Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing What Products to Strip Browning High Gloss Finish?

I have two Browning shotguns and I want to strip off the hard, high-gloss finish. What are the best products to do this? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed or tips to make it easier?

Thanks!

Dan

Send 'em to a commercial furniture stripper.. You'll thank me..

I have a company not too far away and, for the measly $30 they charged to remove all that crap I could never justify taking the 2-3 hours in labor to do it myself.. I could make $100 or more over the same time period..

I ran into this problem a couple years ago when a friend had quite a few guns to refinish after they were in a fire and in his safe.Only thing damaged was the finish and some seals in scopes. The only thing we found was Aircraft paint stripper. and elbow grease

Those high gloss urethane finishes are a bitch to remove. Like Redneck said, 2-3 hours with some pretty obnoxious chemicals, toothbrushes, steel wool, and elbow grease.
I did 2 high gloss Rem 700 stocks a few years back and I don't think I would do it again if a dip service was available.
If you do it, get the strongest stripper you can find and make sure it says it will work on urethane.

You will not find anything "on the shelf" that will easily remove a thick urethane finish.
Like Redneck said, send it out to a professional service.

As Redneck says it is a brutal job and best left to dippers if that is what you really need. Caution them not to soak the wood any longer than required...

But far easier is just to fill the gouges that cannot be lifted by steam, level them out with SuperGlue, and buff the gloss off with BearTex pads or rottenstone, or both.

You will still have a very deep finish (it will not fool anyone into thinking it is oil) but the luster can be brought to any level you desire and it is a LOT less work...

The Japanese Brownings have painted on finishes over very plain wood. The last one I stripped looked like a piece of balsa afterwards. Proceed at your own risk! By the way, I sanded the old finish off. Not easy but doable.

I have heard about the painted on finishes. A respected stock maker in Missouri told me the same thing. Maybe I should just leave well enough alone. One of my shotguns has absolutely gorgeous wood or a great paint job, just not sure which and not sure I want to chance finding out it's just plain wood. The other shotgun has very straight grain so I wouldn't be upset in anyway to see plain jane wood as that is what it appears to have.

I have trouble imagining how someone could mistake the painted on finishes for being actual wood...

Has no one here ever applied sand paper? There's some technique involved, but I find it always works.

If you wait long enough, forty-fifty years, it will come off in big hunks eventually. Least that's what mine are doing.

It surely works if you're looking for the hard way. I'm lazy I guess.

I just stripped a Browning 1885 with that high gloss finish. Used a stripping formulation that said it would strip a epoxy finish. It sort of got a lot of it soft but it took several applications and a lot of scraping. When it was done I sanded it down and oiled it. I would pay a fair bit of money to send one to a commercial stripper if there was one around where I live, but there isn't.

I worked right next to the finishing department when I worked in Browning Arms gunsmithing shop. Whatever chemical they used the stocks were soaked for extended periods of time. The hum of pneumatic sanders was constant as they did lots of sanding, stripping the Browning finish is time consuming hard work even for professionals. The finish is a two part catalyzing type that Browning had shipped in from Belgium. I still remember the skids loaded with gallon cans of this finish, I never understood why they couldn't find a finish that was manufactured in the US. Even the new finish was brittle, cutting the masking tape from the checkered areas after refinishing was a real challenge not to chip the finish. Glad the finishers did all that work, my only involvement was to re-install the wood on the gun.

LMAO...

On one of those finishes?? Well, as long as you don't mind spending several (and I mean SEVERAL) hours and the expense of a few reams of sandpaper trying to remove that stuff I'd say goferit...

In my case, the 'opportunity cost' would far outweigh any benefit.. YMMV.

Yup! That stuff is tough and hard!

I have had good results with Jasco Premium Paint and Epoxy Remover for both Browning and Remington urethane-based finishes. Read the instructions and follow them. I have also heard the the Brownells product is effectively similar but have no personal experience with that.

I've tried everything including the stupidly expensive Brownell's at the end of the day I will send the next one out. I dump a ton of gel on it wrap it in aluminum foil and do it again and again. You'll get there but it sucks.

Heat gun VERY carefully applied. Never tried it on a Browning but have removed some very tough urethane and epoxy finishes with a 1000 degree heat gun. Got to be very careful though because if you burn the wood you can't sand deep enough to get back to normal wood. Use just enough heat to soften the finish in a small area. Soft wire brush in wood handle for checkering - a plastic handle brush will melt.

Did I mention you have to be careful?

That jasco stuff works pretty well on Remington's ..never done a browning with it ,but it's pretty good stuff..