Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Sad salt Wood No. 1

Not only Brownings and Weatherby had these.

I had no idea Ruger had the same issue. What year was the rifle made?

I’ve never heard of a salt wood Ruger. I’m not saying that the OP is wrong but it’s news to me. I see some light rust in the center of the receiver and bluing wear where more was scoured off. I wonder if it wasn’t caused by something else such as being stored somewhere damp.

A Google search will reveal that indeed there were Ruger salt wood stocks.

Third one I have seen. All in 1973-77 range.

Always only the buttsock. Buttplate screws are also rusty and will often break.

There is no fix and Ruger will do nothing.

Interesting. I had no idea.

Likely these firearms companies are not generating salt wood. I'd be inclined to blame their suppliers.

Lady had an inherited Superposed 20 gauge she didn’t want. Offered it to me for cheap. She had it sent over and it made me throw up in my mouth a little. Absolutely ruined. It had not been handled in a very long time and the salt did it’s work. Sure did feel nice though.

There was a time when Browning would make it right ----- no longer.

Saw a Midas grade superposed they had fixed. All those gold inlays had popped.

The metal can be redeemed, but the wood has to go, into the fire if possible.

The football field-size lot covered with stacks of wood had to go somewhere...

That sucks. I need to go look at my #1, it's from that time frame.

What’s the story behind it?

Just Google ‘Browning Salt Wood Explained’.

I had read that Ruger had used salt cured wood to a lesser extent. I was unaware Westherby bought in to that technology as well.
Let’s face it, if a customer is just now complaining about salt wood the gunmaker has every right to reject the complaint
1977 is 45 years ago.

The pic in the original st is very telling, line of rust and possibly pitting where the wood and metal meet

Had a beautiful 300 Weatherby built by factory on FN action with severe salt wood pitting.

Bead blasted it and coated metal in black epoxy. Only put it together to shoot it. Worked fine.

Finally sold to collector who loved all the inlays and new the issue.

Can Turnbull fix it ?

From Google.

Check out the website www.artsgunshop.com/. Art Issacson was a Browning gunsmith for over 30 years and worked extensively on saltwood Brownings while employed by Browning. He is now one of the top Browning Superposed, A5,
etc. restorers in the country in his own shop. He has a good article on the saltwood guns on his website. He lists the saltwood years as around 1966 to 1971.

Art did a new, replacement stock for my Grade II LH Browning T-Bolt. It is beautiful. He also had to re-blue it due to the salt corrosion on the action.

Of course!!
Will it be worth the cost?!?

Yes, Rugers did have the problem in the mid-1970s. I have two of them - one a .243 Liberty 1B model, with fairly plain wood, and a .375 H&H, from 1977 which has really nice wood. The 375 I will try to save the wood on. Every few months I rinse it with distilled water, then let it dry. Eventually I will seal it, and see how it does.

It can never be fixed or sealed.

Keep the stock off the rifle until you plan to shoot it.
Put a heavy coat of Spar varnish on all surface the wood touches and the stock thru bolt and washer.

Disassemble after using it and wipe down all metal with boiling water, Dry with hair dryer.

Just saw this post, the problem went back further than you think, I owned a No. 1b made in 1970 that had salt wood,
such a shame, the wood was stunning.

Geez. I had no idea this problem affected any Rugers until I saw this thread. I guess I’ve just been lucky with my No.1s.

Yeah, I also never heard of it until now. Thanks to the internet what was once strictly in the world of personal experience is now part of "hive mentality".

Saw a superposed once with salt wood, very sad

During my tenure in the Browning gunsmithing shop (1978-1982) I replaced hundreds of salt wood stocks spent countless hours laborously draw filing barrels and receivers. There is no fix for sale wood, only use for it is firewood, that's exactly what Browning did they fed it to the plant incinerator. There was a time when the need for replacement stocks far exceeded Belgium's production capacity. The Warsaw, MO stockmaking firms Fajen and Bishop helped keep Browning supplied with replacement wood. As it was there were times when salt wood guns awaiting repair were stacked on pallets and stored in the warehouse until replacement wood could be procured.

Were any Ruger #3s affected with salt wood recorded?

Just discovered this Ruger salt issue today. Have q No 1 in the shop with corrosion on it. Started googling, ended up here (and a few other threads). This one, like many... Year Of Liberty 1976 ... shame. it's lovely wood

I had a salt wood #1 in 45-70 many years ago. Ruger would clean up, reblue, and restock with no questions asked, free of charge. That was my experience, but that was . . . Wow, had to have been in the early-mid 80’s now that I think about it. My rifle came back with nicer wood than it went out with too! I’d bought it used, and the previous owner had monkeyed with the trigger - they fixed that too.

If it were me, I’d reach out to Ruger, and try to talk to someone.

FWIW-

Have a 1976 one, need to look at it.

Not only did Browning screw up with salt wood, in 1976 they made a Bi-centennial commemorative B-78 single shot. It came in a fancy wood case, well no salt wood but getting in a hurry they put the rifles in the cases before that carpenter's white glue that held the linings in place had thoroughly dried. On the long journey across the pond from Japan the lactic acid in the glue outgassed and rusted the crap out of the metal. They brought loads of those rifles into the gunsmith shop on pallets there were that many, case after case of brand new rifles. Every last one had to be disassembled, rust polished out and reblued, I personally worked on that fiasco till I was sick of it. Lotsa problems with Brownings during that time period, the .44 Magnum rifles had assorted problems, same with the BBR and Mitchell Garcia fishing reels, worked on the fishing reels for weeks on end.

Decided to take the stock of that 7x57 at work the other day ... dear lord, there is a LOT of rust inside. Might contact Ruger, but it seems from the several posts around the internet lately, Ruger ain't doing anything about it. Most likely going to take a huge hit on this one if I can find someone who wants it as a project. I'll try and remember to grab some photos this afternoon

I had a Browning Safari Grade rifle that suffered from salt wood. I cleaned up the metal as best as possible and varnished the wood. In the end it went down the road.
Mile High Shooter how bad is the rust? Is the metal pitted? I'm curious if the action can be salvaged and turned into something respectable.

GSP,

Didn't get a chance to grab pics. There's some pretty good damage on the internals. I think it could be salvaged, though. Exterior damage is pretty limited and shallow, that should be easy to repair but it works involve refinishing/rebluing the entire barreled action, plus a new stock obviously. Other than that the guns in great condition

Replacing the internals could be costly. I'd like to see what it looks like though.

Here are some before and after pics. Cleaned up what i could, the tang is chewed up but the small parts look to be fine

UpThePole & MileHighShooter: Thank you both for your heads up and your efforts in this regard.
I had NO idea that Ruger #1's suffered this condition.
I am always shopping for my nice Ruger #1's.
Thanks again.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It looks salvageable but would take some work to clean and retreat the rusted area's to prevent further damage in the future.

I sent my Dad's old 1969 4 digit No 1 Ruger He bought new and still had the receipt and they replaced the stock.



new stock\

[img]https://i.imgur.com/2HZYpGC.jpg?1[/img]

Thats a nice piece of wood they used. IF they would stock them like that today they would sell.