Restoration Sticky.

I appreciate the attitude of restoring a rifle to it former glory, instead of bubbarizing it. it saddens me when a historical and collectable firearm gets butchered, i guess everyone to himself. I seem to keep my old rifles mostly the way i got them because i don't want to ruin it
 
Here's a Ross 1905-R factory sporter I just finished. Sorry I know its not a milsurp, but rather a sister of a military rifle.

When it came to me it had a bulged barrel. I wound up having to shorten it to behind the bulge. It is now carbine length, and handles awesome! I also built a new stock for it and rust blued the metal.

Before:

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And now with the new stock, bluing, and shortened (but safe to shoot) barrel:

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There of course were challenges with this one. It was my first 1905-R stock. I made a few mistakes (one being the blank I chose). I fixed the chips in the stock and blended them as good as I could, and fixed a boo boo with a hole for the Harris lever pivot. Everything else went smooth as butter.
 
I've officially found my favourite thread!!
I've encountered alot of people that don't seem to understand the reasoning behind bringing these old warhorses back to their former glory!
I think I've found my crowd here!

I've got two restorations on the go at the moment:

a 1942 K98 ZF bring home (with all German markings still present) and a 1942 Longbranch No4Mk1* Lee Enfield (whoever chopped her actually did a real good job) i just picked up!

Pics to follow!! :D
 
Hi everyone, I'm new to the resto game here. I have a Lee Enfield mk4 that has been butchered in an attempt to turn it into a sporter. the barrel is too short to make it back into its original configuration , so i think making a mk5 would be the next best thing. Anyone know where i can get all the parts? I saw a few places in the states that has them but they either don't ship to Canada or don't have the items I want in stock. any help would be awesome ! thanks
 
Yugo M48 Mauser Stock Refinishing

All I have is a before pic (got it 2 days ago). Cleaned the bolt so far, still has a little cosmo in the stock and on the metal... really impressed with it so far, minty bore, nice stock, excellent bluing. Pretty nice Canadian Tire find. Plan on stripping the stock and oiling. If the wood is very blonde, I'll stain it a colour I haven't decided yet and try to get the top handguard to match the rest of the stock a little better. I'll keep you guys posted. Also looking for the correct sling, sight hood and cleaning rod. Maybe a bayonet too, will see.
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Heat gun cosmo melt off + stripped = this. She sure lightened up and the colour difference in the UHG is very noticeable... Stock still has a few we spots from being rinsed and scrubbed of the stripper agent. Very happy with the stock, UHG isn't as nice. Overall, it's in good shape.
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I'm not liking the UHG that much, a lot darker in colour and it has a big knot right there... also a few gouges that happened when we were struggling to get the barrel band off - it was tight as a mofo. Maybe if I barely sand the bottom and sand the UHG a little more the colour will get a little closer?
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I sanded the UHG a little more than the lower stock (just steel wool) to get the colour closer. Didn't make much difference so I decided to try a stain, Special Walnut. Put it very thin and wiped it off almost immediately on the UHG, while I let it sink in on the lower stock. The colour got closer. Still not perfect, but it's better than what it was. Plus, I love the colour now and it looks close to the original 'dirty stock colour'.

After one coat of BLO:
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Disregard the crap at the back of my garage :redface: , have to go to the dump soon.

So far I'm very impressed after a very thin coat of BLO. I sweated out a lot of oil from the wood, it seems to be drinking up the BLO like nobody's business.
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I have 3 coats of BLO now, think I'll just touch it up now and reassemble. Will take pics of the final result when I get it together.

Finished! About 5 or 6 light oiling sessions and letting it dry, with BLO... Very happy with the result. Looks true to the history of the rifle and I'm ecstatic. Sanded very little (leaving the flaws), if at all in places, just with fine steel wool. Only thing left to do is fit the buttplate, need to sand off a little so it will fit properly. Maybe give the buttplate a buff and get the black marks off of it.

Now I need a sight hood, bayonet/scabbard/frog, sling and a cleaning rod cou:


I think it's a little darker by the naked eye, I used a large aperture as it's not very bright in my house.
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Give a bump too a great thread

Got a great restoration candidate from another member a 1913 No1 Mk3. I've had the parts kicking around for awhile but was looking for the right rifle. The Original had volley sights but i don't have the proper stock too put on volley sights, so it will live in this stock.

Where I started from (the top rifle)

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And went to this

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Only had to add its missing pieces, the only part I changed was the cocking
Knob back to the original style.
 
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No one has restored a gun in 2 years!!

Well I'm kinda refinishing this. Isreali K98, just this year the bore got pitted pretty bad ( not sure which ammo was corrosive. I didn't think any 762 Nato was ) so I got a NOS 762 Nato barrel coming. So while I waited, I got alot of the parts reparked.

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It take time to put together new matching original No 4 Enfield wood.
Beech wood seems to be the wood to make up sets , the 1967 marked wood
It's supposed to be British.
 
I've got a No.4Mk.1 I'm thinking of restoring, bluing is a bit worn but overall the metal is in nice shape, the wood was replaced with an after market fore end and Monte Carlo stock with Bishop marked on the butt plate.

I might replace the barrel, though I'm a little unsure about headspace and bolt heads; might be a stupid question, but right now I have a #3 marked bolt head, if I had a new barrel installed would going to a shorter bolt head be possible? Would it even be worth trying to do if it's possible? I'd like to do what I can to ensure the longevity of my rifle, it has sentimental value.

Only really thought about it because I have a Long Branch that was FTR at some point after the war and seemingly never fired again before I picked it up at a gun show. The barrel was replaced (I actually had to break it in, which is a weird feeling with a service rifle from 1943), and it has a #0 bolt head, though I'm not sure if that was installed with the FTR process when they put the new barrel on or not.
 
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