GUN Inheritance, and a new project

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

This is the first time i've posted here, so i'll give a little bit of my history. I'm in the MN Nat'l Guard. I'm the happy owner of a .40SW S&W M&P, and until recently, that was my only firearm. My Father-in-Law recently passed away, and my wife and I inherited his Colt Cobra .38 Special service revolver, and this Stevens Arms Model 235 SxS Double-barrel; which as you can see, has suffered through several years of neglect. I'm working on cleaning it up, and here's several "before" pics. I've had some difficulty in determining the age of this particular firearm. According to This Source this model was only made for 20 years, between 1912, and 1932, though according to This Source the firearm was manufactured in 1957. Neither of these sources seem very reliable. We also acquired his 12ga. pump, but that piece isn't all that interesting. The double barrel on the other hand, i've found quite intriguing. If anyone could help me age this thing, i'd be much appreciated. The "Date Code" that i've found is an "I" with no corresponding numbers. Sadly, a google image search didn't bring up much in the way of good photos for the same model in good condition, so i'm not sure if the barrel, and accompanying metal portions should be steele, or blued. The over all value of the weapon seems to go for anywhere from $50 - $300, of course depending on condition. *edit* On a side note, i'm currently working on cleaning this up. Any suggestions on products/techniques would be much appreciated. I'm currently using: Hoppe's #9 solvent, "Formula 3 Gun Conditioner" (AKA CLP for the military types) from Kleen Bore. I'll be acquiring a Bore brush tomorrow, as i don't have one that'll work for the shottie.

Anyway, enjoy the pics, you card carrying NRA nuts!

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

That's what i'm hoping for. the brown shit seems to be coming off from around the hammers, and the metal's clean underneath. I'm not sure if it's some kind of coating it's previous owner put on, or if it's just corrosion.

 

[imperial]

pics dont work.

 

[Paul Revere]

broken pics.

 

[thedude11]

pics dont work.

.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

...I'll rehost. wait a minute.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

Alright, rehosted pics. don't know why they weren't working before, but here you go.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

a-chew?

 

[01_Cruiser]

ok, so i'm not real familiar with double barrel shotguns, especially older ones, but the firing pin on that one looks really unsafe just sticking out like that. You might want to check it out/clean it up before slamming the gun shut with a shell in there

 

[Emfuser]

I love side-by-side shotguns.

PLEASE do yourself a favor and be safe with that thing. Take it to a gunsmith and have them look it over. That gun is WORN like a motherfucker and might not be safe to fire.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

ok, so i'm not real familiar with double barrel shotguns, especially older ones, but the firing pin on that one looks really unsafe just sticking out like that. You might want to check it out/clean it up before slamming the gun shut with a shell in there

The firing pin is loose. You can actually push it back and forth with your finger. The hammer strikes the back of it, and just forces it through the tube into the primer. It's not spring loaded or anything like that.

I love side-by-side shotguns.

PLEASE do yourself a favor and be safe with that thing. Take it to a gunsmith and have them look it over. That gun is WORN like a motherfucker and might not be safe to fire.

Take it to a gunsmith and have them look it over. I'm willing to bet they will tell you to hang it up though. Older shotguns like that usually have damascus barrels, and they are generally unsafe to fire with modern ammunition. And a lot of the times when they have been neglected like this one, It's not even safe to do black powder powder loads through them.

I'm not planning on putting any rounds through it at all to be honest, but i figured it would look good if it were cleaned up. If you noticed in the pics, the stock is cracked, and looks like it had been glued together at one point. I'd give it even odds that it would shatter if fired.

That Stevens will make a nice wall hanger.

Fine steel wool and Rem oil will take off the surface rust and protect it. I would take apart would I could and steel woo/oil everything I could reach. Then maybe clean the stock with Murphy's and give it some light linseed oil to feed it and then leave it alone.

Thanks for the advice. I'll pick some up while i'm at Shooters' Supply today.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

Starting work now with the Rem oil, and steel wool. I'll be heading to my gun shop on monday, where they've got an antique specialist, so he should be able to help me out on aging this thing. I'll post "during" and "after" pics as the project progresses.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

I promised some in progress pics... so here's a few.

I saw little results with the steel wool, so i picked up a soft buffing scrub (fine grit) from Dremel, and used that with the Rem Oil, and very light pressure. Overall, it's starting to clean up very nicely. I'm not sure if i should go to the point of applying a blue coat after i've gotten it cleaned up, or polish the bare metal to a high sheen. On that i'm very open to suggestions from the (semi?)-pros. The wood i'll go back to the steel wool, so i don't over-do it. a few strokes on the fore-grip revealed a previously hidded etching, that'll look very nice once i start working on the wood w/ the Murphy's.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

Here is my "wall hanger" that lives in my home office. It belonged to one my dad's relatives and was his deer gun. Probably last shot in the '50s. I did the Rem Oil/steel wool routine on it.

Nice

 

[Soybomb]

I can't tell if its the flash or not but was the blue completely worn or was what was left removed with your more abrasive pad? If the new pad was removing blue...yikes!

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

I can't tell if its the flash or not but was the blue completely worn or was what was left removed with your more abrasive pad? If the new pad was removing blue...yikes!

I'm not certain that it was ever blued to begin with. The pad itself was less abrasive than the steel wool, It's just that the number of "strokes" was greatly increased with the Dremel, than what i could do by hand.

 

[g0dl355]

ok, so i'm not real familiar with double barrel shotguns, especially older ones, but the firing pin on that one looks really unsafe just sticking out like that. You might want to check it out/clean it up before slamming the gun shut with a shell in there

That's ok, let jordan test fire it.......into his face

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

That's ok, let jordan test fire it.......into his face

i think i'd actually let him go through with that.

 

[[DWI]]

I'm currently in the process of rehabbing an inherited firearm as well. Its an old winchester 1897 (built around 1914.) Its literally soaking in a bucket of PBblaster at the moment to loosen up some pins and stuck screws as well as get some of the massive amount of carbon buildup off of it. I'm going to have to replace the hammer and sear (they're too worn and unsafe) while I'm at it I will probably replace a all the springs and some of the screws as well. I've done a little rehab work before and its always a good feeling when it is rehabbed and working again.

Here is my "wall hanger" that lives in my home office. It belonged to one my dad's relatives and was his deer gun. Probably last shot in the '50s. I did the Rem Oil/steel wool routine on it.

I've got some boxes of those for a few guns I have inherited, they either all still worked (and I fire them from time to time) or I have rehabbed them (keeping any replaced parts)

 

[[DWI]]

One thing I would recommend doing in your rehab is removing all the wood furniture and cleaning them really well, the project I am working on had powdery mildew all over the inside of the stock and back of the butt plate. I'd probably give them a little bit of oil or wax depending on the wood and its condition as I was working on it.

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

Took it down to the gun shop today, to have their antique "expert" take a look at it and see if he could date it. He guesstimates it as having been manufactured around 1910-12, based on the barrel length, the fact that it's steel, rather than Damascus. He's also pretty sure it would be safe to fire (with the exception of the damaged stock of course,) as the chambers are still tight. Est. value: 100-175.

Holy shit you went to town on the metal

I left the original patina on mine. If you reblue it, it'll probably look wierd with an old stock.

Yeah, i over-did it. After bringing it by the gun shop today, i've started to regret my decision to use the dremel to clean it up; but at this point, i'd rather have it all looking uniform than half-polished, so i'm gonna finish as i started. As far as the stock, i'm going to clean that up by hand to make it look as new as possible. All in all, it'll look good on my wall when it's done. I may have foolishly chopped some of it's value by my over-zealous cleaning, but for my wife, it's got more sentimentality than a couple hundred bucks is worth. For someone that used to be terrified of the idea of a firearm in the house just a few months ago, now she's wanting a gun rack just like any other Texan

 

[[DWI]]

Do you have an actual model name/number for it?

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

Do you have an actual model name/number for it?

It's a Stevens Model 235.

 

[[DWI]]

It's a Stevens Model 235.

Cool.

Since the guy you spoke to said it would be safe to fire and your wife has a sentimental attachment to it, I think it might be cool for her to be able to fire it. I found a place that sells replacement stocks for the 235.

http://www.gunstocksinc.com/web_pages/Plate-pics/Stevens-stocks/Stevens-shotgu-stocks.html

you could have it functional in no time for 50 bucks for the buttstock or 33 bucks for the forend. (Just keep all the original parts.)

 

[Drunken Karnie Midget]

Cool.

Since the guy you spoke to said it would be safe to fire and your wife has a sentimental attachment to it, I think it might be cool for her to be able to fire it. I found a place that sells replacement stocks for the 235.

http://www.gunstocksinc.com/web_pages/Plate-pics/Stevens-stocks/Stevens-shotgu-stocks.html

you could have it functional in no time for 50 bucks for the buttstock or 33 bucks for the forend. (Just keep all the original parts.)

Awesome dude, Thanks! Bookmarked