New/first rifle.

L

LSU12ga

New member
Well, if you have been following my occasional posting ( and let's be honest, who hasn't? I'm the most interesting man on this forum) you know that I have been looking for a beat up 22lr to refinish for not a lot of money. Well today on a whim I visited a LGS which I had only ever seen but never been to. I told myself that I was not going to buy anything, but just look what they had (lets be honest, what are the chances of a tiny little gun shop having EXACTLY what I'm looking for). Anyways without further ado allow me to present my latest acquisition; a Springfield model 83 purchased for $49.95. As you can see by the photos somone tried to refinish this rifle but did a terrible job. They forgot to sand the stock so it feels like sandpaper. The color is nice, but that is about all. You can see that some of the bluing is gone, but there seems to be minimal rust. The bore looks great with no scratches or rust visible.

I'm pretty excited about undertaking this project, I don't get to work with my hands enough so this should be great. This is my first rifle, so I plan to learn how to shoot, then go up in caliber. I think this is a great training rifle, although I am a little disappointed that it is a single shot, but I'll make it.

My plans include

  • stripping the stock with oven cleaner and smoothing it with some 220 grit.
  • stain the wood; color suggestions would be appreciated, I do like the blonde it is now, but I think it was oringially dark
  • polish the bolt. (probably with some steel wool and some mothers, but if you guys have additional ideas, I would love to hear it.)

Oh, and of course, shoot it. It shoots 22lr, 22short and 22long.

a few questions: This is an old gun (1940s I think) do you thing the high velocity 22lr rounds would be safe?

Looking at the bluing on the gun would you guys suggest cold bluing it? or just leaving it alone.

Thanks all.

Springfield model 83
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Rifle:
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Crown:
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Bolt handle:
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Bolt assembly:
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bottom of the rifle:
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nice find, i used cold blueing once and i wouldn't use it if looks are concerned"makes sploches". and i would use high velocity rounds in it.


best of luck,
steve
 
i have heard the the single shots are the most accurite and have one that shoots real good and it looks just like the one u got

so good luck with yours and may it put them all in the ten ring for you
 
You did great!
I could be wrong,I'm not a Stevens expert,but they made good stuff at Chicopee Falls.I think they left there in the 30's.
A plan,maybe.I would leave the original patina.I would use restraint with any polishing.Polishing is sort of like wearing it out.From Brownell's,Midway,or MSC,if I decided to work on the bolt,I might use a fine cratex stick,about 1/2 in by 1/2 in,or a soft 600 grit polishing stone,or a small jar of 500 grit aluminum oxide lapping compound and a few bits of wood,or even maroon color scotchbrite.
The stock,400 grit wet or dry paper,a red rubber eraser ,and use a few drops of water on the paper to lightly sand off the high spots of that texture the finish has.You can work it all the way to the wood,but I would avoid taking any more wood off.It will be smooth and the grain will be filled.Use your hands to rub out a very thin coat,just drops,of Tru-Oil or LinSpeed .Hang it a few days.
Now imagine this.Look to see if the rear of the receiver,on the side,is drilled and tapped for a receiver peep.If there is a smith at the shop,talk to him that you want a beginner smallbore training rifle.He just may get an old cigar box out with some old receiver peeps in it.Tell him you want a Lyman 17 globe sight up front.If you can afford it,the Shaver's sight insert set is sweet.
If you have to order a sight,look at Lyman and Williams.A Williams 5D is cheap,rugged,and it will work.
While the old sight is out,'s ask him to just lightly freshen the crown ,even just a light chamfer.
Ask him to mount some sling swivels,and get a leather target sling.
Eye protection,ear protection,and a stack of NRA 50 ft smallbore targets.
Then,when it seems some old goobers are hanging around,announce you want to join the NRA and learn to shoot 50 ft smallbore,but you are not sure what to do next.
Keep us posted.
One more thing.Old .22 barrel steel is extremely soft.You can do a lot of damage cleaning..22's don't need much cleaning,so long as they get a little rust preventive.Go easy.
Make a little maple loading block to hold 10 rounds.
You can use hi-speed ammo when you need it,but on the 50 ft range,standard vel is better and fine for plinking.
 
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Thanks for the info HibC.

I think im going to fully referb the stock, it looks very bad in person and does not feel good. Plus, my range is only open on the weekends so it gives me something to do during the week.

It doesn't look like this gun is drilled and tapped, oh well.
 
Your smith can drill and tap for a receiver sight.He can help you pick one out.
Really,its a whole new ballgame having a receiver peep and a globe front sight.
That is what most competitive target shooting is done with.
The 10 ring on a 50 foot target is approximately the diameter of the 22 bullet.
Prone,its not a superman thing to shoot high 90's,even 100's sometimes.Sitting,nearly as well.
They work good on squirrels,rabbits,and tin cans,too.With the globe,you can quick change the insert to have a post,a pinhead,an apeture,croshairs,whatever suits you.Shaded inside the tunnel,its glare free
 
Thanks for all the info.

I think I'll stick with this set up and if it works for me maybe upgrade rifles. I really, really like the cz rimfires with the globes.
 
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A single shot rifle is an excellent place to start learning to shoot well. I found that I took more time between shots (for obvious reasons), and in doing so, learned better habits than when I'd shoot multi round platforms. Leave the sights as is, and I think you'll find they'll be plenty accurate with a little patience.
 
Be careful. The wood in the stock might be tough to work with. In addition to being a devoted shooter, I'm a woodworker, and I just redid an old Stephens single shot (looks like yours) for a friend, and the stock was really a mess. So I sanded it down carefully, but used a scraper first to get the old finish off (much faster than sandpaper). All that went very well, but I found that the wood was very soft - which wasn't a good sign that refinishing would be easy. I stained it with a water based Walnut stain and it blotched very badly. Ugly. I should've known that it would blotch. So I resanded it and then raised the grain a couple of times (wet the stock, dry it with the wife's blowdrier, sand lightly with 400 grit) and then put a coat of dewaxed shellac on the stock. Then I used a varnish based Walnut colored wiping stain to make it look like it had decent wood grain. It's really kind of like painting on the grain. Takes a bit of work to get it right. It took a few days, rather than the one afternoon that I had been expecting. Then shellac over that for the final coat. So...if the stock wood is hard and has good grain, you can use a good oil based stain and it'll look good. If the stock is a real soft wood with little grain pattern, it's going to be tough to make it look good. On other rifles, I just finished the stock and forend on my Winchester 9422. Great piece of Walnut wood and it's beautiful. No stain required, just linseed oil. And I did my old Marlin 39A, which had barely decent Walnut (light stain and then linseed oil), and it looks pretty darn good, but not as good as the Winchester.
 
I'm not sure what the finish on the stock currently is. Someone redid the finish on it at some point because most of these rifles were dark brown, and as you can see this one is blonde. I was going to use a simple rit dye with some spray on poly to coat it. I'll let you know how my little experiment goes.

also, whoever redid the rifle got varnish on some of the barrel, does not look good at all. I don't know how they did that.
 
Stock refinish

Looking at the pictures you posted it looks like I would start by completely taking the stock back down to clean wood to show the grain and get rid of all the old scratches and color variations due to the original finish. I sand all my stocks in stages, starting with a course sand paper ( 80 grit ) to work off all the finish, hard scratches and discoloration. then go to a 100 followed by 180 -220-320 this is where you want to start paying attention to cutting out any left over scratches. The 320 does a good job of removing wood fast enough to see results, but finishes smooth enough to feel. Then go to your 400 grit followed by 600 and finish with a 800 grit. Depending on the wood I will sometimes take this to a 2000 grit. Usually 800 grit is good. The more time you take in preperation the better the finish will be. I like to use a 2" rubber eraser as my sanding block to ensure I keep a true surface as I sand.

Now if you want to keep that light natural wood finish I would use Tung Oil Finish in a high gloss for a nice shiny finish. The Tung Oil is a premium protective varnish. Usually takes 4 applications for a really nice finish. Just follow the directions on the can and keep applying untill your happy. Once the finish is complete and dry I like to apply a gun stock wax for that added protection.
 
It sounds like you've taken on a very interesting and rewarding project. And for under fifty bucks, you can hardly do anything "wrong." I can't add anything to the great advice you've received from all of the posters so far and I am looking forward to seeing your "after" pictures.
One thing I wouldn't worry about is trying to maintain any of the original finish or "patina" on either the wood or the metal. Your Model 83 was a nice, serviceable little .22rf but it is not a collector's piece, per se, and probably never will be. And, if the headspace is correct, my guess is that you should have no problem in using high velocity ammunition (the reference sources that I have don't say, one way or the other).
 
Thanks for all the advice. I think im going to try and super blue the barrel, so we will see how that works out. Here are some better photos using natural light. You can see that the wood has some nice grain which I will try my best to bring out. Also, you can see that the barrel has a lot of...patina? It's not rust and I don't know if going over it with some steel wool will help or not before blueing.

You can also see the bold which is in desperate need of polishing.


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I can see this is going to be a problem. It hasn't been 24 hours and I'm already scouring LGS and Pawn shops looking for more.
 
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I can understand the prowling of pawn shops. While with a friend years ago, I found and bought ($50) an old Remington 513T target rimfire with just about as pretty a piece of walnut as I've ever seen. Had a really long heavy barrel and wasn't good for anything but target shooting, but man would that gun shoot. When I got bored with shooting bullseyes at 50 yards, I'd shoot out the staples holding the target up. Finally got bored with it and resold it, but later realized that I should have kept that one. Somebody had put serious bucks into that rifle, and I was too stupid to realize that it need to stay with me. So enjoy your bargain shopping.
 
Do you all have any recommendations for refinishing the metal? From what I have read, cold bluing seems like a lot of hassle for not a very durable finish. Should I durakote in a gloss black for a similar effect? Do any of you have experience re bluing?

Thanks

Edit:

After reading the entire internet I've decided to use Laurel Mountain Forgery's blue technique; I just ordered some from Brownells.
 
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Range time

I just got back from a morning session at my local rife range. This was my first time to actually spend more than 5 minutes with any rifle and get some actual shooting done, and I loved it. I learned that as a lefty I can easily shoot a right handed bolt, which opens up a lot of new rifles for me.

I was shooting Remington Golden Bullet bulk ammuntion. I spend nearly 2 hours at the range and managed to shoot roughly 150 rounds.

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I started out shooting at 25 yards, off hand. As you can see, this proved to be a mistake--I couldn't see that I was shooting high and to the right.

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After we reset targets, another shooter suggested I move the targets to 10 yards and shoot in small groups from a bench rest; to see how the rifle did when I was out of the equation.

This is from the bench to yards out. Being able to see where my shots were going allowed me to compensate for the drift of this particular rifle.


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I then tried my hand at a mixture of off hand standing and sitting from 10 yards. It wasn't great, but I don't think it was too bad. At 10 yards I should be able to hit a squirrel.

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All in all this was a great day at the range and I am really enjoying this rifle. I did, however, notice a few problems.

1. The rear sights seem bent, possibly causing the high/right shooting.
2. The gun occasionally threw some unspent powder at me. Since I had eye protection on, this wasn't a huge issue.
3. It got kind of tedious having to reload after every shot, so I'm going to keep my eyes out for a magazine fed bolt action.

I'm really excited about starting this project; I'll keep you all informed.
 
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