Wall hangers..

Sandblaster would be easiest, especially if you dont really care about making it functional. Leave it in the white with a thin coast of oil and rub a little Feed N Wax into the wood, should make a decent hanger.

Oh- might want to verify that there aren't live rounds stuck in the magazine or chamber too!

I'd wipe with linseed oil or similar to seal it and hang it up.

I have taken off minor rust with fine steel wool and penetrating oil, That looks like a big job. I don't know if I'd try to take it apart. Maybe sandblasting with very soft media.

I'd hang it as is.

jmr40 said:

I'd hang it as is.

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This

I would fix it

Glass bead at 30-60 psig w a wide nozzle would do wonders for basic rust removal. Try low pressure and step up accordingly. If results are inconclusive a 120 or 160 grit Al Ox would work.

I would call for help. @GunnyUSMC

look for a local gun buy back

Throw it in Evaporust, you may be surprised when parts start freeing themselves up.

First would be to 100% ensure it's not loaded. If the action is that stuck dropping a dowel down the barrel might be the best option.

I'm torn on cleaning it up with a media blaster or leaving as is. I think it'd look much better cleaned but that's a lot of work for a decoration.

If it's bent, fixing it up would only be an effort in aesthetics. I presonally like the look as is. Rust removal is a delicate thing, and there's a lot of it in your example, to the point where any delicacy may be impossible.

jmr40 said:

I'd hang it as is.

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To hang as is will only result in one thing. It will continue to deteriorate.

Grumpy_old_Fart said:

I'm torn between the two.. fixing would be fun. Looking at it, because it's just so damned old.

It's bent.

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Your two main options. Stop in from further deterioration, or clean it up.
What I see is a rifle that no longer has value to preserve. If it were mine, I would clean it up. Now when it comes to cleaning it up, you have several options. Evaporust or sandblasting will bring it down to bare metal. If nothing is applied to it afterwards, it will just start to rust again. And then there’s the wood. If you clean the wood, it would look out of place on a gun in bare metal. If you were to sand it, it would just look like an old stock that someone sanded.
Here’s what I would do. Carefully remove the stock and handguard. Use electrolysis to remove the rust from the metal. This will remove the rust, but leave a patina. After the rust has been removed it will need to be oiled. After a few days, you can wipe it dry and apply wax to keep it from rusting and collecting dust.
I would then clean the wood as I have shown in some of my restoration post, and then just apply oil to the stock.
Then put it back together and hang it on the wall.

Evaporust or electrolysis will take off most of the rust. I'd do that to free up as much as possible.

Then try to remove as much oil from the wood as possible. Passing a heat gun over it to heat it will bring out a lot of oil. Keep doing this (but be careful not to get the wood hot enough to scorch it) until most of the oil is out, then clean the wood with acetone. Then refinish wood with your choice of oil finish.

Get a couple bottles of this. It will take all the rust off of that gun & give you a look at the real steel parts of it. Then you can judge the condition to proceed in what ever way you want.

https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/products/blue-rust-remover-3-fl-oz-bottle.html

I found this thread on antique armament preservation at the Smithsonian website:

https://www.si.edu/mci/english/learn_more/taking_care/armament.html

If you're undecided after everyone chimes in here, American Civil War museums are the sort of places that routinely deal with preserving battlefield relics. You could contact a few and see whether there is a uniform museum preservation technique or standard for arms in this condition.

As a wall hanger:
Scrap denim to know the loose rust loose, maybe glass wool if you have any handy.
Then oil to coat the thing. Mineral oil or boiled linseed. Basically, to preserve the "patina" all around.

Now, going further is like to lead to further. Evaporust and/or scotchbright might get you to bare metal, then you are having to decide on how to refinish in either blue or rust brown. Then, suddenly, you are fussing with finding springs and the like.

Your artifact, your choice--not mine.

Barr said:

Glass bead at 30-60 psig w a wide nozzle would do wonders for basic rust removal. Try low pressure and step up accordingly. If results are inconclusive a 120 or 160 grit Al Ox would work.

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Good advice. Whatever you do stay completely away from aluminum oxide for your blasting media. It will literally eat a hole in metal if you let it.

I would absolutely not do an abrasive blast on it. Especially if it can't be disassembled. I would clean it up and steel wool as much of the rust off as I could and coat it in oil. Any further and you're going to open a can of worms that can't be stuffed back in.

My usual rust remover is Kroil but it works very slowly, smells gawd awful, and it might cost you both arms and a leg for enough to soak that rifle in.

Process is Kroil generously applied, let sit a day or more, wipe with cotton rag, then repeat. I used to use a bit of 0000 steel wool but the quality available is rather poor these days.