Aside from Re-Bluing

[JacobMHD]

What can a person do to refinish a beat up rifle barrel? I found a project gun at a local pawn shop that needs a little TLC. The outside of the barrel has rust spots and pitting. The inside appears clean and smooth. I would enjoy working on refinishing the wood stock of a gun but am a bit intimidated by rebluing and wouldn't mind doing something different.

The end result would obviously mean more to me than a collector.

[96trigger]

If at all possible, use a light gun oil and a fine steel wool. Alot of times, you might still see a little stain where the rust was, but for the most part, it is not very noticable. In sever cases, if there are pits, rebluing will just mean that you have pits in your bluing.

As for the stock, take it off, lightly sand, finish, and then poly coat it.

I have done a couple of guns, I know they lose their value when you refinish them, but they are not collectors, they are valuable to me. I never reblue anything.

[JacobMHD]

What about powder coating? Are there any other options?

[96trigger]

I would think a powder coating would seriously effect the fit of the parts that are coming together, thats a pretty thick coating if I am not mistaking. You have to remember that they need to be able to slide and fit togeter. Too many moving parts. You could try and powder coat, but I don't think you'd like it.

How bad are the pits? Steel wool and oil will take a lot of rust off the gun and have it looking pretty good.

[MikeH55343]

Paint it. Full camo job. There are several videos on You Tube showing how to paint a rifle or shotgun.

[JacobMHD]

I'll take some pics tonight and post them later.

[SmilinBob]

duracoat is a great finish, rebluing is best left to a gunsmith, cold blues will never get that nice factory finish back, it's all in the polish and a hot blue dip for the black color. Only the true collector guns will lose value, if it is a mass produced common firearm it will not lose any value and you will essentially get another lifetime out of it, provided the internals are still good.

[gunmunky]

Don't be afraid of using some wet/dry sandpaper. I've had to start with 400 grit on some of my project guns before. Just take your time and don't sand in one location to long. As far as a finish you can do yourself. My wife came home from a craft store a while back with a metal finishing kit for one of her projects. I just happened to look at the containers and you can make any color combo you want. I am thinking of trying to camo one of my project barrels this winter.

[Ferny]

Check out the MidwayUSA channel on youtube he has over 100 good gunsmithing videos! Larry Potterfield shows how easy it is to re-blue and get a decent finish. Looks like he can do anything with a hand file but he's been doing it for about 30 years

There's also some good threads on Duracoat, paint, bluing...etc on other sites like rimfirecentral and the like.

Post some pics too!

Ferny.

[JacobMHD]

They wouldn't get down as much as I felt they needed to. I could go and buy one brand new for $100 more than they "needed to get out of it".

I will keep my eye on it. I suspect after Christmas they may change their tune.