Maverick44
Youngest old man on TGT.
No, not that kind of M&P, the good kind.
I picked this thing up cheap, and I bet you can see why. The nickel finish is there in spirit, but that's about it. The grips are also wrong on it. Those are victory model grips, and this is not a victory model S&W. The good thing is, it is in mechanically great condition. There's very little movement in the cylinder and the timing seems spot on. The trigger (both DA and SA) is a little bit heavier than I'd like from a S&W, but it's not what I would call bad.
The reason I was so interested in this thing is because it's chambered in 32-20 WCF.
Now, the title says restoration, but refinishing would probably be more accurate. This gun is a shooter. There's very little collectors value left in it, so I'm going to make it my own.
Here's the plan. The first thing I'm going to do is strip it down to bare steel. I've got a chemical stripper from Brownells that should do that pretty fast. Next, I'm going to sand and polish it to make it purdy. From what I can tell, the metal itself is fine. I cannot see any sighs of rust or pitting other than a bit of rust under the grips, so it should be an easy job to get this thing shined up. After that, I'm going to rust blue it. I'm too cheap to send it off to have it replated, and I'm way too cheap to buy all of the equipment I would need to plate it myself. Rust bluing is cheap and easy, and looks fantastic. It's the cheapest/easiest way to get a high quality finish. While I have the gun disassembled, I'm going to replace some of the springs with new ones from Wolff that should improve the trigger a bit. Finally, I'll replace the grips with a set from Altamont.
When it's all said and done, this thing should hopefully be stunningly beautiful. Or, at least a lot nicer than it is now.
I picked this thing up cheap, and I bet you can see why. The nickel finish is there in spirit, but that's about it. The grips are also wrong on it. Those are victory model grips, and this is not a victory model S&W. The good thing is, it is in mechanically great condition. There's very little movement in the cylinder and the timing seems spot on. The trigger (both DA and SA) is a little bit heavier than I'd like from a S&W, but it's not what I would call bad.
The reason I was so interested in this thing is because it's chambered in 32-20 WCF.
Now, the title says restoration, but refinishing would probably be more accurate. This gun is a shooter. There's very little collectors value left in it, so I'm going to make it my own.
Here's the plan. The first thing I'm going to do is strip it down to bare steel. I've got a chemical stripper from Brownells that should do that pretty fast. Next, I'm going to sand and polish it to make it purdy. From what I can tell, the metal itself is fine. I cannot see any sighs of rust or pitting other than a bit of rust under the grips, so it should be an easy job to get this thing shined up. After that, I'm going to rust blue it. I'm too cheap to send it off to have it replated, and I'm way too cheap to buy all of the equipment I would need to plate it myself. Rust bluing is cheap and easy, and looks fantastic. It's the cheapest/easiest way to get a high quality finish. While I have the gun disassembled, I'm going to replace some of the springs with new ones from Wolff that should improve the trigger a bit. Finally, I'll replace the grips with a set from Altamont.
When it's all said and done, this thing should hopefully be stunningly beautiful. Or, at least a lot nicer than it is now.