fixed up a bubba'd Russian (a Phosphorus32 inspired project!)

[swede1894]

a few months back i picked up a sad 1950 Tula that had fallen prey to bubba.  the previous owner had sanded away areas of the refurb paint down to the bare metal, stuck it in a green tacti-terrible stock, added a duck-bill mag & had tried to add some texture to the receiver cover by creating a series of "warts" with a sharp punch.  evidently they gave up after making a dozen or so bumps.  (not quite as easy as working on a glock frame.... is my guess )

Phosphorus32's posts inspired me to try to bring some life back to the old girl. 

my first order of business was to disassemble & get rid of all of the aftermarket stuff hanging off of it.  then using a small ball peen hammer with a polished face, i knocked down the warts on the cover as much as possible and then sanded them down with a block to an appearance that i could live with.  next, i removed the remaining refurb paint & re-phosphated the bare spots.  Since the rifle had a refurb mark & had been previously painted, i thought i'd repaint it.  i don't own an airbrush so i decided to use dupli-color engine low gloss black engine paint with ceramic.  i wanted a little texture to the paint so i held the can about 2 feet away and started putting on extremely light layers.  once it looked like i wanted it to, i baked the painted parts at 300F for two hours. 

the only blade bayonet that i had in my parts bin had also been trashed by a different bubba.  they sharpened and reshaped the blade.  i spent a few hours with sandpaper and a block to get it to a half-way presentable shape.  the finish on the bayonet was really rough so i coated the blade with rust-o-leum stainless appliance paint holding the can off further away to give it a sand blasted look and again baked it at 300F for 2hrs.     

i was happy with how the metal was turning out & now it was time to think about furniture.

i had a russian laminate stock that came out of Canada a few years back & i was planning on using it on this rifle but then another russian came along on GB and i decided that i needed to go shopping. 

P32 created a beautiful polish honor guard & Marcin of Genuine Militaria in Poland had one stock for sale...so that cinched the deal!

i'm happy with how it turned out!

[Phosphorus32]

An admirable job addressing Bubba’s work. Looks sharp! 


If you can locate a square (90 degree) bayonet collar it’ll get that bayonet to tuck up straight into the stock.

[swede1894]

thank you P32!  i'll start looking for one of those!
rick

[Bacarnal]

 

[Greatguns]

Lovin' that 'natural' look on the stock, well done swede.

[swede1894]

thank you all!

i think that the clear shellac used by the poles really makes the grain pop.  the photos make the stock look a little lighter than it actually is.  i don't think that the stock was ever issued. 

when i get enough posts, i'm hoping to be able to place a wtb ad in the market place to locate the correct early bayonet collar.  in the mean time, if anyone happens to have a spare please feel free to message me.

again i appreciate all of the great posts in the forum

[running-man]

That's a nice save Swede!  Do you have a before picture of that receiver cover?  I wonder what bubba thought he’d wind up with using that punch?!

[swede1894]

RM- unfortunately, i forgot to take before photos.  the previous owner had used a sharp punch on the inside of the receiver cover to create the warts on the outside.   they were large enough to break through the refurb paint and made it look like the cover had a bad case of acne.  they were all located in the upper right quadrant of the cover. 

i can't think of any reason other than to alter the appearance???  it was so ugly that the auction ended with only my bid at the opening price of $350.

[echo1]

Nice save, very good job. PAX

[running-man]

$350?!  Wow, that's a decent deal with what you've wound up with.  It really did turn out quite nice!

I've given up trying to figure out what Bubba is thinking long ago.

Hurts my brain too much! 

[High Noon]

Hey that looks nice! 

I'm getting to really like those laminated stocks.  You did a great job restroing it, especially considering what you started with.

Don't understand why anyone would try to punch dimples in a receiver cover...just plain crazy.

....and at $350....

[Papahound]

Very nice job - looks great !

 

[Matchka]

Excellent job!