When I was a kid, my grandfather passed. One of the things left to dad was a Mossberg Chuckster, 640KD .22 Mag. I shot it a few times as a teenager. Since then, it's sat in my dad's closet. I asked him about it last weekend, and we dragged it out. I honestly didn't know if it could be saved; barrel was heavily pitted, action was gummed up and rusted, including all the innards and bolt handle. The stock needs some love too. Not sure what he did with it (used it as a hammer?), but it was criminal.
Over the last week, I've torn in completely apart and cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. I used the left-overs from a recently Birchwood-Casey bluing kit and stripped all the major parts down to bare metal; barrel, receiver, bolt handle, magazine well parts, sights... the works.
Upon inspection of the barrel, I noticed that about halfway through the barrel that there was some distortion in the riflings. One more thing to make me think this rifle was scrapped.
Everything was polished up, reblued and reassembled. I'm going to strip down the stock and fix some blemishes. I hope to post some pics when she's done being restored (my version of it anyway). Before I decided to take it all the way, I wanted to make sure that those barrel problems weren't major. Happy to report that I think this rifle's going to scream again! Below is the group I shot this evening open sights at 25 yards.
I was very happy to see this!! That one shot down low is part of my first 5, trying to figure out where this thing was landing. Once I figured out the sight picture well enough, I put those 15 rounds in their place. I just hit the order button on some offset rings from BKL and a little Simmon's scope like the one I just put on my old Marlin 60. It had an old scope on it, probably the original (Weaver? It was trashed). I'm excited that this old rifle still has the guts to shoot straight, even after 17 years of rusting in a closet. She will breath again!! Viva la Chucky!!
Over the last week, I've torn in completely apart and cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. I used the left-overs from a recently Birchwood-Casey bluing kit and stripped all the major parts down to bare metal; barrel, receiver, bolt handle, magazine well parts, sights... the works.
Upon inspection of the barrel, I noticed that about halfway through the barrel that there was some distortion in the riflings. One more thing to make me think this rifle was scrapped.
Everything was polished up, reblued and reassembled. I'm going to strip down the stock and fix some blemishes. I hope to post some pics when she's done being restored (my version of it anyway). Before I decided to take it all the way, I wanted to make sure that those barrel problems weren't major. Happy to report that I think this rifle's going to scream again! Below is the group I shot this evening open sights at 25 yards.
I was very happy to see this!! That one shot down low is part of my first 5, trying to figure out where this thing was landing. Once I figured out the sight picture well enough, I put those 15 rounds in their place. I just hit the order button on some offset rings from BKL and a little Simmon's scope like the one I just put on my old Marlin 60. It had an old scope on it, probably the original (Weaver? It was trashed). I'm excited that this old rifle still has the guts to shoot straight, even after 17 years of rusting in a closet. She will breath again!! Viva la Chucky!!