Cleaning someone's deer rifle

Gil Martin · #1 05-01-2009, 07:17 PM

A friend mentioned that his deer rifle needed a bit of sprucing up and he never had the time or expertise to do it. I offered to look it over, check it out and clean it up. Oh my, I have never such a neglected, abused and dirty rifle. It is a Winchester Model 670 .30-06 with a 3X-9X scope. I would agree that this rifle has not received adequate cared for quite some time.

Over the last few hours, I have cleaned the bore, stained the stock and reblued various metal parts. The front sight blade is loose in the base and will be tightened up. The barrel and action have exterior rust that needs to be removed. The stock has been abraded to the point that some areas of stain finish are missing. I enjoy working on guns and will do what I can to restore this fine old rifle. I am certain that I will never loan a firearm to the rifle's owner. All the best...
Gil

VaRedneck · #2 05-01-2009, 09:08 PM

If he's that careless with his weapon...what does it say about him as a hunter?

Adam Helmer · #3 05-02-2009, 09:52 AM

Gil,

I would have copied cleaning information out of one of my gun books and told him to read and comply. I am sure you will do a fine job cleaning a neglected rifle. Want to bet what it looks like this time next year?

Adam

Catfish · #4 05-02-2009, 04:10 PM

In about 1995 I was talking to a cousin of my wife who shot alot of groundhogs with a 788 Rem. in .222 Rem. that he had bought in 1960. He carried it in his pick-up 100% of the timeb ut he told me that he had shot out the barrel and it just wasn`t accurate anymore. I ask if I could take it home and check it out. I ran 50 patches of Sweets 7.62 through the barrel and number 50 was just as blue as the first. I took it out and fired 5 round at 100 yrds. and put them in about 1/2 in. I took it back in put another coat of finish on the stock, gave it a very good cleaning and took it back. I ask if he ever clean the copper out of it and he said yes. I ask what with to which he replied Hoppes number 9. In 35 years he never had the action out of the stock or put any copper soulvent in it. I figured in another 25 yrs. or so I clean the rest of the copper out, but he put it back in the pick-up and srtarted busting groundhogs again.

buckhunter · #5 05-04-2009, 12:59 PM

In a lot of cases I have no problem with giving a friend's rifle a once over however did have one complain that he had shoot 10 rounds to get it back on target. Guess what, the rifle can rust for all I care. No appreciation and too cheap to shoot a few rounds.

Rapier · #6 05-04-2009, 03:02 PM

Would you folks just stop. You are ruining my source of "shot out" rifles. If God had not wanted them dirty he would not have made rifles to shoot and PUs to drag them around in.

Best,
Ed

gd357 · #7 05-04-2009, 11:32 PM

Goes to show you the kind of idiots that are out there... A while back, I went to see a 1911 clone. Upon looking at the end of the muzzle (from an angle) the lands appeared to be orange. I asked him if he'd ever cleaned it. Yes! Every time he shot it extensively. Copper solvent? What's that? Problem solved. And another idiot encountered. JMHO

gd

captain2k_ca · #8 05-04-2009, 11:51 PM

I am bad for not cleaning my guns...unless they start acting up, then its time for a good cleaning

Jack · #9 05-05-2009, 07:02 AM

I've cleaned more than a few rifles for friends. Usually they aren't in horrible condition, but, they still have fouled bores. A lot of people will be careful to wipe a rifle down after use, and run a few patches with Hoppe's through the bore, but they don't have the knowledge or equipment to really get a dirty bore clean.
I have to agree with Rapier, too: I've bought more than 1 rifle with a 'shot out' bore, and turned it into a shooter with good cleaning equipment and a bit of time and effort.

Pre-64 · #10 05-06-2009, 01:01 AM

Heres a good one that I have heard more than once, "The bore is as clean as it was after the first shot". It took me the better part of 2 years to convince my buddy that rifles are not self cleaning ovens. He held the idea that the next bullet in line would magicaly clean the mess from the privious shot fired. After missing several Groundhogs one season he gave me a 22-250 to determine what was wrong with it. You could imagine what the first fist full of patches soaked with Barnes CR-10 looked like. Well needless to say the rifle was fine and shot great after a serious cleaning. Where do people get thse ideas from?