I picked up this little Romanian training rifle for less than 100 bucks. Its beat up pretty bad, but the bore is in excellent condition and it's a real tack driver at the range. I'm torn as to what to do with it.
Alot of good collectible guns have been ruined by someone trying to "clean" it up. When someone buys an old gun, especially a military one, they want a little dirt and rust. However, these guns have flooded the country, are plentiful, and don't obviously hold much value as I just bought this one for less than a bill. So a full on restoration should be in order...but one thing is stopping me...the availability of parts.
If I'm going to invest the time in refinishing, reblueing, polishing etc., I'm gonna shoot the crap out of it afterwards for years to come...hard to do when parts wear out and you can't find replacements.
So that said, I'm just gonna do a proper "cleaning" job to remove rust and preserve the rifle as part of my collection.
-These are the problem areas
-Notice the rust around the bolt handle, trigger and trigger guard. It's not heavy but its consistent all over the rifle. I wouldn't say the gun was neglected, just used as a cheap 22. It most likely stayed in the corner of someones house, they would grab it for pest control around the yard, then back in the corner it went.
-more rust again and couple dings in the stock
-yes...there is rust all over this thing
-crappy photo, but the bore is spotless and the crown is in very good shape as well
-look at all the "fuzz" inside of the front sight hood...that's dust...lots of it, again, this baby was no doubt leaned up in somebody's corner for the last 10-15 years.
Now it's very important to remember this: when cleaning up an old weapon for collecting/resale, upon completion, no one should be able to tell that it was touched. So for this little project we're gonna start with a process called electrolysis, stay-tuned for the setup and instructions on how to build your own.
