Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Sand or soda blasting stocks

I recently read several articles that mention sand or soda blasting Remington BDL stocks to remove the finish.


Have anyone here tried it? Can you offer some insights?


I have several stocks I’d like to refinish to be more like a CDL stock.


Thanks.

Not a job for the inexperienced. It is hard to put wood back on.

Far easier is to knock the gloss off the finish. Done properly it will not look like a plastic force shield. If it does not look "thin" enough, a few coats of oil finish will flatten the look. Oil will need to be rubbed out after curing.

There are lots of ways to get finish off and lots of ways to change the look of a stock, but it all comes down to what you expect it to look like in the end.

If you are willing to accept obvious signs of refinishing and not willing to do all the things needed to prevent them you can do it that way. It will not save time in the end.

Check Brownells
They had a product to strip Remington and Browning finishes.

Sand blasting is too agressive and soda blasting is too gentle to do much with tough finishes like Browning and Remington. I would definately try the Brownell product mentioned by the above poster.

I would sell the BDL stocks on Ebay and buy CDL stocks if that's what you want.
I found a NIB CDL stock on line for $100

Trying to strip that plastic finish of the BDL would be a rabbit hole of time and the checkered portions may never look "right"
And unless the BDL stock was just beat to h3ll, it would have more value being left alone.

My .02
YMMV

Many thanks for your excellent responses.