Winchester Model 12 conservation

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  • Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    I'm calling it a "conservation" as opposed to a "restoration" since I can't get it back to original condition. It use to belong to a neighbor who has passed on several years ago. His widow gave it to me along with two other shotguns that were leaning up against the wall in the basement. One was a Westernfield pump (Mossberg 500) which was in decent shape so I sold it to a member of this forum. (Yes I gave her the money) This one needed a lot of work to keep it from going further downhill. It looks like it had never been cleaned as you can tell from the pictures. The stock was beat to hell. Turning out to be an interesting project and I'm learning a lot about this gun. The vintage is 1926 so 95 year old firearm. I don't believe it had much collector value considering the condition and from what I gather they made over 2 million of these up until 1980. Still a nice gun that should be around another hundred years if I can preserve it from further deterioration.
     

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    Doco Overboard

    Ultimate Member
    Sometimes when I get grody gun parts like that I boil them in lye to kill the rust and cook off all the old muck. Ill use a piece of pvc pipe capped off for barrels then just add boiling water.
    I just cooked a No 4 action the other night and my wife loved the smell until she realized it wasn't dinner.
    That will be a nice SG when your done with it, the stocks look nice, a replacement recoil pad will go a long way and not that hard to do.
     

    Uncle Duke

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 2, 2013
    11,667
    Not Far Enough from the City
    The machine work inherent to the Model 12 shotgun is truly remarkable for those of us who appreciate such things. It certainly wasn't any lack of quality that caused Model 12 production to be discontinued.
     

    Joseph

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 13, 2009
    2,760
    Clinton MD
    Hope you get it cleaned up and working. I like the model 12. I have a 1923 16ga model 12 that was handed down to me by my grandmother. I believe it was her uncles.
     

    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    Progress pictures

    Here are a few "after" pictures. Cleaned and re-blued receiver. It's bluer than the photo shows. I couldn't get the glare to not show up. anyhow, it's better than it was and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
     

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    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    Reblued the barrel and I think it looks a lot better. Hard to get a good picture of the barrel with my cell phone. Before and after photos.
     

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    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    Stock refinish before and after....not a restoration, just conservation. Smaller photos are the 'befores".
     

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    Last edited:

    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    completed conservation

    Finally finished putting this Model 12 back together. It should last a while longer now. Spent over $100 just on the mag end cap, pin, screws, spring, and plug. The one that was in there was not the correct one and was missing the aforementioned parts. Also, the action was so filthy that the slide release wouldn't work. I reblued most of the metal parts with Super Blue and am very pleased with the results since my previous experience with cold blue was not very satisfactory.
     

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    FrankOceanXray

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 29, 2008
    12,028
    Really well done. That is a nice looking product!

    What brought about a better finish than last time using the cold blue?
     

    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    Well to be honest the last time I tried bluing was a very long time ago when I was a kid, maybe 12 or 13 years old. I'm sure I didn't do a very good prep job which is the key to a good cold blue job from what I gather. I was careful this time to prep and clean the steel, gave it two or three coats, and let it temper in a heavy coat of oil overnight. I'm sure the formula for the Super Blue is different than what was available years ago also. Anyway, I would not go to the bother of doing a "hot" blue when this stuff works so well.
     

    toppkatt

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 22, 2017
    1,185
    The quality or type of steels used can have a big effect on the quality of the cold blue method. de-greasing and warming the parts seems to help also. I use alcohol or acetone prior to bluing. Not sure I'd oil between coats though, only after finished.
     

    Neutron

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 20, 2014
    1,532
    severna park
    I only used the oil after the last coat of bluing, not in between coats. Also, I rinsed the bluing off after about 20 seconds with warm water, dried the part, and reblued, rinse repeat. I never did more than 3 applications and usually only one or two depending on what I was bluing. After the final rinse and dry, I coated with oil and let sit overnight.
     

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