Recently my girlfriend's grandfather passed away, and she finally became aware with the rest of the family about two guns that he had in the basement. One was a Type 99 Arisaka, which I have some familiarity with due to my C&R license.
The other gun really caught my fancy though, a Winchester 1892. Apparently was her great grandfathers, and some preliminary research has unearthed a manufacture date of 1906. It's in .38 WCF, and overall mechanically sound. However, there is some slight surface rust/patina due to storage conditions, and I am sure the bore could use a thorough cleaning as well. I know that even a rusted bore doesn't necessarily mean it can't shoot anymore, since some of my C&R guns had less than stellar bores yet still shot either accurately or at least accurately enough to be fun still.
But I recall reading somewhere that when restoring old guns, the idea is more to preserve its existing condition rather than clean it up too much. I definately think they would be fine with not rebluing it or anything like that, and I wouldn't encourage that regardless.
But it would be really nice for the family I think to at least clean it up a little on the surface if possible, and I know that both my girlfriend and myself would love to clean that barrel out and take it out to the range.
So what is the best process to clean up a great piece of American history like this? Wipe down the outside like I would any of my other guns? Clean the barrel like I cleaned all my C&Rs when I first got them? Or is there a more careful approach that should be taken to preserve its value (not that the gun will ever be sold)?
I would have loved to take pictures but when visiting I told myself "nah, I don't need to bring my camera along!" doh!
The other gun really caught my fancy though, a Winchester 1892. Apparently was her great grandfathers, and some preliminary research has unearthed a manufacture date of 1906. It's in .38 WCF, and overall mechanically sound. However, there is some slight surface rust/patina due to storage conditions, and I am sure the bore could use a thorough cleaning as well. I know that even a rusted bore doesn't necessarily mean it can't shoot anymore, since some of my C&R guns had less than stellar bores yet still shot either accurately or at least accurately enough to be fun still.
But I recall reading somewhere that when restoring old guns, the idea is more to preserve its existing condition rather than clean it up too much. I definately think they would be fine with not rebluing it or anything like that, and I wouldn't encourage that regardless.
But it would be really nice for the family I think to at least clean it up a little on the surface if possible, and I know that both my girlfriend and myself would love to clean that barrel out and take it out to the range.
So what is the best process to clean up a great piece of American history like this? Wipe down the outside like I would any of my other guns? Clean the barrel like I cleaned all my C&Rs when I first got them? Or is there a more careful approach that should be taken to preserve its value (not that the gun will ever be sold)?
I would have loved to take pictures but when visiting I told myself "nah, I don't need to bring my camera along!" doh!
