I need some help with this one, I know just how the bottom of the action detaches from the stock and ation, but how is the butt stock attached to the action? Is it a simple job to remove? The reason I'm asking is that it will be shipped to me and probably survive better if the butt stock is removed. I would hate to see it broekn.
Thanks
Mike

Here is the barrel proofs under the forearm.
Mike

I will only do a partial restoration, some of the wood has shrunk away from the reciever and that would make it easier to break or damage, but some good quality bedding compound dyed to the same color of the wood can repair that problem. The bore is on nice shape, not new but really nice. I have not recieved it yet but from the pictures it looks like 30+ years of crud on the wood, so the wood will get a good cleaning, soap and water and a stick rag and brush. Most of the metal will be left as is, that rifle has character and I would hate to spoil it.
Mike

She will never be Prom Queen but she is a beauty for sure. I just added the action sides to the rifle picture section a bit ago.

Mike, When I got my Aydt the wood was shrunk at the receiver & butt plate. Took the butt off & soaked it overnight in a stong solution of TSP & water. Let it dry in the California Sun for 24 hours & wood to receiver fit was perfect, had to rebed the butt plate a bit. I think the Germans, cut down the tree & cut it into boards & then cut them into stocks & inletted them the next day. TSP also removes all the finish & soaked oil.      ...MIKE...

     Don't forget to rinse after soaking.      ...MIKE...       DA

Fer gawd's sake, don't let your wife know you stuck it in the dishwasher!  I once did that with a drip pan out of a barbecue meat smoker and ended up having to buy her a new dishwasher.  You'd be amazed what can stick to the sides of the damned machine.

TSP = tri-sodium phosphate.  Get it at the local paint store.

My late friend loved to restore old guns, the more beat-up the better. & his restorations are pretty nice.  Soaking the stock in a TSP solution was his standard step #1 in restoring an old stock.

A paint store is the correct place.  It used to be available at supermarkets but that was closed off.  What's called TSP these days isn't.  Only paint stores have the real stuff.

After a thorough look at all the old German proofs, this rifle is an old one. No powder charge was recorded on the barrel and the number that some though were a date, no date. I just looked at Halps photo site at his posted Kessler, almost the same number as mine, just off a bit and he is sure his is early 1890's manufacture, and his breech block is marked the same too and mine is probably too. Those stamped numbers are the serial numbers. I think it has been mentioned before that these gun actions were made at a factory and then sold to the builders. So my old Kessler and his may have been made at the same factory. Just assembled or sold by a different retailer. I will be waiting for me when I get home Friday.
Mike

Quote:


I'll guess trisodium phosphate.

For Werndl brass, the .348 works (but as you say, it's a little short)... 
If you have access to Starline .50-110 brass, it too makes good Werndl brass, but the neck is a little thick, and needs turning.   
.50-110 makes excellent basic brass for a whole host of cartridges that the .348 is often used to form... and has the advantage of starting out as a cylinder.

Paul F.

I wonder just how the boiling would effect any carvings on the stock? Any ideas here?
I think maybe just letting it soak in the solution may be a bit safer.

The stocks on these rifles were boiled in a washing soda solution.

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Thanks for the kind words, Mike. And yes, it is a Savage Model 45 (Super Sporter). I came across it as a barreled action and a few parts at a gun show a while back. I had planned on putting it back to it's original configuration, but the missing (and not easily) obtainable parts made that a bit problematic. Then I remembered a 95 Mauser stock and bottom metal that I had sitting around gathering dust and thought, hmm. The stock was pretty easy to fit to the action, but of course the Mauser bottom metal would not mate up to the Savage action, but the guard screw spacing was the same. So, I sliced an inch or so off the top of the magazine so it would drop in the stock but clear the bottom of the Savage action. I made a spacer/filler that filled the void between the floorplate and the bottom of the action. It functions like a bench rest follower of sorts, so the rifle now is single shot only. I added a nice old Weaver KV scope in a slightly modified Buehler base/ring set that originally was on a 721 Remingtion. Chambering is 30-06, and it shoots very well with the old 311413 Lyman cast bullet and 2400 powder. I call it my Frankenrifle.

A couple pics of it's current configuration:

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12 years, 1928-40. The 40 and 45 were basically the same, the 45  being the "upgrade". They were chambered in 250-3000, 300, 30-30, and 30-06. They're neat old rifles.

Trisodium Phosphate