doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cleaning up an older Uggie

CG, nothing beats raising dents and nicks in stocks and refinishing but a little bit of brown shoe polish can act as a coverup similar to a dark oil scratch hider for furniture. Or maybe even a dark oil for furniture if that's what you have under the kitchen sink. I didn't think your Uggie stock looked like it'd been used as a briar deflector so it may not matter that much to you.

jack

The gun is due at my smith today, so I should know a bit more by this evening.

I'd like to pull the stock off so that I'm not getting WD40 on the wood and wax on the action if it's not a big deal.

Can anyone point me toward an old thread or other resource that might show me how to do it?

Thanks for all your help.

Hammers cocked; remove trigger guard tang wood screws then unscrew trigger guard; remove the rear trigger plate screw that is now exposed (it runs all the way up into the upper tang behind the safety); remove floorplate screw in front of the trigger guard hole (if stubborn, let a drop of penetrating oil work on it over night; as a last resort, I have used a 1/4" ratchet with a socket that will accept the bit); hold break lever over and remove large screw; now, grasp the triggers and pull/wiggle loose the trigger floorplate out; if stubborn, partially re-install the large screw under the break lever a couple of turns and tap with a small brass hammer or brass punch to help dis-lodge the floor plate; remove large screw again; with floorplate out, now wiggle the stock off.

You MUST use hollow ground (straight wall) screw bits to prevent slippage; not regular screwdrivers with tapered blades. Brownells, Midway, Cabelas and Sportsman Guide sell gunsmith sets; I got mine (Wheeler brand) at Sportsman Guide for $58. Use plenty of down force when removing/installing screws. The bit should go all the way down in the slot and use the one that fits tightest to the sides of the slot. Also, the bit should be just barely shy of the length of the slot so the screw recess is not scraped.

I thought I should post a follow-up since you guys were so much help in figuring out what to do with this gun. Then the site went down. Now that it's up again, here's a short report...

When the gun showed up everything looked good. By my dating it was made in 1944. I'd be curious to hear about how a 1944 Spanish gun ended up in rural Colorado. Might be a really interesting story there.

It locked up super tight with the lever still a little to the right. The gun was just plain dirty, there was a little oil in the head of the stock, the recoil pad was hard, and the foreend was a little loose. The chokes were also a tight modified and extra full. In the gunsmith's words, if I managed to hit anything with it there wouldn't be anything left to pick up.

I took it home and started working on it with Kroil and steel wool. When I started to feel high from the fumes I looked at the Kroil container. Turns out it causes cancer. I sent it out to the garage and started using steel wool with WD40. Underneath the grime there were indeed wood and metal.

I put some of the finish repair stuff someone suggested on the stock. It worked well. I then tried clear shoe polish, but that seemed to cloud the finish even if I really tried to polish it.

After taking a break for a few days, I went down to my local furniture repair shop and picked up a can of Briwax with a little bit of red tint. It worked much better than the shoe polish.

To fix the loose foreend I put two pieces of weather stripping on the top of the foreend wood. The foreend is now perfectly tight.

Off the gun went to Bob Odenthal. He installed a new decelerator pad and opened the chokes to IC/Mod. I asked Bob about the oil in the stock. He just shrugged his shoulders and said to go shoot it.

I ended up spending more on cleaning products and gunsmithing fees than the purchase price of the gun, but the end result was still a reasonably priced 6lb 13oz, 28" barreled, 12ga field gun. Certainly a basic get it done sort of gun, but a solid shooter.





I took the gun out the day after picking it up from the 'smith to "test" it. I only checked one of the barrels, but it worked well.



Thanks again for all your help.

Good to see the 'proof of the puddin' with Mr. Wily Rooster!

I have an Uggy I did similar work to:

[img]http://www.imageuploads.net/ims/pic.php?u=39559eHIOu&i=191255[/img]


Amazing how little those guns changed from the era of your brother's until 1972, the era of mine.

Best,
Ted

Ted,

Yours sure does look nice. Thanks for your advice in this process.

One more quick question that I probably know the answer to already. I need to ask, though.

How horrible would it be for my brother to shoot a few steel shells through this gun a year? I'm talking about one or two mornings duck hunting and a few times pheasant hunting on federal land, so less than 50 shells, maybe 25 annually.

Should I tell him he needs to go and get some hevi-shot loads for vintage guns, or will he be alright running a few steel shells through this gun with IC/Mod chokes?

The gun wasn't built for steel, I wouldn't do it.
There are plenty of alternatives out there that are a lot better then steel.

I wouldn't use steel in a gun that was built for steel!!

If it will only be 25-50 shells per year, then it's not too painful to buy something like the Hevi-Shot Classic Doubles or some old Bismuth. If it were my gun, I'd measure the chokes accurately and have a smith measure barrel wall thickness, then shoot the occasional steel loads when necessary. Winchester has some steel 1 oz. target loads in #6 that should be a decent load for teal, but I don't think I'd use them on bigger ducks. I bought some at WalMart for my Daly 500 but have not yet had a chance to try them.