Was given a very rough swede m1896 what to do?

[ditchdrift]

What should i do with this thing? Parts? His kid left it in the yard for a few years to rot away. I feel bad for it. I was thinking of cleaning it up and refinishing the stock, but the metal is real rough on it. Everything still operates and the bore is okay except for the end. What say calguns?

[SVT-40]

If the bore is good just clean it up and shoot it.....

[ditchdrift]

How would you go about removing the rust and scale? Steel wool? This isnt gonna come off with some wd40 or anything.

[Vacaville]

Originally Posted by SVT-40

If the bore is good just clean it up and shoot it.....

+1

Exactly what I was thinking. Put a lot of love into it and shoot it if it's safe. Might not be worth a lot, but looks like an enjoyable project.

[pro-nra]

The bore is probably shootable. Scrub the bore, 0000 steel wool the metals and see where you are. I bet it is still shootable. Heck take to the Sac Valley Saturday and shoot it in the match.

[Jester3]

Breaks my heart bro.. I saved a 30-30 like this. Total teardown, made a trough out of aluminum foil to place the long parts, put the rest in old cooking pans and let them soak in just motor oil. Take them out and rub them, place back in clean oil. Did this a few times, most parts came out great! Some were badly pitted, had to sand them down, not some thing you want to do but have to. After a few weeks of TLC she was functional and ready for a bluing. All in all it came out a pretty good shooter. No collector value but a great shooting gun.
Give her alot of work and you will feel great about saving an old fire iron!
About the furniture, try your hand at sanding and refinishing it. Can't hurt, and if all else fails I have seen full furniture kits online for sale.
Good luck man, not to much more noble than bringing and old firearm back to life.
I have a Swede like this one and it is a awesome accurate weapon!

[Simply115]

Do it. Fix it. Whatever you need to do to bring it back to life, do it.

[zartoon]

I've never done this, but I'm thinking, for something this rough, why not strip it, sand blast the metal, re-blue it. Sand and refinish the wood..and put it all together..
I dont think you'd get a collector rifle out of it..but it will be a shooter, and it will look and feel nice.

...just my thoughts.

-Z

[Agustav]

Take the rifle out of the stock and wipe a metal parts with Kroil... do it for a few day until the metal are pretty saturated with Kroil. You will be surprised at the amount of rust you can simply wipe off. After that use fine bronze wool saturated with Kroil and try to get the more stubborn rust off. Slow and easy is the key in rust removal. Repeat as needed.

As long as the bore is decent, you will end up with a nice shooter!

[TRAP55]

First, go slap his kid upside the head, then separate all the metal from the wood.
Run a bore brush through it, then soak the bore with ATF.
Completely disassemble all the metal parts, wrap in paper towels, and soak with ATF. Leave it someplace to soak in for a couple of days.
Get a quart of lacquer thinner and a bag of 0000 steel wool. Pour a pint in a pan, stick the stock in butt first, and use a handful of wool to soak and scrub the stock and hand guard down, inside and out. Get all the finish off. Let it dry, steam the dents out, rough sand with 220 grit, then finish sand with 360.
As dried out as that stock is, I would use several coats of BLO. Thin the first coat, and rub it in with your fingers, inside and out.
Did you remember to get bronze wool, brake cleaner(non chlorinated), and some CLP?
Soak the bronze wool in ATF, and scrub the rust. When you "think" you got it all off, hose off the ATF with the brake cleaner. Any rust will stand out neon orange as it dries. Repeat until you don't see the orange. For the tough stuff, use the edge of a copper penny as a scraper. When your done, hose all the metal with the CLP, let it set for a bit, and use paper towels to wipe off the excess.
Chamber will probably be frosty. After cleaning the bore from the breech end., get a .45cal bronze brush, a long one for a rifle. Take some 0000 steel wool and pull it apart so it looks like the hair you pulled out of a hairbrush. Wrap it around the bore brush, getting down inside the bristles, keeping the diameter of the brush a little bigger than .45cal. Thread the brush into the tip section of a 3 piece aluminum cleaning rod. Chuck the cleaning rod into your hand drill, soak the wool in ATF, and work it in and out of the chamber at a slow speed until the chamber is nice and shiney. Slap it back together and go shoot it.
Just me, but I would make that kid join in on the elbow grease part, might teach him about leaving nice things out in the weather.

[ditchdrift]

Originally Posted by TRAP55

First, go slap his kid upside the head, then separate all the metal from the wood.
Run a bore brush through it, then soak the bore with ATF.
Completely disassemble all the metal parts, wrap in paper towels, and soak with ATF. Leave it someplace to soak in for a couple of days.
Get a quart of lacquer thinner and a bag of 0000 steel wool. Pour a pint in a pan, stick the stock in butt first, and use a handful of wool to soak and scrub the stock and hand guard down, inside and out. Get all the finish off. Let it dry, steam the dents out, rough sand with 220 grit, then finish sand with 360.
As dried out as that stock is, I would use several coats of BLO. Thin the first coat, and rub it in with your fingers, inside and out.
Did you remember to get bronze wool, brake cleaner(non chlorinated), and some CLP?
Soak the bronze wool in ATF, and scrub the rust. When you "think" you got it all off, hose off the ATF with the brake cleaner. Any rust will stand out neon orange as it dries. Repeat until you don't see the orange. For the tough stuff, use the edge of a copper penny as a scraper. When your done, hose all the metal with the CLP, let it set for a bit, and use paper towels to wipe off the excess.
Chamber will probably be frosty. After cleaning the bore from the breech end., get a .45cal bronze brush, a long one for a rifle. Take some 0000 steel wool and pull it apart so it looks like the hair you pulled out of a hairbrush. Wrap it around the bore brush, getting down inside the bristles, keeping the diameter of the brush a little bigger than .45cal. Thread the brush into the tip section of a 3 piece aluminum cleaning rod. Chuck the cleaning rod into your hand drill, soak the wool in ATF, and work it in and out of the chamber at a slow speed until the chamber is nice and shiney. Slap it back together and go shoot it.
Just me, but I would make that kid join in on the elbow grease part, might teach him about leaving nice things out in the weather.

Thanks for the advice.. unfortunately his kid is stationed in spain right now. He's an MP in the air force. I'll probably do some work on it over the weekend. For the time being im going to hit it with some kroil to loosen up the funk thats all over it.

[wellfedirishman]

The wood is salvageable, and most of the metal can be refinished as long as the bore is ok.

I agree with folks above, a soak in Kroil and a good scrubbing with bronze wool and Hoppes will make a big difference to the bore. I have cleaned up some really cruddy bores that way.

You'd be surprised how well those Swedes can shoot.

[Elwood_Blues]

Originally Posted by TRAP55

First, go slap his kid upside the head, then separate all the metal from the wood.

Just me, but I would make that kid join in on the elbow grease part, might teach him about leaving nice things out in the weather.

TRAP beat me to it.
As far as getting the rust off; how'bout dremel with brass brushes?

[TRAP55]

Didn't know you had Kroil, that'll work better/faster than ATF. I have both, but use the ATF when I can, cause I'm a cheap son of a.....very financially frugal.

[gun toting monkeyboy]

That'll buff right out...

Try fixing it up as the others have suggested. You can probably save it as a shooter. If the barrel is toast, you can always end up sporterizing it. Not my first choice, but sometimes the only thing to do with something this far gone.

-Mb

[GDM]

Two words electrolysis tank!!!! Look it up here on the c&r section, sure you can find the thread. Wish I had a project rifle like that to save.

[mls343]

Looks salvageable. It may take a bunch of elbow grease and time, but it should be worth your trouble. BTW - my choice is Brass wool over steel as others have mentioned - especially for stocks a steel may leave some traces in the wood that eventually turns black.

[Lead Waster]

Originally Posted by GDM

Two words electrolysis tank!!!! Look it up here on the c&r section, sure you can find the thread. Wish I had a project rifle like that to save.

I came here to say this.

You can basically convert the rust back. This is often done with old hand tools, especially antique Stanley planes.

Check it out, it would definitely be worth doing since it doesn't actually require that much monetary outlay (A battery charger, some washing soda and some rebar to use as anodes (or cathodes, or whatever...go read up on it))

At least look at this page real quick http://www.instructables.com/id/Elec...val-aka-Magic/

[CSACANNONEER]

Clean it and go 'choot it!

[Lead Waster]

Here, this is even more relevant, and with pics

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/vie...?f=80&t=103161

[Grumpyoldretiredcop]

Look up threads from Ajax22 here on Calguns... he's taken on some pretty bad looking items and gotten them working again. He likes reverse electrolysis and it seems to work pretty well with pieces as rusted as this one or worse. Here's a link to one of his threads for your reading pleasure!

[Crunch130]

Since the bluing is shot anyway, why wouldn't you use naval jelly to remove the rust from the steel?

There are probably rust stains in the wood, too. I think those can be removed with oxalic acid or wood bleach or something like that.

Crunch

[olhunter]

Originally Posted by ditchdrift

He's an MP in the air force.

Well, that explains it!



Ok, sorry. That's just habit. If he was in the Navy there would probably be daisy's in the barrel. Oh, whoops. Did it again. Sorry.

Anywhooooo....it looks like surface rust. Clean it up exactly like TRAP55 said and you're GTG.

[Carsgunsandchics]

Show it the love. But if you decide you don't want to I'm game.

[sacto929]

I've been cleaning up some abused pieces and have found soaking in Kroil / PB Blaster, 0000 wool and http://www.big45metalcleaner.com/ to work wonders.

The oil loosens the rust, the Big 45 cleaner does a great job of getting the heavy stuff off, and the 0000 steel wool gets off the light stuff and smooths the surface well. The Big 45 cleaner and 0000 steel wool do not remove the bluing unless you get absent minded and spend too much time in one spot.

[GDM]

Originally Posted by Carsgunsandchics

Show it the love. But if you decide you don't want to I'm game.

If you don't warn it either I am also game

[TRAP55]

The Swedes used a higher grade steel than any other Mausers, even the ones made in Germany were required to use their steel. The bluing was only rivaled by Radom and BRNO.
Use the bronze wool, you'll be surprised how much of the original bluing is under that mess.

[Springfield45]

I have fixed guns that looked worse than that.

One tip for you is use a drimal with a brass wheel to get at the hard to reach spots.

[ditchdrift]

Wow, didn't realize this thread was this popular! Got the gun soaking right now, the barrel is pretty bad, i guess the kid stuck it in the mud standing up by the barrel. The outside is rusted pretty bad, like chunks of metal coming off, and the barrel is actually completely obstructed in the front.

[Spiggy]

this sounds like a AJAX22 job!

[GDM]

What do you have the rifle soaking in, if you don't mind me asking?

[gunboat]

If I may suggest -- save/sell the original stock and hardware - cut the barrel back to good bore and recrown -- Restock with a decent sporter stock, refinish, add a good peep and front sight, and shoot --
my tuppence

[Crusader]

Wow, what a shame. ATF is a very good penetrating oil, but I find cleaning up ATF to be a pain in the butt. I have restored an old Mosin by letting it soak for a day or two in fully synthetic 5w/20 oil and it worked very well in my opinion.
Just be sure to scrub the bore very thoroughly and you should have a good shooter, if not much of a looker, in your possession.

[sfm12]

Automotive hot tank.

[Lead Waster]

Electrolysis will PRESERVE the metal that's on there. Any acid or brushing will remove it. Just FYI.

[Simply115]

Get a new barrel if it looks real bad.

[knucklehead0202]

clean it up and shoot it. Kroil is your friend. if you don't want it, i'll come get it.

[ditchdrift]

Here is the condition of the barrel, its pretty bad. Got it wet down in kroil right now.



Heres how it looks under the hand guard.



And heres a pic of the magazine floor plate, before and after a bit of tlc.





What sucks, is that this was a 100% numbers matching rifle.

[GDM]

Looks good.

[rsmorgan]

You've heard just about all the advice I would have given you. The one thing to add is that if the damage to muzzle-end of the bore isn't too deep, you can counterbore down to "good metal" and the rifle should shoot about as well as it did when new. Biggest accuracy problem with the 96 Swede is usually just a bad muzzle which can be fixed by recrowning or counterbore.

RSM