Well.... I'm gonna do it!

[Dougw1515]

After disassembling the Model 61 Winchester 22LR and cleaning it up I've decided to have it professionally re-blued. I'm well aware there are two camps, the do's and the don't's, relative to having this done. I suppose I'm still open to having my mind changed but it'd have to be a compelling reason. Resale value has no impact for me as I won't sell it and if one of my young'uns decides to after I'm dead n' gone well... so be it.

I'm using a company named "Precision Bluing" out of Creedmore, NC. Anybody heard of them? The owner's background and experience is impressive as are the before/after photos on the web site. So anyway... the plan is to box it up and ship it out Monday. Owner told me they were non-essential and got shut down during one of the covid shut-downs but are up and running now with an estimated turnaround time of 4 months. One of them "it is what it is" deals. Faster than getting an AR15 from LaRue!

 

[sidebite252]

Why not do this yourself? I’ve got an old Model 67 and I ran across this video. Now I’m planning on refurbishing this rifle myself. Seems like a fun project. You might enjoy doing something like this too Doug. I bet you can find info on the web.

This is the video I found that has me wanting to do my own refurbish.

 

[TipBledsoe]

Photos! Where's they Photos? You know darn well we all like to see photos.
Whatever route you decide to go, we need to see them "before photos" now please.

 

[Dougw1515]

I watched the video and they didn't discuss re-bluing as one of the "40" things that you can do. I re-blued this gun sometime in the mid/late 60's. I used the cold bluing process which worked like crap! I will do the rest of the work which is pretty limited to the furniture refinishing. I have no desire to modify or alter any aspect of this gun. I may or may not ever actually shoot it again. Mostly I just want it restored to "as new" condition.

 

[sidebite252]

Yeah I’ve watched so many videos recently on this I get them confused. One of them showed a man using the cold blue process. Hey I agree, let’s see some before & after pics.

 

[Axxe55]

Hot blueing is really the best method of blueing. If you know the little tricks, "cold" blueing can do an acceptable job, but will never be as good a good hot blueing as to the finished product.

But regardless of which method is used, the prep work before blueing is the critical step.

It's already been blued once, so doubtful that getting it done professionally is going to decrease the value of the rifle, and might even increase it a bit. Just a guess, as it all depends on the individual gun and other factors.

Meh? I'd get it done professionally too. You plan on keeping it, so value is kind of a moot point IMO.

 

[prisondoc]

Photos! Where's they Photos? You know darn well we all like to see photos.
Whatever route you decide to go, we need to see them "before photos" now please.

Before and after photos would be nice.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Dougw1515]

Photos will be forth coming...

 

[RedArmy]

Cold bluing at home is great for small parts, bluing an entire gun, not so much. Hot bluing is the only way to go, you'll love the results if they do a good job on the prep. The prep work will decide how well the gun will end up looking and this is where the real costs come in.

Here's a Star BM I restored myself a while back. I had it hot blued by McClelland Gun Shop in Dallas. Not too many people do hot bluing anymore.

After the massive labor of removing all nicks, gouges and scratches, this must be done by hand, took me weeks on this old surplus pistol. This is where the real cost comes in if you pay to have it done by a shop. Do it yourself and save a huge amount of cash.

After hot bluing. I forgot where the thread is around here, I think I paid about $175 to have the parts hot blued, this is with me doing all the disassembly and prep work. I just brought them the parts in a box basically.

Final assembly after hand polish.

 

[Dougw1515]

Cold bluing at home is great for small parts, bluing an entire gun, not so much. Hot bluing is the only way to go, you'll love the results if they do a good job on the prep. The prep work will decide how well the gun will end up looking and this is where the real costs come in.

Here's a Star BM I restored myself a while back. I had it hot blued by McClelland Gun Shop in Dallas. Not too many people do hot bluing anymore.

After the massive labor of removing all nicks, gouges and scratches, this must be done by hand, took me weeks on this old surplus pistol. This is where the real cost comes in if you pay to have it done by a shop. Do it yourself and save a huge amount of cash.

After hot bluing. I forgot where the thread is around here, I think I paid about $175 to have the parts hot blued, this is with me doing all the disassembly and prep work. I just brought them the parts in a box basically.

Final assembly after hand polish.

Bee'utiful!!!!

This Model 61 is actually in pretty good condition. The owner quoted me ~250.00. I'll be sending it disassembled. I made the decision to have it professionally re-blued while I was cleaning the barrel with 0000 steel wool and oil. The bore has been cleaned and the rifling is perfect. I'm going to refinish the stock/foregrip with semi-gloss spar urethane. There is some really minor etching, don't want to call it pitting, that I'm going to let Precision Bluing deal with. As an indication of how minor it is - I removed most of it with 000 steel wool and WD40.

 

[RedArmy]

Bee'utiful!!!!

This Model 61 is actually in pretty good condition. The owner quoted me ~250.00. I'll be sending it disassembled. I made the decision to have it professionally re-blued while I was cleaning the barrel with 0000 steel wool and oil. The bore has been cleaned and the rifling is perfect. I'm going to refinish the stock/foregrip with semi-gloss spar urethane. There is some really minor etching, don't want to call it pitting, that I'm going to let Precision Bluing deal with. As an indication of how minor it is - I removed most of it with 000 steel wool and WD40.

The costs sound about right for a gun in good shape. That Star BM was surplus and looked like it was used for a hammer, lol. Minor pitting should be easy for them to smooth out. Look forward to seeing the results. Nothing like a nice blued finish.

 

[prisondoc]

The end result is beautiful!


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[oldag]

Hot bluing is the only way to go.

 

[Dougw1515]

And so it came to pass....

Renewing a Winchester Model 61 22LR

Boy... this is gonna be a long drawn out thread. Precision Bluing is telling me 4 months on the turn-around time due to COVID mandated shut-down earlier this year. But - tiz' what it tiz'. No built before pictures. I've already got it in partial tear-down but below is what I have...

www.texasguntalk.com