About Me: A certified yet non-professional gunsmith learning the trade through trail and inspiration

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Project Mini-Magnum Part 1

I picked up this Marlin model 25M at an LGS (local gun store) for $10. It was in rough shape, but everything was there. It even had a decent Bushnell 3-9x40mm scope on it.
The rifle's serial number dates it to 1983, the 3rd production year for this model.
See my Featured Gun post on this model here

Here is what it looked like when I brought it home: 

As you can see the stock is in sad shape, it is made of birch or beech, there is not much left of the "Mar-Sheild" finish.
I will need to refinish it, which may be difficult.


 
The recoil pad and sling swivels have got to go, I will fit a proper recoil pad to it and replace the QD stand off swivels with standard QD studs


Trigger guard is anodized aluminum, new ones are available, I may buy a new one, or just paint this one.


you can see there is no bluing left on the barrel


The white goop is silicone, don't ask me why.....







the front sight is also aluminum, I will probably remove it and plug the screw hole






The recoil pad is not original, obviously, it says Remington on it and has 7 screws holding it on? I'll remove it, plug the holes and put a proper butt plate on it


Before I start any restoration I like to see if the gun actually functions. So I ordered a two pack of factory 7 round magazines for $26


I broke out some CCI .22 Magnums and chambered one. It fired as expected and the strike on the rim was nice and deep. The extraction was solid and threw the case far enough away.
Here is the case after testing the trigger pull 


I noticed the trigger pull seemed pretty light so I put the fired case back in the chamber and checked the trigger pull 3 times, it averaged just a shy over 2 lbs! These normally come with a 7-8 lb trigger pull. So either someone has messed with this one, it has been shot a tremendous amount or I just got lucky.


So now that we know the gun is good to go, we can start with the plans:

  •  remove the recoil pad and properly fit a new one
  •  refinish the stock
  •  replace the trigger guard with a new one or paint the old one
  •  install new swivel studs
  •  polish and reblue the metal
  •  install a bipod




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