Winchester 320 clean-up
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:00 pm
I picked up a Winchester 320 .22lr for the right price, to shoot Hunter class silhouette. I always wanted one of these, as the action is by Sportco (Omark) from the Adelaide factory, and I reckon the thought of it going all the way to the states to be fitted with a Winnie barrel and stock, and then finding it's way back around the world to South Oz is a bit neat.
Now it was looking a bit unloved, with some surface rust pitting to the barrel, and a few scratches to the stock. Plus the bolt handle felt a bit iffy. It turned out the male thread was very nearly stripped. The good news is that after a little lube, the action feels smooth and tight, and after a brush and patch, the bore is looking excellent.
It came with a 4x scope, but I pulled it and fitted a Weaver 3-9x38 which fits the rifles age, and looks the goods. I took it to the range, and it turns out it shoots the new 42gn Winnie Powerpoints pretty well. Half a dozen 5 shot groups went around 12-19mm at 50m, and the only 100m group I have shot with it measured 27mm.
That was enough for me to decide it needed a little more love, so I machined a quick replacement bolt handle from a 1/4"UNF bolt and made a brass knob for it (to make it look "flash" ). Looks okay, and now the rifle is reliable and functional.
Then I decided to clean up the surface rust on the barrel. Steel wool and gun oil got it fairly clean, but took the barrel back to bare metal in spots. I got some G96 solid bluing paste, and after degreasing with CRC contact cleaner, applied the paste. I let the paste work for about 30 minutes, and then washed it off with gun oil. This method of bluing is from Potters Firearms website
http://www.potfire.com.au/info/reno1.htm
The initial result looked spectacular, but when I gave it another wash with gun oil 24 hours later, it wasn't looking quite as deep a finish, but definitely looked respectable. I only did the barrel, as the action, etc, was still pretty good as found. Finally I gave the stock a once over with Marveer, which camoflages the scratches a bit, and then reassembled with a bit of "business card bedding". And for a little effort, the 37 year old is looking pretty tidy again. Now if you want to see how to do a really good job of a resto, I recommend the thread by 1Kshot in this subforum (he makes my effort look pretty ordinary), but in limited time, this didn't turn out too bad at all.
regards, curan
Now it was looking a bit unloved, with some surface rust pitting to the barrel, and a few scratches to the stock. Plus the bolt handle felt a bit iffy. It turned out the male thread was very nearly stripped. The good news is that after a little lube, the action feels smooth and tight, and after a brush and patch, the bore is looking excellent.
It came with a 4x scope, but I pulled it and fitted a Weaver 3-9x38 which fits the rifles age, and looks the goods. I took it to the range, and it turns out it shoots the new 42gn Winnie Powerpoints pretty well. Half a dozen 5 shot groups went around 12-19mm at 50m, and the only 100m group I have shot with it measured 27mm.
That was enough for me to decide it needed a little more love, so I machined a quick replacement bolt handle from a 1/4"UNF bolt and made a brass knob for it (to make it look "flash" ). Looks okay, and now the rifle is reliable and functional.
Then I decided to clean up the surface rust on the barrel. Steel wool and gun oil got it fairly clean, but took the barrel back to bare metal in spots. I got some G96 solid bluing paste, and after degreasing with CRC contact cleaner, applied the paste. I let the paste work for about 30 minutes, and then washed it off with gun oil. This method of bluing is from Potters Firearms website
http://www.potfire.com.au/info/reno1.htm
The initial result looked spectacular, but when I gave it another wash with gun oil 24 hours later, it wasn't looking quite as deep a finish, but definitely looked respectable. I only did the barrel, as the action, etc, was still pretty good as found. Finally I gave the stock a once over with Marveer, which camoflages the scratches a bit, and then reassembled with a bit of "business card bedding". And for a little effort, the 37 year old is looking pretty tidy again. Now if you want to see how to do a really good job of a resto, I recommend the thread by 1Kshot in this subforum (he makes my effort look pretty ordinary), but in limited time, this didn't turn out too bad at all.
regards, curan