Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Winchester Model 97 Refinish

Another refinishing project, this one a Winchester model 97



One thing I learned is that the finish on these old guns is not as smooth as people believe them to be. Bluing does hide some of that. Anyway, this gun belonged to a family member who passed away, I was asked to refinish it for whomever was going to inherit the gun. It is a 12 gauge, take-down made in 1926



The before and after pictures



























The blog posts



https://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-winchester-97-project-part-1.html



https://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-winchester-97-project-part-2.html



https://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-winchester-97-project-part-3.html

Factory bluing on older guns can indeed hide some finish imperfections that become apparent when prepping the metal for reblue. I never polished beyond 240 grit, 320 if few imperfections revealed themselves.

I would glass bead it, lightly wipe the "points" off with a buffing wheel and blue. As per all my personal refinished guns.

i hate doing high gloss finishes, and won't! Bluing hides nothing.

Not a bad looking job there!

Taking a Model 97 apart isn't for the faint of heart.

you can say that again, I don't care to work on another one