usnmars

I love the auctions, ya never know what you are going to see. I normally hit one every time I am home

Well I need to do an update, soooooooooooooo 1) M1D sniper from the CMP 2) 1942 Service grade Springfield from the CMP 3) Service grade Winchester from the CMP(not in yet, but shipped) 4) Yugo capture German K98 5) 1952 Russian SKS 6) Finn M39 7)Finn M27 8+9) 2 Yugo 24/47 Mausers 10) 1915 BSA Enfield No.1 Mk.3 11) 1942 Lithgow Enfield No.1 Mk.3 12) 1944 Russian PU sniper Mosin 13) Rossi Model 62 Pump .22 14-16)3 various Ex Sniper Mosins 17) 1903A3 Springfield 18) 1897 Winchester 12Ga + The 7 from my previous post so I guess I am at 25 so far this year

I picked up a nice 1917 US bolo trench knife, and some gunsmithing stuff. A friend of mine bought 2 ex sniper mosins. There was one dealer where literally every mosin he had was an ex, a friend of mine got 2. It was a big temptation, but i didn't buy any guns or ammo.

Here are some pics of my winter project this year. Every year I get a project gun right before winter and rebuild it to pretty much new specs. It gives me something to do while the snow is falling, and I like to think of it as testing my skill. Here is this years project a 1897 Winchester 12GA that was built in 1917. I got it at an auction on Wed for $75.00 and figured what the heck. The action was seized and the stock had more cracks in it than I can count. I did a full detail strip and cleaned it out. Now the action is smooth as silk. I repaired the cracks in the stock, you cant even see them though I still need to do the fore-end. The last 6" of the barrel were pitted to hell so I cut it down to 20"(purists dont be haters, if it wasn't for me this gun would have been a wall hanger). I am going to hand polish the entire gun and do a rust blue on it. I am going to convert it to a Trench gun, so when I find a shroud and bayonet lug I will get them. I shot it a little more today and I have to say this is now my favorite shotgun even though it still is currently a turd. Here are some pics of before I touched it and where I am at now. Updates will come as I do more work. BEFORE I TOUCHED IT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE NOW

Does anybody else get project guns or guns that need a little TLC? I recently picked up a Winchester 1897 12GA that needed a little help to say the least. But I got it for $75.00, while a good 1897 runs about 500+. When I first got it the action was seized, and there is almost no bluing. The last 3" of the 36" barrel is corroded but the rest is nice. I got it with the intentions of cutting down the barrel and making a repro Trench Gun. A little work, and I got it already functioning. I shot it yesterday. I can already tell this is going to be one sweet little gun. Does anybody else recognize a diamond in the rough and look for projects.

if you dont vote yes you are a

welcome!

Interesting, but not my cup of tea

WASSSSSSSUP!

There is also one in Wind Gap the same day. I prefer this show even though it is smaller. This is the one that I am going to.

I am calling it unissued or as close as possible. The amount of wear on the rifle both internally and externally is almost nothing. All of the parts that should have wear such as the bolt and the receiver where the bolt rides, dont have any wear. The bluing is really clean and the barrel is absolutely perfect. If this rifle was used, it was used very little. Here are some pics of it kinda cleaned up, so you can see what I am talking about.

WOW, i just had to find the tang date, and it ends up it was built on a New England Westinghouse receiver!!! HOW COOL!

I just stole this today from a local shop. They had it mismarked, as usual. So I paid a regular refurb price for this gem. Here it is a 1934 Tikka M27 that appears to be unissued. Damn, just when I thought I was getting out of mosins I find this......

The CMP is the best thing going right now. You cant do any better.

watch out, Garanditus is worse than Mosinitus

As the south is mentioning all of their quals and certs, lets see what the north has.

sooo Tony, when can I come over... DROOL! Fat man likes ice cream!!!!

I definately remove the stock from the rifle. When possible, I try to remove as much metal from the stock too. Buttplate, sling swivels ect. The key is not to rush, if you take your time it is going to show.

heads up, it sounds like you may have a wall hanger there. Early 1903's with a serial number before 800,000 were not heat treated correctly and considered unsafe to shoot. Here is more info for you. My link

is it a 1903 or a 1903a3? The stocks are interchangeable but different

I am not going to post a pic of my safe, but I have put a bungee cord across the front of it. I had a "gun-alanche" a couple of years ago and this helps prevent it.

Here is a little write up on how I personally clean and preserve military stocks. If you have been around surplus rifles at all, you know that when you first get one they are normally greasy and dirty. Here are some things that I do to help clean them up. They may not be the correct way, but this is what I do for the stuff in my collection. I am going to write this in an order from most harmless to a fully aggressive cleaning. I try to avoid sanding a stock because when you sand out a ding, you are sanding out history. You never know where a little bump or bruise came from, it could have been from being bumped in an arsenal or it could be from being dropped in a battlefield. That is part of the intrigue of milsurp, so I try to respect the rifle and its previous users. Follow these steps at your own risk and always stay within your comfort level. If you don’t feel comfortable doing something please don’t do it. 1) Using heat to remove cosmo from a stock This is the least aggressive approach to removing cosmo from a stock. Cosmo has a melting point of appx 125º so just a little heat and it liquefies and comes to the surface. In the summer it is great just to wrap a stock in toilet paper or paper towels and put it in a large black trash bag. I then put the trash bag on the dash of my truck. As the cosmo melts, it comes to the surface and is absorbed by the paper towels. On a really hot day, I just put the stock alone on my dash and give it a wipe every 1/2hr or so. You will be amazed on how much of the golden gooey goodness comes out. Now where we live it isn't hot year round. SOOOO, I have a couple of ways around that. If I am looking for immediate results, I normally just take a heat gun(hair dryer on steroids) and sit with a roll of paper towels. Keeping the heat gun moving at all times, just get the stock hot enough to bring the cosmo to the surface and then wipe it off. You will be amazed on the amount of stuff that comes out and it normally takes about a full roll of paper towels. If I don’t feel like using a heat gun, I just wait till I either have a fire in the fireplace or the kerosene heater in the shop is going. I set the stock near the heat source and let it sit, checking it often. I wipe the stock frequently to get the stuff that leeches out. Cosmo is stubborn to get out and you will never get it all. You need to learn your point of defeat and say "good enough." Sometimes it takes about 2 or three times of heating to get it nice enough. Like I said before, this is the least aggressive approach but normally works well. This is normally my first step before I continue to the other steps. What is the point of doing a thorough cleaning of a stock if you never get most of the cosmo out. 2) Doing a Boiled Linseed oil(BLO) scrub I normally do this if a stock isn't too dirty. Boiled linseed oil is the most common finish on military gun stocks. It is readily available and cheap. Most hardware stores have it in pint sized cans and a can will last forever. An oil scrub will normally leave a stock smooth and it feels amazing. You will need to complete the first step of the write up and remove most of the cosmo from the stock. Even though the oil is an oil finish, it will actually clean as you scrub. There will be quite a bit of junk that comes off of the stock. Remember even though you are scrubbing the stock with steel wool, you are not trying to remove any of the scratches or dings. Those are part of the rifles history and we don’t want to remove them. Now let’s get started! First get a small piece of #000 or finer steel wool. Saturate the steel wool with the oil and start scrubbing the stock. Try to keep an even amount of scrubbing and not focus on one area. Keep the steel wool wet with the oil, it will give you a smoother finish. Let the stock stay "wet" with the oil for 10-20 minutes and then wipe off the excess with a rag. If you let it sit too long, the oil becomes "gummy" and has a sticky feeling. I normally go for about 15 minutes before wiping it with a rag. Now let the stock sit and dry for a full 24hrs. I normally scrub a stock 2-3 times. After the second or third scrub let it sit another full 24hrs then rub a little oil in by hand. This is time consuming because you are really rubbing in the oil, the wood will actually start to feel warm. The finished product on this is awesome it leaves a nice and clean oiled finish that is extremely nice to touch. 3) Solvent cleaning a stock I use this process if a stock is moderately dirty and needs a little help to look good. I start with denatured alcohol and if that isn't aggressive enough I go to lacquer thinner. As usual start with step one to get most of the cosmo out. Then start this process. I use either a very soft scrub brush or some steel wool for this project. First saturate the steel wool with the alcohol or thinner. Scrub the stock, evenly to avoid getting a splotchy finish. When the stock is still wet with the solvent, wipe off the crud with a paper towel before it has time to dry on the surface. I normally do a little area, wipe, do a little area, wipe. This tends to get a bunch of crud off of a stock. I then finish with step 2 a BLO scrub. 4) Chemical Cleaners I use this process as a last resort when trying to clean up a horribly nasty stock. I like to use Purple Power degreaser for this step. Purple Power is available at 90% of the auto parts stores out there and comes in a convenient spray bottle. First off make sure the wife is out of the house because you will either be using the bath tub or the kitchen sink. You are going to need a soft bristled scrub brush, I like the ones intended for scrubbing your hands. Spray the stock with the Purple Power and immediately start scrubbing it with the brush. Work in small areas so the stuff doesn't have time to absorb into the stock or dry on the surface. Once a small area is scrubbed, rinse it off with warm water. Move on to the next area of the stock, scrub and rinse. Once the whole stock has been scrubbed, give it one quick rinse off. I then wipe off the water on the surface with a rag and let it sit for about 48hrs before applying any kind of finish or oil. Do not use heat or sunlight to dry the stock, if you do you take a chance of warping the stock. Once dry, the stock will have a fuzzy raised grain look to it. I simply just rub it good with #000 steel wool to smooth it out again. Now all oils have been removed from the stock and it looks really dry. You are going to need to oil the wood so I prefer to go and do step #2, an oil scrub. This process works great on a stock that otherwise would be a chunk of fire wood. You would be amazed on how nicely it cleans and saves a stock. Once the wood has been oiled and has had time to dry, I prefer to apply some "Gunny Paste." Gunny Paste is a military gun stock wax that you can make yourself or order off the net. I love the stuff, it really makes the grain on wood "pop." Here is a recipe for Gunny Paste. Gunny Paste Or if you are lazy like me you can order it from here: Toms Mix I like Toms natural myself, and really leaves a stock feeling awesome. I hope this helped someone, but I am not responsible if you goof up your stock. Use at your own risk!

svt parts

DAMN just my luck. They just put up 400rd cans cheaper per round than the stuff I ordered... Looks like an excuse to make another order.

Here is one of the M1's that I got when I was home last, a August 1942 Service Grade. I was bored yesterday so I figured I would give it a detail cleaning, stock and all. The stock started out so dirty and cosmo soaked that it almost looked black. I gave it a good oil scrub and did one coat of Gunny's Paste, I think it can use one more. So here is the first M1 that I did, I still have 2 more to do. At no time did sandpaper or anything abrasive touch the stock so cartouches's are unharmed. I am about 90% done with a write up on properly cleaning and preserving military stocks, so hopefully by Sunday afternoon I have it up. I love the grain and how red it looks, you never would have known that this purdy wood was under the gunk.....