Now that the stock is done we can focus on the metal parts. I started with the screws.
I prefer to nitre blue screws as they are hard to blue in the big tank without the risk of losing them.
We have five screws to blue:
1 - Take Down Screw
2 - Trigger Guard Screws
2 - Butt Plate Screws
I polished the screws using sand paper, a pine board and a drill.
I then polished them on the buffer
Then nitre blued them at 600 degrees
Now we start on the barreled action. Thankfully this gun had no pits or rust to deal with. I started with 400 grit, using the cross polishing method.
The magazine tube
The small parts needed to be cleaned up as well. The trigger guard had some dents in it
After sanding out the dents I polished it to 400 grit.....
....then used the buffer to make it mirror bright
The other parts just received a burnishing on the wire wheel
After getting the parts reblued I started reassembly, here is the inner mag tube and parts
The follower
The knob
After inserting the follower and spring, I installed the knob and pin, the pin is too long, for good reason, that is what keeps it in the outer mag tube
The trigger guard got a high polish and looks great
Installed on the stock, you can see the nitre bluing on the screws
The front & rear sights
Installed
I even repainted the red dot for the safety
One part I had not touched was the bolt. The bolt is polished steel and color case hardened steel, no blued parts. So I polished the bare steel and gave it a good cleaning and fresh oil.
I then performed the final assembly of the trigger and feed mechanism(s). I didn't snap any photos.
There was no way to get pics when I was using three of the two hands God gave me....if you know what I mean.
I can tell you that if you haven't messed with one of these before, it can be a bit daunting.
Stay tuned for part 3 with the final pictures and a before and after comparison