Another ex-club 300 Junior.
I also acquired an ex-club Feinwerkbau 300 Junior some time back and although it was mechanically good it had the usual sort of bumps and scrapes that club rifles tend to pick up by non-owning users who may not be as careful with them as they would be if it was their own "pride and joy" that they had shelled out the hard cash for !
The stock was sanded back down and any dents were removed with steam from our kitchen kettle (I never had a steamer then) and to my surprise lurking underneath the thick (chipped and scratched) toffee coloured varnish was a beautifully figured piece of walnut.
After I had achieved a smooth surface I applied walnut oil with some very fine wire wool (used in the direction of the grain) and when I had a nice finish I then completed the stock with some clear Briwax - again applied in the direction of the grain with very fine steel wool and this was then finally buffed up with a clean cloth.
I had all of the metalwork stripped, polished and blued - any small pitted rust areas were polished away but care was taken around any stamping to make sure the logo and serial numbers were retained intact.
When everything was re-assembled with new seals the rifle looked far better than it would have done when it was new - the fresh highly polished blue coat and that magnificent oiled walnut stock looked superb. A final touch was to white-in the serial number - although this (like the oiled stock) is not a factory finish it did add that little extra detail touch that makes the rifle look a little "special".
It would have also been just as easy to re-apply some suitably coloured varnish and not to have such a highly polished blue finish and omit the white letter detailing to restore a more genuine looking original finish, but my reasoning was that as I was basically restoring what was a well used and tatty example the authentic original look was not so important to me as a beautiful example of a very nice rifle that I could enjoy for many years to come.
Three years later this rifle is still in "perfect" condition and is admired by all that see it so it really is worth taking the time to restore your ex-club 300 Junior as they are not that common and they shoot and handle really nicely. I prefer shooting it to my 300S and my 300SU - they really are nice little rifles.
Rossendale Target Shooting Club. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening 7 - 10pm.