trentatron

A couple of months ago I got on the hunt for an SKS D, M, or Sporter that would take AK mags. I ended up buying a Sporter, but in the process was turned onto this page, http://chinesesks.weebly.com/m.html, it is also a great reference for the ole SKS.

Thank you both for your advice. A little steel wool, WD40, mineral spirits and elbow grease. Every part of this rifle got degreased, scrubbed with WD40 and 0000 steel wool, then oiled and sat aside to soak the oil in. On the stock, I buffed it with steel wool followed by mineral spirits. Here are my final results... At the end of the day, as bad as I wanted to strip both the metal and wood down to totally refinish them, I'll wait until I get a real turd rifle, this one has too much original finish left on it. Thanks to you all for the advice, this was a great little project. I definitely won't be so quick to over look old .22's when I see them at pawn shops or gun shows.

If I rub the stock down with wool, obviously that is going to leave some of the original finish...do we know what that was? For example if the factory finish was linseed oil can I go back over it with tung oil, linseed, etc? My other concern is when I sand out some of the blemishes and remove the factory finish in the process, then refinish, if I don't sand/strip the entire stock will the new finish come out even?

Good tip, I'll try that tonight.

My trigger guard seems to be in good shape, and for it's age I was s little surprised that it was plastic. As far as the stock, that was pretty much my plan. Did you remove any of the old oil or finish? There will be some places on the stock that I think will require some sanding due to blemishes. The only reason I considered stripping the entire stock was to make sure that the finish was even when I applied the linseed oil.

Last night a good buddy of mine graduated from college, so his parents had some friends and famliy over to celebrate. His dad, knowing of my firearms habit, gave me the tour of his gun safe in the basement. Oddly enough on the far side of the basement, leaned up in a corner with a Benjamin air rifle was this Mossberg. I almost over looked it, but then noticed the "bullet door" in the stock. Long story short, this thing is crusty, rusty, and largely forgot about...it wasn't even in the gun room, much less the safe. lol When I saw the rust on it and mentioned having done some recent research on cold bluing, browning, coatings etc, he sent me home with it It is a Mossberg S51M, the S designating Spiegel Catalog Company. These rifles were sold in the 30-40's through their mail order catalog. This morning I cleaned it a little, oiled it up, and got it to function. Now I've got it torn down to refinish....I took a bunch of photos, but damn I hope I can get this thing back together. I originally thought I would try to cold blue the entire gun, but considering what it is, I'm thinking I may Durablue it....not sure. The stock appears to be solid walnut, so it will just get the bumps and bruises sanded down and refinished. I'm always interested to hear what you guys think. I'm open to any advise or tips. Thanks!

Is the finish wearing off in contact areas, or is the finish just fading? If it's wearing off in contact areas you might consider just removing the finish all together and either leaving it satin or polished out. If the finish has just faded, depending on what kind of finish it is, I would hit it with Aluma Hyde and pop it in the oven. Surface prep is everything, which is why it's current finish is significant. If it's parkerized, your good to go with just a thorough degrease. Just my .02

Will the dog be 100% companion, or will it have other "jobs"?

I had a similar problem with my 7.62x39 AR pistol, and an overpower extractor spring seemed to fix it. In full disclosure, I had already cut the M4 feed ramps out, and polished it down to one large ramp for the 30 cal round. I don't know if that helps at all, but it's cheap, and can't hurt to try if it's not an ammo issue.

I would totally buy it....but then I would have to clean it. Seems like a lot of work, I'll pass thanks.

+1 on a rescue. All the papers in the world don't guarantee a healthy, trouble free dog. Not to mention the thousand(s) you spend on the dog, could go a long way towards vet bills IF anything were to pop up. *In full disclosure I should mention that we have fostered and re-homed several dogs in the past, so I'm a little biased.

It's funny you guys mention "buying in celebration", because that is almost exactly what I did. Admittedly I had bought a few evil rifles in the weeks leading up to the election. As I sat in bed Tuesday night with about $1000 worth of ammo in my Sportsman's Guide cart watching to see how the election went down...TRUMP WON! I was thrilled! I woke the wife up, did a few Tiger Woods fist pumps, and then was in such a good mood, I thought "F' it, I deserve a new rifle after the last eight years of tyranny!"....Then I realized it was 2 am, I could hardly see straight, and decided it was probably best to gun shop with a clear mind the next day. Woke up in the best mood since I was 10 on Christmas morning, did some clicking around on Mr. Gore's interweb, and picked up a 9mm AK pistol....weird I know, but it was the perfect "I'm buying this for no damn good reason other than I want it" firearm. So I concur, let the celebration buying commence, we've earned it ladies & gents!

I actually saw a post on armslist that was something like "spend too much before the election, credit card bills piling up? We'll give you pennies on the dollar for what you paid for your mags, ammo, etc". It was crazy...$5 for P-mags, and .06 per round of 7.62x39...CRAZY. I just went back and tried to find it, but they must have gotten flagged, or swapped with hateful emails (rightfully so). Seriously....I'm a capitalist, and I'm all about playing the market, but as I read the ad all I could imagine was a vulture circling the sky over roadkill. As far as the "extra" stuff you bought....trade it! Fortunately I don't think that there are many aspects of the gun market that are going to get cheaper anytime soon. If anything it will be the imports, but except some of the AK's, the imports are already pretty cheap!

Maybe this is one of those things we're I'll just have to buy some land and make my own damn range. I know that sounds drastic, but it can't be the only one in Blount county that needs someplace to stretch out their rifles. My wife has said, if we move off the lake it will have to be for acreage, so it's not out of the question. Perhaps a poll is in order, does this forum have that capability?