Went to the Pasadena gunshow the other day
Of course I am an impulse buyer...I already planned to buy an Ishapore Enfield rifle...I made it literally 10 feet in the door before I spotted this one.
I did check the bore and check over the overall appearance of the rifle, the bore is crazy immaculate! I mean I have seen bad bores and I expected this one to be pitted..not so..it is like a mirror...probably spent most of its life in a crate full of cosmoline!
I got it home and found a bunch of sites on how to take it down..I got it taken apart and this thing is swimming in cosmoline, so the next project is getting the stock cleaned up..and un-gooping it. Since I am a function over form I am also probably going to get the entire thing bead blasted then guncoat in flat black all the metal to ensure its protected and in good shape..others cold blued theirs but it just didn't look right, I plan to redo the stock in a rich cherry color and protect with matte polyurethane to protect it
I also bought a 140 round battle pack of mulsurp ammo (that my son immediately opened!!! uggh!) so I can test her out once I get her cleaned up.
The 1st name that popped into my mind when I started thinking of a name for her was Amanda...and my wife instantly burst my bubble by tossing out "Amanda HugginKiss" grrrr! [always gotta rain on my parade...but at least this time I didn't have to ask for forgiveness instead of beg for permission) [get it, A man to hug and kiss...grrrr]
Here is a picture of her..the stock is horrible, its almost black because of all the cosmoline! I will try to get pics and stuff of the cleanup/restore but like I said I am a function over form kinda guy..I plan on using her instead of propping her up in a corner and going ooooh and ahhhh!
Oh yah..the Ishapore Enfield 2A is chambered in .308 NATO instead of .303 British
Plus is my 1st boltgun ever!
This is the "parts pile" after the dishwasher and the industrial purple degreaser...as you can see the wood is no longer almost completely black..in fact its rather nice and brown and very dry...there are still a few spots that have cosmoline but acetone should clean those up, the barrel is almost completely cosmoline free and after a few good squirts of brake parts cleaner and a toothbrush it will be good to go
I put all the small parts in baggies because I have a bad tendency to either misplace small stuff or end up putting back together something and having extra parts, NOT a good thing with a firearm, so I bagged up all the parts as I disassembled the rifle and cleaned the larger chunks in the dishwasher, I will hit the screws and stuff with brake cleaner but all in all its much cleaner than before..I did go over the metal with some remoil for protection till I can sandblast it so it wont rust...that brown is some left over cosmoline
I still plan on citri-stripping the stock to almost bleach white before I go back over it with the walnut dye, this way its not over dark and the color is more consistent
This is the finished stock, my camera isn't the greatest and the color doesn't do the wood justice, I put a healthy coat of walnut wood dye in the wood and let it dry, then I put 3 coats of Minwax polyurethane satin (fast dry in the spraypaint can) to coat it, I'm more of a function over form kinda guy, not interested in collectability, if I buy a gun I plan on using it, and trust me, if they would have had polyurethane back then when they 1st made it thats what they would have used instead of Tung oil, this stuff is tough as nails!
I just opened the box with the
Manganese Phosphate Parkerizing Solution
I will soon have this puppy stripped, de-greased and ready to parkerize.
Progressing nicely
Ok peeps!
Finally got this monster finished!
Fully stripped, and reparkerized magazine, inside and out
This is the receiver minus the wood, my son is holding it for everyone to see
Couple shots after, my camera sucks so the images really don't do the wood justice
Here I am checking the slide, after parkerizing the entire bolt and receiver it definitely tightened the action up alot, I put some Gun Butter grease on it, it will probably take about 100 cycles to really get it smooth again, I have been wiping it down to get the loosened parkerizing particles out of the grease, its still smooth but tighter than it was before
This is my rifle..there are many like it..but this one is MINE!
This is Amanda...respect her, love her, if you dont, don't worry about running, you will just die tired
All in all the total job wasn't too bad..I will say if you can get a sand blasting booth GET ONE, I have to clean aluminum oxide sand blasting media from all over in my garage, uggh. The chicken feeder tray I bought at Tractor Supply worked PERFECTLY, I put it on my kitchen stove and the rifle just dropped right in with no problems, I think it has a chrome chamber/bore because the stupid rubber barrel plug blew out while the rifle was parkerizing, but when I looked there was no parkerizing in the chamber/bore...I missed a few small parts, but everything I did get parkerized beautifully...very very simple..just strip to bare metal, degrease with acetone, then re-degrease with non-chlorinated brake cleaner, then toss in the almost boiling parkerizing solution, when the metal quits bubbling, put it out, rinse it off, dry it off, then slather with your favorite gun oil...done.
I think it turned out VERY nice..in fact with all the garbage spraypaint stuff gone you can see the stamped crowns, serial numbers, and alot that was masked by whatever the heck that goop was they sprayed on it, I have to get me a sling.
Range reports to follow just gotta find the time, then I will punch some holes in some paper.
Let me know what you guys think, imagine a beat up old piece of junk Mosin would look like!
