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Does anyone here have experience with this? Google-fu reveals a mixed bag of perspective ranging from "never do this!" to "no big deal". Is there anyone here who's taken down a 99 for re-blue or a total cleaning? I might pick up a 99 as a father-son project so I'd like to know how workable this would be.

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I've done it more than once. It isn't difficult if you have a smidgen of mechanical aptitude. To reset the spring tension you will need a screwdriver blade that will fit a split nut. Aside from that, nothing difficult. I have not taken apart the spool itself and haven't seen a need to. Check under the MISC sticky at the top, there is guidance there.


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"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Cleaning and adjusting spring tension can all be done without disassembly.


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You can take it apart if you have any mechanical aptitude. I have done so several times. Beware of screws with reverse threads! However, as Southern WI Savage says above, don't attempt this if you don't need to or have any doubts about your abilities. As Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations".


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The pre mill guns are easier to take down and reassemble than the tang safety models.

As said, if you have some mechanical aptitude it's very doable. The magazine spindle head and lock nut are left hand threads but that's the only tricky one I can think of.

Can anyone think of a more simple lever gun action than the Savage?


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Lightfoot and Southern_WI_Savage both have good points. If you need to take it down, I've heard it's not difficult to do or put together. Though 3 hands helps I think. On the other end, they can be cleaned totally by removal of stock and bolt only.

I have had to disassemble a couple bolts to clean out gunk inside. Beware that bolt spring.. it flies! grin


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It's not so much to just clean, but as a father-son reblue and refinish project. Perhaps the most difficult thing might be making a slotted driver into a split via dremel and file.

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PM me with your email and I can send a copy of some teardown instructions.


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Originally Posted by pabucktail
It's not so much to just clean, but as a father-son reblue and refinish project. Perhaps the most difficult thing might be making a slotted driver into a split via dremel and file.


You can find them in some screwdriver bit sets, that's where mine came from. The dremel option works well too as I had to do that the first time.

Last edited by steve99; 12/11/18.

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What kind of finish are you planning? Hot blue, rust blue, or? (Rust blue is one that Harry Homeowner can execute without enlisting the services of a professional.)


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Originally Posted by gnoahhh


What kind of finish are you planning? Hot blue, rust blue, or? (Rust blue is one that Harry Homeowner can execute without enlisting the services of a professional.)


Gnoahh, do you have a favorite Rust Blue recipe?

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Originally Posted by gnoahhh


What kind of finish are you planning? Hot blue, rust blue, or? (Rust blue is one that Harry Homeowner can execute without enlisting the services of a professional.)


Exactly, rust blue is the method of choice. I've done various small parts and a muzzleloader. The biggest challenge was finding a tank big enough to boil. I ended up having the local welding class students make one for the cost of the metal. Perfect size for a barreled action.

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I just use solutions I buy off the internet. Brownells sells a couple different ones, all of which are good. One hint: buy a fresh jar if the old leftovers have some age to them, the stuff degrades with time. The last couple jobs I did I got the solutions from www.rustblue.com. He mixes the stuff fresh when he fills the order, offers several different shades of blue (I like the "British gun" formula for duplicating the deep blue-black of early 99 barrels), and his prices are competitive with others.

You're on your own if you try to re-create the bright nitre blue finish on early M1899 receivers. That's something I never attempted. I simply rust blue and call it a day.

I boil small parts in a stainless steel sauce pan on a hot plate. For long stuff like shotgun double barrels, barreled rifled actions, etc. I don't boil them in a tank. I hit upon the idea of taking a piece of PVC pipe capped on one end, hang the long rusted object inside it, and pour in enough boiling water to cover it and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Presto, rust turns to black and the carding commences. Makes for a nice even blue and repeating the sequence only amounts to the same number of repeated sequences as immersing parts in a boiling tank.

I did build a crude sweat box out of scrap plywood tall enough to hang barrels and the like in, with a pan of distilled water sitting on a hot plate set at its lowest heat setting to create a damp warm atmosphere inside the box. It speeds up the rusting process and I feel helps with uniformity in color, as opposed to letting the parts rust in room air. I did one once by hanging the piece in a shower stall and running the hot water occasionally to keep the atmosphere inducive for rusting. Using the sweat box and the PVC pipe I can get a nice uniform blue in around four or five 2 hour cycles.

Most important thing is not which solution you use but how well you hand polish the parts beforehand and how strict you are about cleanliness. I don't go beyond 400x grit, but I take care to get all the fine sanding scratches running in the same direction on a barrel. 400x sanding scratches disappear under the bluing, but those that run counter to the rest do show up. After that, cleanliness is next to godliness. When degreasing I wear nitrile gloves to keep fingerprint oils off the steel, and a fresh pair of gloves are put on whenever I handle the parts for any reason during the whole rest of the process. Buy a box of those gloves, they're cheap. I do all degreasing with acetone and paper towels, no solvent washing between rust cycles. Use distilled water, not tap water. Trace minerals in tap or well water can play hell with the evenness of the finish, and a gallon of distilled water at the grocery store is only around $1.

Oils in the bluing environment are death to the process. I don't allow any aerosol lubricants in my shop- especially WD-40. All it takes is one errant airborne molecule of the stuff to create a spot on the finish that requires a complete startover.

Depending upon how tolerant your better half is about such things, rust bluing is something you can do in the kitchen. It's that easy and simple.


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If you go with the PVC tube idea and the 99 barreled action won't fit inside it, simply use a small diameter tube to subtend the barrel and attach an extension tube big enough to hold the receiver too by employing a PVC reduction coupler. I've only done takedowns wherein I simply boiled the separate receiver in a big sauce pan.

If anybody can't grasp what I'm describing let me know and I'll snap a pic of my setup and text it to you.


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Thanks so much!

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Between you and Gene the campfire could rule the world. LOL. Great explanation.

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Oh, pshaw. Gene is the ruling techno guru. Many other guys here rock their areas of expertise.* All in all I would say we have a collective pool of knowledge here on this forum that rivals any on the internet devoted to single make guns.

One thing we need more of here though is bacon. And whiskey. And women, definitely women. smile




* For example, where would we be without Lightfoot's parts acumen and ingenious scope mounts, Both Rick's paper trails, Fug/Plab/CMHJohn/Loggah/LBK's pure collecting sensibilities, Roy and Jeff's explorations of the possibilities inherent in the 99 design, Calhoun's cohesiveness, and David's putting it all into context on paper. You get the idea- I could go on ad infinitum, and my apologies to anybody not named directly. Everybody brings something to the party, it's probably why we have survived as a group for so many years.


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One thing we need more of here though is bacon. And whiskey. And willing silent women, definitely willing silent women. smile
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