The M94 Project Revived

A long time ago, to far back than it should have been, I started a refinish of my fathers 30/30 Winchester. This is the one that got laid under a bed then got rained on and ignored for awhile. It had some major pitting on the barrel and some minor on the magazine tube. I spent many hours filing the barrel by hand, filing the magazine tube. Anyway I got all the that done and then we went to Virginia and came home and started using my limited work space as a refinishing and home improvement work center, then I had joint issues and so on and so forth. I got back to working on this gun last week then Cherry Pie took over the space once again. Now, I'm back at it.

Here is the whole mess on my improvised work bench.

I ended up filing the receiver too as it was dished and wouldn't match the bluing I use (Brownells Oxpho Blue) This took a lot of filing to make a nice flat surface. Every thing is polished to 600 grit and I believe that is as far as I'm going.

The wood is fitted to the metal and it too was sanded to 600 then buffed with 4 aught steel wool. It will eventually get a slight stain and rubbed many times with linseed oil. Due to some factory issues with the wood not all wood to metal interfaces are seamless. I usually take pride in making the joints absolutely perfect so that no seam can be felt. But even with some wood too low to repair it is looking good.

Here is the bottom of the butt stock where the tang is inletted into it. Notice the gap in the upper right curve? There is no taking that out without doing a whole bunch of relieving of the front end of the stock.

This is all the major bits and pieces, polished and waiting for some bluing.

I know the pictures are not the best in the world but Hey, I gotta work with what I got. Hand polishing really stimulates the arthritis in my shoulders and the stooping over does a number on my lower back too. Pain aside, this is the one hobby I love doing the most.

More pics to come as I make more progress. The marathon of polishing yesterday just about did my shoulders in, so there is no telling what will get accomplished on it today.

What do you carry. DuraCoat.

I made plans with my brother to team up on installing front springs in his Suburban and my truck today. After a earlyish morning, breakfast, news, shower and put the dogs in the kennel. I left. Brother called to ask me to locate a puller type ball joint remover so we didn't damage the balljoints with the tuning fork style separator. NO LUCK. We did get both of them done though. Finally started around noonish and finished around 5:30 pee em. Now I'm beat. All I have to do now as the funds become available is get a front end alignment and a new left front tire.
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I don't think I'll be able to put anything in the storage system this week. I blew my wad on some Duracoat materials and a stock for a gun I'm working on. I'm anxious to see how this coating turns out. It's a matte grey and I'm going to sandblast the barrel and action prior to the coating process. I'm thinkin' it'll be sssweeet. I understand the coating isn't fully cured to at least 3 weeks but can be assembled and handled with in 24 hours. Any one out there with any experience using the Duracoat coatings? Leave a comment if you have or know anyone who has used it.
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What do you carry? I carry one or more folding knives and a Rock Island Armoury Officers size 1911 .45. The backup is a Taurus PT-22 One spare mag for each but I want a double mag case for the 45. Leave your carry comments in, of course, the comment section.
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