Been a good week .... garage find!

[axeman_g]

It has been a good week for me. I found a nice S&W M28 4" on Tuesday for a steal of a price. Now, yesterday at work of all places this nice older lady I am friendly with pulls me aside and says, "I know you like bird hunting, as my daddy did. We are finally cleaning out his house, and I found his shotgun out in the garage, plus some old framed pictures and such. Would you like it?"

Ok, I tell her I will look at it and tell her what it is and give her a fair price... Well it turns out its a 1955 vintage A5 Sweet Sixteen with a 25.5" Barrel, Full choke. Its in fair to poor condition. Recoil pad rotten, forearm cracked, splinter missing, barrel rusted outside somewhat and inside green vergis and dust. Chamber looks good, just dirty and receiver has some slight rust spots. The pictures are some old Browning adds from Field & Stream in frames, from '55, and '57. Neat stuff.

She would only take $100 for the package... This will be a neat project gun for this year. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Maybe I oughta play the lotto this week.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Don't bother with the lottery, you've used up your luck.

Le'ts see some before and after shots,please. Thanks....

 

[Gordon]

Try cleaning the shotgun by buying a pint of Marvel Mystery oil. I have not found better to clean up old guns.Slather it on with a shop rag, let soak 15 minutes and use tooth brushes/soft brass brushes to clean it up. I think i'd try to epoxy the forearm, but they are available (E bay for around $60-70 for a ready to go original used one) and the pad is a %0 fix. The gun is WELL WORTH IT!

 

[axeman_g]

ok

Started cleaning up the Sweet Sixteen .. of course forgot to take some early "Before" pictures and was cleaning away when I remembered. So what we have here are pics of components, cleaned up some.

The barrels bore came out spotless ... totally unbelievable. I thought the moss growing in there was going to ruin the barrel, but it is mirrow like inside. After cleaning the outside of the dirt with a wet rag, the light rust spots on the outside rubbed off with some FITZ and an old nylon sock. The rust left some marring that I could cover with some Blue Wonder, but I may leave it, it is only slightly noticeable. One thing that did become obvious was that the serial numbers do not match... the barrel serial number was covered in grime and I did not notice. Oh well... what could I expect ... perfection? Plus, the choke is two stars ...Modified not Full as I thought, covered by grime again.

Forearm has long crack down left side that was repaired and can be seen now after dirt was removed. Large chip off front left end about 3 inches long, probably wont hurt function at all, I may replace in future... not sure yet... wood is really nice underneath and it looked as if the previous owner liked to use alot of oil on wood because it is heavil stained on inside and smells of oil.

The receiver came clean on outside, knocked most of the spot rust off with a FITZ, CLP mixture and the old sock, terry cloth rag or 0000 brass wool. My pics suck as I left the flash on, but you can see some of the rust posts that might need some additional care or re-blue.

The old recoil pad came off and was thrown away and I am trying to acquire a FN buttplate from ebay. The butt stock is in decent condition, under the mud that was on it. Your usual dings and knicks, but for a 51 yo guns that was sitting in a dirt garage for who knows how many years (over ten my friend thinks) the gun is in fantastic condition.

Tomorrow the internals get attacked with CLP aerosol and brass toothbrushs.

I dont think I am going to mess with the blueing or wood to much... it definetly has character, and reflects it's usage in its worn condition. Which is not that bad, considering how much my friends father supposedly used the gun and it's neglected past in the garage. I am very impressed with the quality of materials that were used that they stood up to the abuse, neglect and normal usage a southern watermelon and cotton farmer could impose on his tools. Try leaving any current manuf shottie WM in the garage for 10+ years, I wonder what it would look like?

 

[Dave McCracken]

I love happy endings. Thanks!!....

 

[Gordon]

Your smart getting an FN butt plate, Your lucky getting the much more useful mod barrel, and your talented with your cleaning! I don't think the barrel serial # matched the reciever on Brownings from 1955-69. I may be wrong, but almost 10 guns I checked didn't and I am SURE that some were as delivered from the factory. 16 gauge is a great upland guage, maybe the best!

 

[axeman_g]

Gordon,
I had never heard that. I will look into the serial numbers being different.

Yep, I was a little happier to find the barrel was mod choked, instead of full. Cant wait to clean it the rest of the way and take it for some range time.