Blueing prices?

[Chainsaw.]

I received a remington 788 barreled action and bolt from a friend that Is a little on the haggard side. Trying to decide if I should reblue it and put a boyd stock on its to get her running. Anyone have a ball park on what a reblueing might cost for said rifle?

 

[FrankenMauser]

Barreled actions, around here, run about $90-150. (One smith only charges $30-50 if he's doing other work on the rifle.)

Complete rifles (add bolt, bottom metal, trigger parts, etc.) run $125-300.

Call around and see what your local 'smiths are asking. Prices vary significantly, depending upon who is doing the bluing (most 'smiths sub-contract), how they're doing the bluing, how well they prep the metal (labor), how busy they are, and how much competition there is in the area (competition is a good thing).

 

[Scorch]

It's typically not the bluing that costs so much, it's the prep work. A fully disassembled and polished barreled action might only cost $75 to blue, but a rifle that needs to be disassembled and the metal prepped will cost about 2X-3X that much. Since 788s typically had bead blasted finishes, you are looking at about $200-ish.