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

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Project Deer Stalker Part 2

If you missed part one and the introduction, click on the links below

Featured Gun: Stevens 325C
Project Deer Stalker Part 1



Before sanding wood or metal we needed to make sure the new stock fits the gun

Here are the two stocks side by side, because the new one is for a model 340, it is couple of inches longer than the original and has a straighter grip profile.





The picture above lead me to think I might need to open up the relief cut for the bolt handle

I checked to see if the bolt would close when set in the new walnut stock



Then I compared the location of the bolt handle when closed in the old stock


and once more when not in either stock. It appears their is enough room for full bolt handle travel, the safety worked and everything fit as it should.



Before finishing the wood we will need to drill some holes for the sling swivels, the rear trigger guard screw and install the escutcheon for the front take down screw.
Here it is removed from the old stock. It is bare metal, I think I will nitre blue it before installing it.


I went through my supply of butt plate screws and found some slotted ones to replace the Phillips head that came with the stock


The Phillips is on the bottom, I'll clean them up and nitre blue them



Time to get on with the restoration....we'll start with the bolt


The small c-clip holds the bolt handle portion to the firing pin head. I'll clean all the parts, sand smooth and polish the bolt handle and cocking piece.



Here is what the handle looked like before I started, not sure why it was so beat up or how it got that way


I used a file to get the clean up the big dings


Then sand paper to smooth everything out



Then polished on the buffer




The barrelled action was not ready yet, but I was bluing some other guns, so I blued some of the small parts, here is the trigger guard and bolt cover polished up



and reblued


The front sight has been polished and readied for bluing, I cannot hot blue it as it has a brass bead, I will have to cold blue or rust blue it



I finished polishing the rest of the bolt and reassembled it



Stay tuned for part 3


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