, aside from oiling it, etc. Do people generally leave them with that patina on them?

It's a historical artifact. Leave it as is unless you have a problem with certain parts deteriorating. Would you give the Mona Lisa a good scrubbing and touch up paint? Same philosophy.
 
I just tried scrubbing out the bore, it's very clean ex eat for about 3 inches from the muzzle there's a big patch of rough rust that I've tried to scrub out with rem oil then a bunch of frog lube, still there. I have some hoppes #9 I'll try later. Going to take a lot of elbow grease to try and get that off methinks.

That is the reason so many milsurps have counterbored muzzles. If you intend to shoot that old girl you may want to have a gunsmith counterbore it for you. A bit of rust and pits further down is usually acceptable but when it is at the muzzle it's pretty tough to get decent accuracy out of them. Paper patched bullets would be much more forgiving.
 
Very good condition? I'd hate to see poor, haha.

Poor is a parts gun basically. Your example is better than good on the outside but the rust at the muzzle detracts its condition to good only.

It's all there and the parts match??? That is a bonus in itself.

Collector grade firearms grade slightly differently than more modern pieces IMHO. Some collectors don't even consider the bore condition when adding pieces to their collections. External condition seems to be the big plus.
 
Just looked at the antique firearms regs, I guess it's not an antique because it's magazine fed?

Just curious, doesn't really matter since I have a firearms license, but good to know in case I ever curse this world with my spawn and decide to hand it down.
 
That's odd, would they have chopped the barrels on these 60+ years ago? Been stored for at least 35-40 years, and no one in my family seems the type to mod firearms, or look after them for that matter judging from the condition.
 
Measuring the distances between each set of bands and the muzzle will tell you what's going on with the muzzle. I agree - it looks shortened from the first picture, though could be a weird optical illusion? Muzzle should be past the end of the stacking pin .
 
Barrel has been lopped by about an inch, perhaps as a cure to a damaged muzzle ("tumbling bullet")? Close the bolt on an empty chamber, put a cleaning rod down the bore and measure the distance on the cleaning rod to the muzzle - that will tell you how much was removed, as originally it was 31.5". The lopping reduces it's value significantly, although in its condition it was no more then a $500 gun with good bore and unlopped muzzle. These are fun guns to shoot and it might shoot well.
 
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Even if I can't shoot it it was more of a wall hanger for me anyways since it's been in my family so long. I didn't care if it was a $100 gun, I would just like to shoot it at least once, assuming I can get the bore up to snuff.

I don't think it was chopped due to the tumbling bullet, he said that happened when he was a teenager then he immediately put the rifle in the basement and it's stayed there since.
 
Mmmmmm, just like mom used to make.





Going to pick up some steel wool tomorrow. Would a brass brush be too harsh to get into all the nooks and/or crannies?
 
Before cooling that one, get an old toothbrush, put some WD40 on the bristles and give it a good scrubbing. That will take off all the grime and you can re-evaluate if you need to go more invasive or not.
 
Before cooling that one, get an old toothbrush, put some WD40 on the bristles and give it a good scrubbing. That will take off all the grime and you can re-evaluate if you need to go more invasive or not.

I sprayed the almighty f!@k out of it with Rem oil and scrubbed it with a nylon cleaning brush I had and it did actually get rid of all that crap that was hidden by the wood. Would still like to do the outside, not to take the patina off, just to get rid of the corrosion and gunk that's kind of cemented on there. I think I've gone through almost the 3/4 of a can of Rem oil I had just to loosen everything up for disassembly.
 
Also I should mention that a lot of this is probably tar and dust. My uncle is a heavy chain smoker, so in addition to this being absolutely filthy it stinks.
 
If it is a family heirloom that has more sentimental value than anything else, and you want to actually shoot it, having the bore counterbored to get rid of the really bad patch near the end might be an option and shouldn't cost too much.
 
Oven cleaner...as mentioned vinegar will dissolve the rust, if and only if you get all the oil out of it first. That's where the oven cleaner comes in. It's just a solution of caustic soda mostly; what gunsmiths used to boil guns in before they blued them. Do it outside in a breeze, the fumes are nasty. Run the bore brush through with the oven cleaner on it. Follow with lots of hot water and a compressed air blow off of all the nooks & crannies. Get it hot and the moisture will evaporate and you won't have rust problems. Then oil the heck out of it, something thin like G96 Gun Treatment or WD40 gets into the tight spots where it's most needed. To use the vinegar plug the muzzle tightly and pour in from the breech, stand in the corner muzzle down for a few days then wash out with hot water and brush the ex-rust away.
 
Quick update, I cleaned the stock, and it almost seemed like there was no finish on it. I didn't use any kind of solvent that would get rid of the finish, but it seemed super dry... Anyways, I put about 10 coats of Tung Oil on it, here's what it looks like now.

20161224_121504_zpsoy35yjvc.jpg~original
 
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