A couple months back I posted some discussion on my restoration and restocking of some of my non-collectable Winchesters. As I stated, I am not a serious collector but do appreciate old Winchesters in a state where they were not collectable but could be brought to a condition of restoration as close to factory original as possible.
I posted a link to my pre-WWII Winchester 52B Standard Target with a heavy bull barrel and gave the history of it.
My newest attempt is the restoration of a transition (1948) model 70 that had seen better days.
At the time, I also mentioned I was in the later stages of fitting and finishing a restock of an 1886 that was originally manufactured in 1890. The owner (of the time) sent it to Winchester around 1912 for a new barrel and caliber change and other �upgrades�. I had done a restoration of the rifle in the mid 90�s only to have the stock and forearm severely damaged when a stack of rifles fell on it while at the range. I can send the details of the Winchester factory change if anyone is curious and missed it in my earlier post in October/November of last year.
After a number of years sitting with the damage in my gun safe I brought it out last year and with the help of Rob Silverhill (stockmaker) I was able to get a stock and forearm for fitting and finishing. Following a winter hiatus in Florida I�ve come back to home and recently finished the '86 work. I�ve put 12 coats of Brownells stock finish with each coat rubbed out after a 48 hour or longer drying time. I used the Brownells French Red filler and stain after the previous months of fitting, steaming, and sanding the rough stock/forearm.
I�ve included a link below to a photo of the completed work. I am curious for those who are collectors and know old Winchesters how close/good/bad the stock color and finish is to one of the pre-first world war era?
I�m not about to change it, as it was a bit of evening hours and suits me, but I am curious as to what the factory color would have been, lighter/darker/?? You can be assured I�m going to carefully place it in a rifle stack and where others cannot fall against it. As I earlier posted, I do shoot this rifle and it is not a SAFE/Wall hanger.
The photo also shows the receiver and how it looks after the gunsmith had done his work to obviate where it had been drilled and tapped for a side mount scope in the decades earlier.
http://www.lonespruce.net/images/861.jpgNow I�ve started the Win70 stock fitting work and think I will continue to use the Brownells product for the finish work.
