Heya,
Having hunted last fall with my Mosin 91/30 I pretty well wore the shellac off the stock. So I spent the winter scraping the old finish off with a paint scraper and a knife. ten the grueling part began.... how to refinish it. I asked and talked with all the experienced guys around in Sudbury that I know and finally short listed a Tung oil finish. Then someone was like, hey we not try Pine Tar oil. ?!?!? WTF is that? so I did some research, and it a nice old world feel and nostalgia about it. so for a gun that's almost 100years old its seemed to fit. then came the dirty part.
Pine tar isn't quite black its like molasses, dark and gooey. A 50/50 mix of pine tar and boiled linseed oil makes a manageable product that soaks into rags and everything else it touches. Add a little heat and it bubbles, smokes and soaks into the wood nicely... until my wife started to complain about the flaming gun stock I was holding on the front deck. I switched to the soak it, rub it in and let it sit until it absorbed, then clean it up and start over again. about 8 applications in we finally got a decently warm day and I set the stock out in the sun to bake, no fires this time. I cleaned up the stock and let it sit for a week and wiped it down occasionally to remove anything that wept out. the texture of the finish was vaguely waxy at the time but felt good in the hand. I left the stock in my vehicle one day to bring it for show and tell, and even the extreme car heat only made it weep a small amount. so fast forward another month and the stock now feels dry but grippy.
I have done a little work this gun, like a lot of Mosin's it shot high, so I extended my front sight with an electrical connector, I painted it orange for hunting.
the blue pin one fit snug on the front post and a small dab of silicon RTV keeps it from moving.
here on the back side you can see the split in the connector after you remove the blue jacket.
this is the connector I used.
Here is the shims and "cork" (fiberglass tape) I have added. Previously I have only corked the front of the barrel at the barrel band. I'll have to see if this is an improvement. Not the brass shim on the front of the recoil lug. previously the barrel had play front to back before I added this shim.
and here is the final product!
Tomorrow I will take it out to the range and test is at 100 yards. I was shooting less then 2" with reloads last year, Maybe the extra shims will help.
Having hunted last fall with my Mosin 91/30 I pretty well wore the shellac off the stock. So I spent the winter scraping the old finish off with a paint scraper and a knife. ten the grueling part began.... how to refinish it. I asked and talked with all the experienced guys around in Sudbury that I know and finally short listed a Tung oil finish. Then someone was like, hey we not try Pine Tar oil. ?!?!? WTF is that? so I did some research, and it a nice old world feel and nostalgia about it. so for a gun that's almost 100years old its seemed to fit. then came the dirty part.
Pine tar isn't quite black its like molasses, dark and gooey. A 50/50 mix of pine tar and boiled linseed oil makes a manageable product that soaks into rags and everything else it touches. Add a little heat and it bubbles, smokes and soaks into the wood nicely... until my wife started to complain about the flaming gun stock I was holding on the front deck. I switched to the soak it, rub it in and let it sit until it absorbed, then clean it up and start over again. about 8 applications in we finally got a decently warm day and I set the stock out in the sun to bake, no fires this time. I cleaned up the stock and let it sit for a week and wiped it down occasionally to remove anything that wept out. the texture of the finish was vaguely waxy at the time but felt good in the hand. I left the stock in my vehicle one day to bring it for show and tell, and even the extreme car heat only made it weep a small amount. so fast forward another month and the stock now feels dry but grippy.
I have done a little work this gun, like a lot of Mosin's it shot high, so I extended my front sight with an electrical connector, I painted it orange for hunting.
the blue pin one fit snug on the front post and a small dab of silicon RTV keeps it from moving.
here on the back side you can see the split in the connector after you remove the blue jacket.
this is the connector I used.
Here is the shims and "cork" (fiberglass tape) I have added. Previously I have only corked the front of the barrel at the barrel band. I'll have to see if this is an improvement. Not the brass shim on the front of the recoil lug. previously the barrel had play front to back before I added this shim.
and here is the final product!
Tomorrow I will take it out to the range and test is at 100 yards. I was shooting less then 2" with reloads last year, Maybe the extra shims will help.
