Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 457 stock refinish ???

I am slowly getting used to the finish on it, it is not nearly as offensive as some that I have seen. I will not be doing anything to it - as much as I dislike doing woodwork it would likely turn out looking horrible anyway.

The good news - I did shoot it yesterday and it shows a lot of promise.

It was a nice blue sky and calm day but only aout 15 degrees - I have a shooting bench for my 50 yard rimfire target on my back deck and it is only about 6 ft from my backdoor. I kept the ammo in the house and would load the magazine inside then step out and shoot, that way the ammo was at a warm temperature (In my experience cold rimfire ammo does not shoot as well as warm ammo does).

I only tried a couple of different ammos - CCI S/V and Norma TAC, the CCI was right at 1/2" for 5 shots at 50 yds and the Norma TAC was near 3/4" for 5 shots at 50yds, I only did three 5 shot groups of each. I was really pleased that it likes the CCI since I have lots of it. The Norma had vertical stringing in an almost perfect up and down with very little horizontal, less than a bullet width - I have never encountered that before with the Norma so I don't know what to think about that.
I will wait until the barrel gets some more rounds down it and warmer temps before trying some mid-grade ammo.

drover

Well, today I was back in my LGS and they had a new CZ 457 American in there rack, I should never have taken a look at it….. wood lottery, tiger strips up and down the stock, I’m a little envious of whoever will walk out with that one. I came home and put another coat of finish on my Mud Hen… 😂

Did you try adjusting the torque a little up or down on the action screws?

if that was a 22 WMR and they were willing to ship, i might? be interested... maybe shoot me a PM please... hell, i might even consider a barrel swap, depending on the wood & the price ...

It looks like my son-in-law is headed over to get it.

I have the rifle but have not had a chance to shoot it yet. I’m not as fortunate as Drover — it’s a 45 minute drive to my club range in Colorado. And I will be traveling a lot until early spring so it may be a good while before I shoot it. But I’m sure glad to have it and am optimistic about its accuracy.

I just made sure that the action screws were snug. I only did a total of 30 shots, 15 ov the CCI A/V and 15 of the Norma TAC, just enough to see if it held any promise of accuracy. When the weather warms a bit I will play with the action screws - first results are promising though.

drover

I had to try another group out of the 457 since is 30 F., dead calm, and I was bored.

The group is 10 shots at 50 yards using a good lot of CCI S/V that I keep stashed for testing since this particular lot shoots as well as most mid-level match ammo.
The small squares are 1/4" so it looks like an easy 1/2" group for 10 shots, I can live with that. Especially for nothing being done to rifle except for a lighter trigger spring.

It's a sort of good news - bad news thing. I bought the rifle expecting to have to refinish the stock but it is good enough that I can live with it and it shoots well enough that I can't see doing anything to it except testing some more ammo in it. But then I ask myself "if it shoots this good with $4.00 per box ammo what is the point".

I’d be hard pressed to try much else!

Excellent shooting drover. Looks like yours is a winner.

This is a perfect example of why I like CCI SV ammo so much.

Nice shooting, drover.

I wouldn’t change a thing, I think that accuracy is excellent and you’re definitely ready for the squirrel woods.

Here is a picture of the stock after ten very thin coats of Tru-oil, I put 20 drops into a small bowl per coat and still have a little left when I’m done.

Tag

Boil the horn buttplate (after sanding off the Tru-Oil) and the pressed horn will pop right up. Allow it to dry for at least a couple weeks and refinish.

Steel wool is a no-no on good finish. It leaves tiny shards which will eventually freckle and broadcast their presence...

This was the first time I’d tried this with a Browning horn butt plate, I did boil the horn but maybe about two hours wasn’t enough. I didn’t boil it to remove the script but to flatten the curve out of it. The horn was removed and immediately clamped on a flat piece of metal. If you look at the picture you can see the clamp marks that pressed into the hot horn. Afterwords when trying to sand the script out, I found that it went all the way through and it would not come out. I did a search and read on a shotgun forum that others had tried the exact same thing and had the same results. On this particular piece of horn when it was heated and the script pressed into it under pressure, it looked like the density or the lower portion below the raised script was completely changed.
There isn’t any Tru-oil on the horn, I polished it after sanding and that’s its natural shine.
I had also read that after using steel wool any small fragments could rust and you could later see them through the finish. I haven’t seen it in any stocks I’ve personally done and some I have sitting in front of me I did in the late 1970’s. I keep waiting for Tru-oil to change there directions but after thirty plus years it still says to use 00 steel wool, I’ve always used 0000 myself 🤣.

For reference in case anybody else is thinking of trying this, here’s the before and after pictures of the refinish. I tried to take them in the same lighting for comparisons. The stock color is lighter and more honey colored now than the original brown finish and has much more depth to it when looking into the grain of the wood. I’m going to let the Tri-oil set for awhile and then I’ll take down the gloss and wax it.

This is exactly why I refinish many of the rifles I purchase . The factory finishes on so many rifles is muddy and covers up some really beautiful grain most of the time IMO. Sometimes the difference is enough to make you say "wow" once you get the finish on. Even several of my Kimbers needed refinishing and the difference is night and day ...

Namuh, you probably already know this if you've been doing this awhile, but let the Truoil cure for at least 30 days before knocking down the gloss so it can cure completely. If you're in a very humid area it may take a bit more time for it to fully cure. I've been warned about this when I first started doing stock work and my impatience wouldn't allow me to wait that long. I paid the price by having to redo several finished projects until I learned to wait . It does make a difference I found out....

What are you planning on using to knock down the gloss on your finish? I've been experimenting with a couple new techniques lately and getting pretty good results, but I'm always curious what others do...

Bob

I’ve found that with the humidity here it can take twice as long for a product to cure on its own, with this stock I’m forcing it to dry by using a radiant heater place about 24” from it and then hanging it above a wood stove. When I’ve nocked the finish down with 0000 steel wool it’s coming off white and powdery so the Tru-oil is dry, no gumminess or loading. The directions say a minimum of two hours before you can lightly buff it so I’ve been waiting about four hours. The stock finish is just utilitarian for me and since it’s for mostly hunting it’s going to get banged around it short order. I also lightly sealed all the wood surfaces while I have it apart, barrel channel, action inletting, the butt and the screw holes for the sling swivel studs. As of right now I’m going to lightly polish the stock with 0000 steel wool, then wax it with Trewax (carnauba flooring wax), I usually apply a couple coats of wax with a lint free towel dipped in a little cold water that helps to set the wax and makes it very hard, (spit shine if you were in the military).

I think I’m about ready to call this one done. I took about 20% off the gloss of the Tru-oil finish with 0000 steel wool, I then started to polish it off with a little diatomaceous earth and paint thinner but the bottom of this checkering is very roughly finished and it would have taken longer to clean it out than what it’s worth. On the checkering and its borders, I cleaned any finish out that inadvertently lapped over it and applied a coat of boiled linseed oil, I let it soak in for about 10 minutes and wiped out any remaining with a tooth brush and a lint free towel. I finished it off with two coats of Trewax and buffed it off. All in all my happy with the results and don’t regret starting it, to me it looks better than the dark brown finish I started with.