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

Thank you for the update.

Looking forward to it.

Well dang....
It dropped another 10" of snow on top of what we already had. I tried to take my wife to the highway this morning and got stuck. She had to walk down to get the car we leave at the pavement and drive to work. It took me and 2 neighbors 2 hours to get the 4Runner dug out and back here.

So I may have to postpone the video another week.

If my friend Steve M. can get here tomorrow we'll go ahead with the vid, but I am doubtful.

He has a Toyota Tacoma and it's got good tires, but pick-ups don't get through the snow as well as 4Runners in many cases, so I will have to keep the readers posted.

OK, today Steve M is going to try to get in here. The snow is knee deep in places, but the road has been broken through and the tire tracks are deep and wide enough now so he thinks he can get here.
If all goes according to plan, today is the day we do the video. Steve will then get it on the internet in the next few days and I'll post the link.

Sounds like a lot of hassle just to carry on a pissing contest....

It's not just a pissing contest.

I am interested in learning szihn's technique as I still have a Wingmaster with the shiny urethane finish that could use a refinish.

Where's the pissing contest? The instigator has dropped out in case you hadn't noticed.

Hi Guys.

We got it done.

Steve M will have it on the net in a day or two. He's going to give me the link and I'll post it here. He did say that if someone wanted to move it to you-tube feel free. I agree.

I did not get under the 5 minutes I said I could. I should have been a bit more careful when I typed that. But I am under the 1/2 hour, including the stops and the movement of the stock which others will not have to do if they leave it attached to the receiver. The whole "working part" of the vid is about 17 minutes long, not all of which is me doing work. Much is of me explaining the hows and whys.

I did only the right half of the stock so it would not become boring, but in the 17 minutes I also did sanding to 180 grit which was not part of the bargain.

The reason I am doing this to to teach others how it's done, so the sanding is just part of the instructions. Hand sanding with 220, 320 and 400 grits will still have to be done around the borders of the checkering. From 180 grit to the final 400 grit will be very quick. In sanding a stock with five grits from 80 to 400, probably 75% of the time is taken with 80 and 120 grit. 220, 320 and 400 go very fast because the striations from the grit become quite shallow after 180 grit and clean up in just a few minutes.

The surface of the stock was clean and without chatter in very short order. It has a fluted comb unlike most shotguns, so I demonstrated how to get them stripped and ready for paper too.

The checkering was untouched, so this technique is not sloppy or slipshod. It is precise and the results look very good when the stock is completely done, with the diamonds still being pointed and sharp.

It was not a shotgun stock (sorry) but one from a Browning Single Shot rifle. I know this thread was about a shotgun stock, but I am sure everyone will agree this stock is good enough to illustrate the way it's done.

The right side of the stock was ready to go to 220 grit in the space of the video.

I said I'd get it ready for sanding in 5 minutes I didn't hit the 5 minute mark but I am well under the times estimated by others. My statement was to get it ready for sanding, and I don't know exactly what time that took because I didn't pay that much attention, but I did do the majority of the sanding down to 180 Gr.

It was fast and easy.

I took a lot more time doing it as I narrated then I would have if I were simply doing the job. If I made a guess, I'd say I can do that work if the receiver was still attached to the stock and I am simply working, (not slowing down and talking) in about 1/2 the time I did it for the vid.

I set a clock up on my bench so it could be viewed, and at no time after the work started was the camera shut off.

I took it pretty slow and I stopped a few times in the production to demonstrate angles of the blades and to elaborate on what I was doing.

Some of the 17 minute vid was of me showing details and doing no work, but narrating what I about to do, and why.

I hope all you men out there find it informative. It should greatly ease your future problems with Brownings and Weatherby finishes. I hope so anyway.

Link coming soon.

Happy hunting
Steve Z

Thanks Steve. I'll look forward to watching the video.

What a bunch of schit!

No trouble to look at what time it takes to actually remove finish from a given area... chopping the video up to pretend it was done in a reasonable time is only going to fool idiots and morons.

Do realize the initial bullshit charge stipulated an unedited video for the entire scraping.

I have dealt with too much of this work to believe your obvious bullshit.

Just keep talking Sitka.
Don't quit now.

I'm convinced.

Excellent video-you should do more of these.

Thanks Steve. Very good instruction and the narrative was helpful.

I agree. I was looking forward to seeing this and I was not dissappointed.
Thanks for making the video!
I appreciate that you didn't limit the information you provided to meet the time limit.
If the sanding and talking were removed from the video, you would have come much closer to the challange time.

Good work.

Great video, thanks for taking the time.

Semper Fi.

Thanks men.
I hope it will help you in the future with your finish work.
The epoxy finishes are about the hardest to remove, but if you have sharp blades you can get it down fast and easily. Other finished are even faster and easier.

I was impressed at how quickly the finish was removed. That you talked all through the video only slowed you down. I'll be anxious to see the finished product.

If all goes well I will get back to that stock (and the fore end too) today. The weather has been very cold, so finishing may be slower than it is at other times, but I will be putting the first coat of wood sealer on both the butt stock and the fore end this afternoon.
I set my stocks in the window and allow sunlight to cure them, but it's been cold and cloudy so it may take me 2-3 days longer then if I had clear weather.
The sub-zero temps make the windows cold too, and that slows down the curing also.
But I will post pictures of the stock and fore end when they are done if I can.