1950 Winchester 94 32 special

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castile

castile

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I inherited this gun from my dad. I was wondering if I should send it in to a good blueing expert and have it re-blued to a high shine. It has some freckling on it. I don't want to lose value so if its not worth it I would like to know so you opinions would be helpful
 
I believe a good job of it would exceed the value of the gun. I personally would not do it, especially not to anything which had belonged to my father. Those few I have are treasures and I can't imagine doing anything more than maintaining them as they were in his hands.
 
if it has a good bore, the rest is just added bling. that been there,done that look is earned.
 
I see your points. I will give a second think. And I may just leave it alone.
 
Lots of those ended up with garbage bores. If yours is good yea haw. A good rub down and several coats of good gun wax will make her look good. That thing yells a story now. Reblue and it goes away.:(
 
I took it out and looked at it. I had it in my mind it was in poor condition. but other than thin bluing the stock and metal is in good condition. I know the gun was designed to shoot reloaded corrosive black powder and the bores were eaten up by the salts. My dad I bet did not put more than 100 rounds through it and I did not put more than 50 growing up. So it will stay as is. My dad never reloaded anything so it only used factory ammo. Thanks for the replies.
 
castile said:
I know the gun was designed to shoot reloaded corrosive black powder and the bores were eaten up by the salts.
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Not exactly. The primers were the corrosive agent and present in all ammo of the day.
There is a theory that black powder fouling diluted the potassium chloride left by the primer and would be slower to rust than with hot burning smokeless.
 
I don't buy that Jim. I have heard of corrosive primers on older ammo and that is an issue but the black powder is also corrosive. If anyone has shot a black powder pistol or rifle and not cleaned it with hot soapy water you will start rusting out. It also make a big difference where the gun is kept. I have had guns shooting corrosive ammo that were kept in a desert area and never really rusted but I had one AK in Florida and I did not have AC at the time. The gun was shot with Chinese old corrosive ammo. I took the gun out a month later and could not open the action due to rust. I cleaned it with Hoppies and oil and a month later rusted shut again. An old timer told me it was corossive ammo and its fine to shoot it but clean it with soap and water as hot as your hands can stand it and then Hoppies and oil. That worked great and I always clean all my BP guns this way after shooting and if I shoot any old ammo I will do the same.
 
I clean my Winchester and Browning BPCRs with an aqueous solvent, either the diluted Windex recommended by Mike Venturino or diluted M-Pro7 that I have on hand. And it doesn't take a lot. No boiling water, no bathtub or dishwasher cleaning like I have read about on the internet. Of course the primers are not corrosive. Even if they were, there are a lot of sound military rifles that were cold cleaned with GI solvent containing emulsifiable oil and some water.

Your experiences with corrosive primers come from a characteristic known as Critical Relative Humidity. The potassium chloride will not absorb the little bit of moisture in desert air but will suck it right out of humid air and give you little pools of salt water at every crystal.
 
I think "corrosive" is misused here. BP is hydroscopic, absorbs moisture, and thats why it rusts. Corrosive primers have salts that are deposited that causes rust if enough moisture is present. Two different things with the same end result. As mentioned a water based window cleaner has some soap and often ammonia works great and is cheap. I don't have any BP firearms but many milsurps I shoot with corrosive primers. Use "windex" and never any rust. jmo. Oh and old timers used to wizz down their barrels to clean. Water and ammonia. Cheap but stinky.
 
No, for goodness sake, leave it exactly as the way your Dad left it to you. Cherish that rifle for all that it and your Dad experienced with each other. Sure, clean it up and then put some oil on what's left of the bluing, but don't change history.
 
SGW Gunsmith said:
No, for goodness sake, leave it exactly as the way your Dad left it to you. Cherish that rifle for all that it and your Dad experienced with each other. Sure, clean it up and then put some oil on what's left of the bluing, but don't change history.
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I have a 32 WS made in 1904 that was my Dads gun. You could fill a warehouse with the deer and bear that he killed with that old gun. In the late 30's till the early 50's that was our primary meat staple, and he sure provided well for our family. Last game it took was an Idaho elk in 1986. I don't shoot it anymore, just clean it and oil it occasionally. For goodness sake don't do anything that will take away the history of the gun. That's more valuable than a bucket of cash.
 
If the bore is toast? reboring to .35-30 was common. Seems like a good way to salvage a old 32spl.
 
gobsauce said:
Can we see a picture of the heirloom?
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I can try to post a picture as soon as I can find someone who knows how to do it, and be glad to share it. The riflings are still good, and I have rounds for it but I just don't want to shoot it anymore, it's my heirloom to reminisce over. I have a Ruger 06 that I use now.
 
Scooter22 said:
I think "corrosive" is misused here. BP is hydroscopic, absorbs moisture, and thats why it rusts. Corrosive primers have salts that are deposited that causes rust if enough moisture is present. Two different things with the same end result. As mentioned a water based window cleaner has some soap and often ammonia works great and is cheap. I don't have any BP firearms but many milsurps I shoot with corrosive primers. Use "windex" and never any rust. jmo. Oh and old timers used to wizz down their barrels to clean. Water and ammonia. Cheap but stinky.
Click to expand...

I think the word is hygroscopic.
 
I wouldn't touch it. I bought mine all beat up and it will probably stay that way honestly. It's a piece of history as it is
 
If you are concerned about value leave it alone.

Refinishing always reduced a gun's collectors value.
 
three of my 94 saddlering carbines from the early 1900,s, 30 wcf(aka 30-30) 32-40-32 special. they have been hunted for many years and show it, but they have have ex bores and work as they did when new. so no pimp shine for me.
 

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castile said:
I don't buy that Jim. I have heard of corrosive primers on older ammo and that is an issue but the black powder is also corrosive. If anyone has shot a black powder pistol or rifle and not cleaned it with hot soapy water you will start rusting out. It also make a big difference where the gun is kept. I have had guns shooting corrosive ammo that were kept in a desert area and never really rusted but I had one AK in Florida and I did not have AC at the time. The gun was shot with Chinese old corrosive ammo. I took the gun out a month later and could not open the action due to rust. I cleaned it with Hoppies and oil and a month later rusted shut again. An old timer told me it was corossive ammo and its fine to shoot it but clean it with soap and water as hot as your hands can stand it and then Hoppies and oil. That worked great and I always clean all my BP guns this way after shooting and if I shoot any old ammo I will do the same.[/QUOT
I loaned my bp rifle to a friend decades ago. Using non corrosive caps and real black powder that barrel was toast when I got it back. The sad thing was I showed him how to clean it and he did nothing.
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