Beat to death 870 project

[firebyprolong]

Had an early 870 show up that was owned by the father of a very good family friend. He'd sold the gun to another local guy some 30 years ago who, apparently stored it next to the water heater and left the horrendous pitting you see. Fast forward 30 years and it shows up on a table at a city wide garage sale. Luckily most of the really bad pitts where far enough away from the lettering on the receiver that I could save all of it. I couldn't let it rust in peace, so polished it out and dunked it in the tanks. This one took the better part of two weeks of 1 and two hour draw file and polish sessions to get to this point. I'll post the finished gun as soon as I get the WD oil off tonight. I was really pleased with it when it went into the oil bath. This is the second time I've fired up those tanks.

[Dieselhorses]

Looks promising. What tanks you dunked it in? (Forgive my ignorance)

[JimB..]

That looks really good!

[mattw]

That looks great. I have a 1952 870 Wingmaster, love it still not rattles. Takes deer, birds and rabbits.

[Buzz Krumhunger]

Nice work, there.

[Valornor]

Wow, good save!

What kind of shape is the barrel in?


Check out my website www.theballisticassistant.com

[firebyprolong]

Barrel was worse than the receiver, a few of the pits where bad enough that I had to leave them or loose the markings. Im also going to have to open it up to a modified or at the very least an improved full to clean up the choke, the rest of the bore should polish out nicely. I hate to see stuff in this shape, it's just depressing. A 5 min session with an oily rag every other year isn't too much to ask. Oh and I run the brownells #7 salts in my tanks. I didn't get time to wipe everything down last night but I'll try to today and get a picture or two.
I also polished up my main cast boolet chunker too, it was another rust bucket save. It's a Winchester 94 that some fool attacked with a wire wheel and Walmart cold blue. The receiver and bore where pristine but most every other metal part looks to have the pox when I bought it. It stank of cold blue so bad I had to drive home from the gun show with the windows down in February. I finally got tired of carrying and shooting the poor ugly thing and did something about it.

[Valornor]

I’d agree with you there. Nothing worse then seeing a neglected firearm. I enjoy seeing the before and after photos. You do some great work!


Check out my website www.theballisticassistant.com

[Ernest]

Great job! Bet it is going to run just like it is supposed to.

[lead-1]

Looking good, wish I had the patience and ability to take on these kind of projects, at one time I did but no more.

[Green Frog]

The metal work so far looks great. I’ve got an old Dept of Corrections gun that really should get a similar treatment. You didn’t mention the stock... what I’ve seen of it doesn’t look too badly damaged (but of course I can’t see all of it.) are you going to be able to use it as-is, refinish it, or will it need to be replaced?

Froggie

[firebyprolong]

Forend looks ok, butt has the "crack of death", the grain runs out the top of the grip, before the comb and the crack followed it. It could be fixed, but a much nicer early stock followed me home from the gun show last weekend for 30$, so it's getting swapped out. This is one of the really early 870s with the uncheckered stock and the corn cob forend. I had all but figured I had a crack to fix until this other stock popped up. The old ones can be kinda a pain to find. It still needs refinished, but it's sound.

[redhawk0]

Great job...I'd still fix the original stock though...put it away for another project gun. 95% of cracks can be fixed and made pretty close to invisible after refinishing.

redhawk

[Green Frog]

Forend looks ok, butt has the "crack of death", the grain runs out the top of the grip, before the comb and the crack followed it. It could be fixed, but a much nicer early stock followed me home from the gun show last weekend for 30$, so it's getting swapped out. This is one of the really early 870s with the uncheckered stock and the corn cob forend. I had all but figured I had a crack to fix until this other stock popped up. The old ones can be kinda a pain to find. It still needs refinished, but it's sound.

SCORE!! My DofC example came with one of the synthetic stocks and it was way too short (beat the **** out of me when I shot it!) so like you, I resorted to a gun show buy. Mine is a little later than yours, so I had an easier time of it. I had to replace worn out action bars as well, so I bought a complete fore end assembly and found a matching butt stock. I think I got it all for about $75 or less.

Keep posting your progress, it’s stirring me to get off the dime on my project.

Froggie

PS You got lucky on the fore end... I almost never see the “corn cob” style for sale around here!

[firebyprolong]

Oh yea the cracked one is definitely going into the fixer pile. It's a nice clean tight crack that will completely disappear once I get the time to fix it, but it's got some chipping from being shot while cracked that is a bit more problematic to its cosmetic appeal. I'm sure I'll find a home for it, serviceable stocks always hang around. Even unserviceable ones too, never know when you're going to need to cut a patch out of one.

[redhawk0]

Oh yea the cracked one is definitely going into the fixer pile. It's a nice clean tight crack that will completely disappear once I get the time to fix it, but it's got some chipping from being shot while cracked that is a bit more problematic to its cosmetic appeal. I'm sure I'll find a home for it, serviceable stocks always hang around. Even unserviceable ones too, never know when you're going to need to cut a patch out of one.

Oh yeah....I had a small piece of walnut that I had hanging around...about 2x2x5 inches...most people would toss it into the stove/firepit...not me...those are excellent sizes for hand-carving pieces that are missing (like a chipped out heal of a stock)...I've fixed many by keeping those "little and useless" pieces around.

redhawk