Removing engraving from Grandpa's shotgun

[gravelyctry]

My uncle just passed away and left my Grandfather's shotgun to me. Several years ago, there were some burgleries in his neighborhood, so as a theft deterrent he took one of those hand engravers and engraved his SSN in the side of the action of his dad's Winchester. Now that it's mine, I'd like to remove the ugly scrawling on the side, but don't quite know how to do it without making the whole thing look bad. The gun is by no means in pristine condition - it has been used plenty. Any thoughts? Thanks, Neil

 

[dfariswheel]

The only way to "remove" the engraving is to polish the entire side of the receiver down until you reach the bottom of the engraving.

If you attempt to polish just the engraved area, the receiver will have an ugly dished-out spot.
Best choices here are to either send the gun to a professional refinishing service to have the gun polished and re-blued, OR just leave it as-is.
Either is MUCH preferable to ruining a fine old Winchester.

Depending on the model, it could be worth more than you think, and a re-finish might be well worth the cost.
Attempt to polish it out yourself and you forever ruin a nice gun.
Polishing metal is a skill AND and an art best left to people who do it for a living.

 

[gravelyctry]

That's kind of what I was suspecting, but I figured I'd ask anyway. The value of the gun isn't financial, so I'll just wait til I can afford to get it restored. I don't want to do any more damage trying to make it better. Thanks, Neil

 

[mrmeval]

Would the duracoat filler and a good duracoat fix it? I'm interested in trying that on one I have.

 

[Jim Watson]

If it is a steel gun, like a Model 12 pump, the above applies.

If it is an aluminum framed gun in the 1200, 1300, 1400 series, probably the best thing to do would be to darken the numbers with aluminum black and just consider it part of the character of a family gun. If you wanted one of those to look nicer, the Durafil - Duracoat approach sounds like the way to go, although I have not seen it done.

 

[Old Fuff]

Outrageous thread drift...

If you want to have identification left on a rifle/shotgun don't engrave something on the outside. Any thief will simply polish them out, probably along with the serial number.

Instead, remove the buttplate, and between it and the stock leave a card that has the name, address, phone No. etc. of the owner, and the gun's serial number. Most crooks won't think of this, and you won't have defaced the gun.

 

[GunTech]

Most recovered guns don't have the serial number defaced. Even criminals know it easy to recover. Why bother?

 

[Old Fuff]

Most recovered guns don't have the serial number defaced. Even criminals know it easy to recover. Why bother?

Because sometimes they do. The most likely fate of a stolen long gun is to end up in a pawnshop or at a flea market. The next would be that it's used for criminal purposes - often after its been sawed off and cut down. I know of a number of instances where the card-under-the-buttplate trick has resulted in the owner recovering his property, and a criminal being charged and convicted. Taking the precaution is easy, costs nothing and does not affect the value of the gun in a negative way. Why not bother?

 

[Jim K]

Surprisingly, it is very difficult to remove that type of marking. The reason is that those engravers work by pounding the metal, driving a hard point into it. That compresses the metal at that point, often quite deeply. I experimented once and one engraver made marks that showed under bluing even after removal of .07" of steel. Most won't go that deep, but removal will definitely leave a dished area and if you try to take the receiver down far enough to remove the mark, there could even be a safety issue.

Jim

 

[jrhines]

When I do any work on a shotgun...

my business card goes into the hole in the stock, along with a note on the back of it listing what I have done, the owners name, and the date. Just an old habit.