Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Removing Rem 700 BDL Finish

Last fall I purchased a 700 HB VLS in .308 at a good price . A friend of mine trued the action after removing the barrel, then spun on a takoff .243 barrel.

I purchased a older BDL old enough to have an aluminum butt plate stock with some marks in the finish . I need some advise on stripping the old finish.

Thanks

Use the nastiest stripper you can buy. Scuff the existing with 100 grit paper before applying the first coat of stripper. Repeat as necessary (without scuffing).

Citristrip is what I use. It has worked well on Browning finishes as well as others. It doesn’t stink, and a person doesn’t need a hazemat suit to use it. You could even do it in the kitchen, very user friendly.
Try it you might like it.

Did you tape off the plastic forend tip ? Concerned what a stripper might do to it .

Another vote for Citristrip...and patience...

You can use blue painters tape on the forend tip. Don’t be rough on it when it’s wet.
Like ingwe said...patience is a virtue. It could take two coats, give it time to work. Soft toothbrush on checkering. A sacrificial towel to wipe it off.
Follow the instructions. You’ll do fine.

Cabinet makers scrapers will speed the job and the stock will be one step closer to the prep for re-finishing. You can use them before, during, and after the stripping process.

Did one years ago. Citristrip and scraped that old Dupont RKW off w a kinda dull Zwickey broadhead.

Bedded it w Microbed and refinished the stock w Tru Oil.
Damn thing looked good, like new ( but not gloasy ).

That stock cured me on refinishing. Too much time and effort. Rifle shot great.

Was a cut checker solid panel, IIRC around '74.
Had a minty magnum to go with.

Been synthetic on all bolt guns since LOL

take it to a local furniture refinisher for stripping, it's a bear to get off

Very easy to repair dings in that finish with CA. Then rub the gloss down to whatever level of luster you like. No nasty stripping and an excellent finish in far, far less time.

Could you walk us through this repair process?

The dings can be steamed out with live steam from a kettle or frank water on the ding and a heat gun or other heat source.

Tiny holes drilled through the finish may be required to get the water into the wood.

Drops of Cyanoacrylate glue in the low spots can bring them right up to flush. CA accelerator is available in hobby shops and cures the CA instantly, or nearly so.

Since the surface in the OP's case will be brought down to satin there is no need to do anything extra to match the filled areas. If you want to keep the gloss use plexiglass polish (used for airplane windshields) to match the gloss.

I'd use a heat gun carefully at first to get the worse off, and then citristrip.

Really???

Please elucidate...

Turned out pretty good, still a few impressions in the wood, Tru Oil finish