Cleaning up a Winchester 62

[CMV]

Guy at work asked me to clean up his pump action .22 Winchester 62. No idea it's age - was his grandmother's & he's about 60.

Has been in a closet, neglected, for decades. Looks like mostly light surface rust not deeply pitted. Got best pics I could of worst areas.

Anyway, I think it will take a little more than just some ballistol & a soft rag, but don't want to do anything to make what's left of the bluing worse. White scotchbrite 7445 too aggressive?

Just out of curiosity, tried to identify its age. Best I can come up with is "You have a post-war Model 62A, with numbers on receiver and lower tang not containing an 'A'." from: http://homestead-service.com/appraisals/62a/62-2models.htm#g s/n is 1899XX, bullet-shaped loading port, 8 1/4" fore end w/ 17 grooves, stamped Model 62, 22 SL or LR. Any way to narrow down date (or appx date) of manufacture beyond that?

His intention is to make it a shooter again. Memories of plinking around as a child & all... Anything to be concerned about? Any .22 ammo or should he stick to standard velocity or subsonic?

 

[GooseGestapo]

I've had good luck with PB-blaster and chore-boy bronze wool. Be sure NOT to get the copper plated steel wool. However 0000-steel wool used lightly also works, too. Touch up with cold blue.
IMO, scotch brite will be to aggressive.

 

[LoonWulf]

Second the 0000 steel wool, i use that well soaked in what ever gun oil or wd-40 type stuff you have on hand to remove surface rust. After that full wipe down with alcohol then re-oil with your favorite rust preventative.

 

[entropy]

I use whatever gun oil is handy and my fingernails. Absolutely will not scratch the finish, and it gets the rust off, albeit slowly.

 

[Gordon]

the pitting is too deep to remove with out complete professional reblue or coating on that old trusty 62. Many of these wound up like that and it is why non tarnished ones command big tickets. However if cleaned and lubricated they usually work just fine if the bore is decent. That is how they were designed ! I think I would not remove the blue but just "card" off the surface rust and strip, clean and lightly reoil with a protective , penetrating oil. Marvel Mystery oil on 4/0 bronzewool would be about it for me.

 

[Davek1977]

as far as ammo goes, i've shot just about every variety of .22lr there is out of my dad's 62a before i ever bothered to think about whether it was a good idea or not. That said, it survived several bricks of yellow jackets and boxes of stingers in its day with no noticable wear whatsoever. i rememeber the awe i felt at 10 yrs old when my buddy pointed out you could just hold back the trigger and work the pump for ''fast action''. didnt take long to decimate a row of pop cans and/or empty the magazone with that thing. heck, now i'm feeling a bit nostalgic and may have to shoot it a bit today.....but, i have 3 ars to sight in, a 6.5 mauser to shoot, a creedmore to finish sighting in, as well as shooting the .300 savage i inherited....so many guns, so little time at the ranch..........

 

[P5 Guy]

I have had great results from using a piece of pine wedge shim soaked in light machine oil.
Just by rubbing the wood over the effected area knocks off the rust.