Shotgun cleaning

Pat10

My shotgun has got very old looking. Where can I get it cleaned so that it looks like new again?

Thanks.
County Limerick area

Cass

Is it the stock only or the entire gun including barrels?

The stock can be cleaned up yourself with little effort. Some DIY kits and a light sanding would do the job. The barrels can also be cleaned yourself, but if they are damaged/worn, and require bluing then it's a professional job as the DIY bluing kits are not great.

If you want the stock professionally done then Pat Sludds would seem to be the man to go to. I believe he is based in Wexford, and does exceptional work. Never used the man myself, but have seen, and heard of work he has done.

Pat10

Gun has not been used for years. I aim to get the complete gun done.

I will contact Mr.Sludds for his opinion.

Thanks a bunch for giving me the contact.

goss101

i am currently re-doing my first gun which was my fathers old gun, it's a valmet u/o that he bought in 1976, i blued all the metal work myself and it came out pretty good, i am nearly finished the wood work too, i have some pics of the wood but none of the barrels i can throw them up later, but it is very time consuming, alot of putting on a coat and taking it back, then a fresh coat and waiting for it to dry, i have 3 coats of stain and 4 coats of tru oil on the woodwork so far with another 2 coats to go!! but looks great i think.

i have a before and as it is now pic attached, all the dings and scratches are now gone, ironing the stock with a wet clth on it does a great job of swelling the wood and lifting out all the dings.

Pat10

It's looking good. Like yourself my gun also belonged to my father.

If you could let me know the products you are using I would appreciate it.

goss101

put another coat on last night, i reckon one more will do,the checkering doesn't look great yet but you only put one coat on that at the end, if you put too many coats on it it will fill up the checkering and look crap,
well i used from 100 grit up to 400 grit sand paper and then fine wire wool to sand the stock back to bare wood, have pic attached. then i stained it 3 times with some stain my mother had from spain, not sure of the name but the colour is "natural", then to protect the stock i'm finishing with 5/6 coats of birchwood casey TRU OIL, it's my first time to use it and its great stuff, to blue the barrles and metalwork i used fine wire wool and and G96 solid gun blue. i should have the whole thing finished tonight or tomorrow evening and i'll post up a pic of complete gun. it takes a bit of time but its worth it, took me about 1 1/2 most evenings for two weeks.

goss101

well here's the final full gun, think it looks great for a DIY job anyway, pity i don't have a pic of the full gun before i started, the barrels had lost alot of the blue

Pat10

I would be happy to finish with something like that. I have been quoted approx 90E to clean the gun.

I guess by the time I buy everything to do it myself it wont be far from the 90E.

goss101

not a hope pat,i spent around 15 euro on sand paper and wire wool, the tru oil was around 12 euro and so was the bluing, mot the stain off the mother but that cost around 15 as well so thats around 50+ euro and if you buy all those you will have enough to do about 10 guns easily i'd say, my mate got his left in for bluing and to get the woodwork cleaned up and think he paid 120 euro and to be honest doesn't look half as well as my end result, the bluing was decent ok but they didn't spend too much time on the woodwork, i showed him my gun on sunday and he couldn't believe it! i'd reccommend doing it your self jsut take your time and you get the self satifaction at the end.