A Blast From The Past

[SandHill]

They were color cased, though I've only seen one that still had it. Hot blue usually turns the receiver red/orange, unless they have been heavily polished, and the smith doing the bluing, knows what he's doing.
Clean it up with copper or bronze wool after a soak with Kroil. Kroil will make the screws come right out too. Make sure you use a hollow ground driver bit that fits the screw slot. PM me if you have any problems.

Trap, the case hardening provides rust protection in addition to those rainbow colors. I understand the colors come from a very thin layer which is unlikely to be intact under the rust and grime, and definitely won't be after rubbing with bronze wool. But is there a danger of losing the rust protect as well by rubbing with bronze wool? I don't want to try to blue it, but I don't want to make rust worse in the future by taking off the protective layer. Do you have to anything special to prevent further rust after you rub away the rust and patina?

[TRAP55]

"IF" there's any color left under the crud, the wool won't take it off. That's why you use bronze/copper wool, it won't take off the color or any bluing. The "colors" in color case will fade over time just from sunlight. The actual case hardened surface is about a 1/16th" thick. Remember, you're cleaning, not polishing, leaving the patina is okay.
When I'm cleaning up old rusty guns, they get the rub down with the wool and Kroil, or some other oil, then I flush the whole thing off with non-chlorinated brake cleaner. Soon as it dries, any active rust will light up neon orange. Repeat with the wool until that's gone. Then use a silicon based gun oil like CLP BreakFree, and don't wait too long after the brake cleaner to use it. The cleaner sucks every last molecule of oil out of the metal, and leaves it wide open for moisture to start rust. The silicon in CLP gets into the pores of the metal and displaces any moisture.
Said you had a hard time seeing the front sight? It should be a brass Rocky Mountain style blade. If you take some 600 grit or finer sand paper on a block, and polish/true the top edge, it will light up like a brass bead in your sight picture.
You also might want to try some high speed shorts (if you can find some), I've had great luck with them on these old single shot boy's rifles.

[SandHill]

Thanks, Trap, that is very reassuring. I keep thinking of the doctor's oath: first, do no harm. I am not that concerned about the colors, but am concerned about the not removing the case hardening. Got my bronze wool and ordered my Kroil online so I am getting closer. Just have to make sure my brake cleaner isn't chlorinated and my gun oil has silicon in it (I've been using Hoppe's gun oil - do you know if it has silicon?).

The front sight is definitely a rocky mountain blade. I will be shocked, shocked, if it turns out to be brass under there, but we will see. There is a brass insert in the fore end where the screw attaches to the barrel and I was surprised how it shined up without really trying, so we will see.

Its great to have the detailed guidance. I have not done much gun restoring and I really don't want to screw this gun up.

[TRAP55]

GunScrubber = BrakeKleen with a different label and a higher price. Auto parts store, or even Walmart has it, and the cans have it on the label if it's non-chlorinated. I load up when they have a sale. Keep it off the stock finish!
Hoppes oil I believe is just mineral oil, Hoppes Elite is all I use of their oils, and that's only for my Beeman airgun because it's non-flammable, thus doesn't blow seals. Flammable oils will ignite in high velocity airguns.
Walmart has CLP. JMHO but I've been using it since it was introduced, and it's never let me down. WD-40 has, and so has RemOil. WD-40 will gum up stuff in ways you can't imagine, and it's one miserable sob to get cleaned out of a gummed up auto loader. It has it's uses, but in firearms it doesn't. RemOil froze up the action in freezing weather. Warmed it up in the truck, and flushed it out with CLP, and went back to blasting ducks with no problems.
No worries about removing the case hardening, unless you're cleaning it with a grinder.

[SandHill]

Kroiled Again!

Kana, the maker of Kroil Oil, is mired in the 19th century, or at best the 20th. Ordered their magical penetrating oil last Thursday online. Very crummy user interface, no email receipt, no online order confirmation, nothing. Five days later, get a phone call on voicemail saying there was an error on the expiration date of he credit card I used (since I had put down 2013). Call them up and correct. Ask when they are going to ship the oil. They "think" by this Friday.

Most online ordering systems these days will immediately flag something like that so you can correct it real time.

It is going to take two weeks or more to get the stuff and it costs a lot more than other penetrating oils available locally. I hope their product is worth it!

[TRAP55]

If you try it, and don't think it is, I'll buy it from you.

[SandHill]

If you try it, and don't think it is, I'll buy it from you.

Ha! That won't be necessary, Trap. I just had to vent at how inefficient these guys are. Can't buy the stuff in stores, then they make it hard to buy online. I don't get it. Don't they even want to make money? They could hire a college kid who could build them a better web interface in a weekend.

[SandHill]

My precious shipment of Kroil arrived on Friday (presumably via stagecoach). I couldn't wait to get going on my Crackshot project.

To those of you who are not familiar with Kroil, there are two things you need to know:

1. It stinks like crazy. Smell reminded me of toilet bowl cleaner. Makes Hoppe's No. 9 smell like Channel No. 5.

2. It works. After soaking the receiver in Kroil about 24 hours, the screws on the receiver, which probably had not been shifted since the rifle was built about 90 years ago, backed right out. No way of knowing if WD40 would have worked as well, but Kroil for sure did the job.

After disassembling I discovered copious amounts of muck that had built up, including a pretty long stick or piece of bark. I am surprised it hadn't rotted completely, but there may have enough oil in there to preserve it. Unfortunately, I threw it away before I got a picture. After cleaning, I saw that some of the parts that had been covered up, like the inside end of the lever and hammer, still had the rainbow colors from the case hardening. Here is a picture of the lever during cleaning (don't worry, the receiver got a lot more attention after this picture was taken):



Overall, I am happy with how it came out. The receiver appears rust free, the case hardening seems to have held up well. The barrel is mostly in good shape, although it has lost a lot of bluing around the muzzle. The stock has loads of "character" and maybe I should refinish it, but I kind of like the history to show. I rubbed it with boiled linseed oil and gave it three coats of wax, which really made the scratches less noticeable, but they are all still there. Here is the "after" photo:



The front sight is supposed to be a brass Rocky Mountain Blade sight. WHen I started, it was completely black, and I just assumed it was blued steel until Trap55 told me it was supposed to be brass. After much polishing I was able to see some reddish brown under there. Didn't really look like brass, though. When I looked closer, I saw what I believe to be a copper penny, cut in half and jammed into the barrel. If you look closely at this photo you can see a bit of the raised rim and some part of the design of the penny:



This is the only piece of Bubba-izing I have found on the whole rifle. Other than this, I think it is very original. I am inclined to leave the penny - by now, I think it has become part of the history of the rifle.

After reassembly, it seems to me that the lever locks up a bit tighter than before, which is presumably a good thing. Action and trigger feel pretty smooth.

Many thanks to Trap55. Without his advice and encouragement, I am not sure I would have been brave enough to mess with an heirloom like this. Can't wait to get it back to the range and see how it shoots now!

[TRAP55]

See? I told you that you wouldn't screw it up! Nice job!
Think how pretty that was, when the color case was new. Coins were common sight blade replacements many years ago. If you decide to replace it, I still have some brass left over from doing Justin's.

[sealocan]

that turned out great & awesome of you to help him TRAP55.

my vote is for definitely leaving the old penny in.

where else can you get a custom replacement front sight for under a nickel.
...

come to think of it, after the s*** hits the fan...nickels, old silver dimes & old copper pennies will all make great front sights, once again.

:-)

[SandHill]

Ok, so I took the Crackshot to the range last night. Something is not right! The hammer isn't dropping with enough power to reliably ignite the primers. If you dry fire and manually let the hammer drop, you can definitely feel it has less push than it did before I did the disassembly and cleaning. I have a theory why. I noticed when I was cleaning the parts with spray brake cleaner (non-chlorinated, to be sure) , that the parts were really, really cold afterwards. I guess that is from the solvents in the brake cleaner evaporating on the metal. I suspect that the temperature difference may have caused the metal in the springs to lose their spring. Anyone have experience of this? Is this like a classic greenhorn screw-up?

Fortunately, Wisner's has the spring available for $4.00, but they have minimum $10 order and $6.50 shipping, making it $16.50 total. Anyone know a way to make the spring springier again? Heat it up?

Alternatively, anyone know if a more common spring will work for this, like one from a Bic pen?

[morrcarr67]

I suppose I didn't, but it was coming from out of state and my brother was nervous about just mailing it. My FFL gave me a two for one on the FFL fee when I was buying a different gun online, and it went on the same DROS, so it didn't cost me anything.

It's a good thing you didn't have your brother just mail it.

Since the GCA of 1968 the interstate transfer of firearms need to go through an FFL in the state of thennew owner.

[TRAP55]

If anything, after removing gunk and lubricating, it should be hitting a little harder. Check the hammer spring/guide/plunger to make sure you didn't install it upside down. You have something out of place causing a friction drag.
Remember what I told you about getting frame screws back in the same holes? Try breaking the hammer screw loose, then lightly snug it down, and try it again.
The cleaner gets cold from the rapid evaporation, but nowhere near enough to have any effect on spring tension.

[SandHill]

Trap, Thanks again for insight. I will try that first this weekend. If that doesn't work I think I will disassemble it completely. At least this time I know the screw will come out without a problem.

It is quite possible I didn't put the hammer spring back in correctly, however. It was kind of hard to tell where it was supposed to seat.

One thing I am 100% sure of is that I got the screws back into the right holes.

[TRAP55]

It is quite possible I didn't put the hammer spring back in correctly, however. It was kind of hard to tell where it was supposed to seat.

You wouldn't be the first one to do that, and no, you can't ask me how I know that.