Refurbishing a shotgun.

BigDuffman

I just bought a second hand Suhl side by side shot gun (about 15 years old). Its perfectly functional but I'd like to refurbish it. The wood on the butt is discoloured and faded and the steel housing / breech is stained and discoloured.

Can anyone give me any tips on restoring it? Particularly on restoring the wood finish and polishing up the steel. Is there anything that could potentially damage the workings etc?

Trojan911

BigDuffman wrote: »

Can anyone give me any tips on restoring it? Particularly on restoring the wood finish and polishing up the steel. Is there anything that could potentially damage the workings etc?

I have no clue on the steel, but I restored the wood on my .22 a few years ago & was pleasantly pleased with the end result. I believe it was walnut.

I seperated the wood from the rifle & sandpapered it using a rough paper first. This took out all the small dents. Then sanded it with a very light paper to bring it to a smooth finish.I then used a 0000 steel wool to complete this smoothness. It felt like silk at this stage.

Then came the varnishing. I cannot remember which type I used but I matched the colour. This was the longest bit. I gave it a very light coat & sanded it, then applied three more coats sanding each in between.

It took about a week to do, to allow drying etc & I hung the stock using a fishhook & gut & constantly checked for any running whilst it was drying.

Hope that helps...

Grizzly 45

SUHL is a gunmaking guild town in former East Germany.
Check around the gun for any other names or markings,as they produce[d] some very fine bespoke guns as well.Like Simson or Gebruder Merkel[Merkel bros].
If that is the case,I would STRONGLY advise against doing a DIY refurbishment on the gun,as you might ruin it's value.
There is a possibility ,that if it is in the 15/20 year mark , it could be one of the last German Democratic Republic doubles made ,before the Wall came down.So in itself would make it an intresting collectors piece. From what you describe of the stock and metal it sounds like East German quality control in the last days of the Workers paradise.:D

Trojan911

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

If that is the case,I would STRONGLY advise against doing a DIY refurbishment on the gun,as you might ruin it's value.

Good point Grizz, I didn't look at that aspect of it..... :eek:

Slav

BigDuffman wrote: »

the steel housing / breech is stained and discoloured.

By any chance could that stains and discolouration be just the remaining of the colour hardening? If this is the case, do not polish it! Even if 5% of it left it's far better then 0%...

BigDuffman

hmmm I'll give any markings a more thorough examining. Suppose thats good news and bad news, I'd been itching to do it up, but if its a collectors item will have to leave it as is!

kermitpwee

Simson are not in the league of Merkel i'm afraid. They are not worth much.

fathersymes

Can you put up a photo of the stock?

The treatment of old stocks is similar to that of antique furniture, meaning you will want to preserve the patination, firstly use a specialist cleaning fluid to remove grime. Then simply use beeswax to buff and feed the timber.

If it's not of any value, you're free to strip it and refinish however you want.

BigDuffman

Right, written on the barrel is " Special Gewehrlaufsthhl" and a stamp with Suhl made in GDRP....mean anything?

fathersymes

Well, here's one here, I wouldn't touch the woodwork on this example.

http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=8165941

Grizzly 45

BigDuffman wrote: »

Right, written on the barrel is " Special Gewehrlaufsthhl" and a stamp with Suhl made in GDRP....mean anything?

Translated ; Special gun barrel steel... the GDRP,German Democratic Republic,odd the P in it ,it usually is just[ GDR].IOW former East Germany.
I surmise it is older than 15 years as the wall came down 24 years ago now,and it was an export model as that was the English translation of East Germany.If it was for the home market,it would be DDR[Deutsche Demokratishe Republik]

BigDuffman

The P was a typo so these things considered would it be silly of me to try?

The model I have does not have the elaborate finishings or etching etc.

meathstevie

I have two s/s Merkels, both DDR. One ejector and one non-ejector. I got my hands on the non-ejector last year as a swap for a semi-automatic Turkish piece of scrap metal. The ejector ( in need of plenty of TLC which I'll get done by a propper gunsmith before the start of next season ) was given to me by my dad. I nearly keeled over when I saw what money they go for in the States.

In my opinion they are a very good game gun. One thing that seems to let them down is the wood to metal joining. Loose stocks appear to be a not too uncommon problem. As I said, gunsmith will sort it. Would it be indescreet asking what you paid for it ?

sk1shot

My father in-law has an old hammer action shotgun that his father bought second hand about 60 years ago, there is a crack in the stock and is in need of some searious need of tlc. was thinking of getting it refurbished as a present for him, does anybody have an idea how much this would cost

pullandbang

I did a job on my stock a few weeks back. There are some pics etc. here