About five years ago I was helping to clean out the club armoury by emptying the gun safe and carrying out some TLC on our half a dozen club .22s.
Right at the back of the safe was a very sad-looking Anschutz Model 1407 with a thumbhole stock and heavy barrel. The stock was shedding varnish like a moulting dog, badly dinged from having the safe door closed on it a few times, the alloy butt hook unit was badly corroded and the rear sight was missing.
The worst thing by far was the even coating of dusty red rust on every exposed metal surface - it looked like a mist of rust-coloured paint had been evenly sprayed all over it.....
Nevertheless, I put it in the stocks and began a thorough clean-up, starting with the action torque screw, which I reset as per instructions on the club's Anschutz torque wrench. I pushed the crud of ages out of the barrel, and then looked at the shooting log. To my amazement it had last been shot by a guy back in May 1993 - thirteen years before the date I was looking at on the wall. I was intrigued by the old gun, and borrowing a back sight from another Anschutz, took it on the range so see how it shot. To my amazement, it put ten shots of Lapua SK through a single hole at 25m.
To end the story, I ended up buying from the club for $50, redoing all the wood, and here's the good bit - ALL that surface rust came off, revealing the pure quality of the original finish. I used a Birchwood-Casey lead removing cloth - VERY carefully - and it took me three weeks of evenings, but it came up like new. At first I put one of my big ol' Tasco Supertarget scopes on it, and then, bit the bullet and won a Weaver T-36 BR scope on Gunbroker, put THAT on it, and a spiffy muzzle harmoniser, and I shoot it most every week, just for fun. Not a serious shooter, me.
The quality of an Anschutz anything will be there long after the high intitial cost has been forgotten.
...Pics, if anybody is interested, if you PM me.
Best
tac in eastern yUK
