wood stock & blued steel on Kodiak Island

09 May 2018, 01:50

I just returned from 9 days on Kodiak using my old wood stocked/blued steel rifle and thought I 'd let folks who like the traditional like me know how it survived. This is the 4th trip to Alaska for this rifle, but the first when rain was a daily thing. The rifle was totally drenched all day some days while other days just rained on occasionally thru-out the day.

Now, I certainly believe the stainless/synthetic is clearly superior for this type of place, there might be a few old guys like me who are wondering about using their old-time rifles on such a place.

The rifle survived fine. The inside of the stock was thoroughly sealed with multiple coats of finish ( polyurethance if I remember right ) However, I taped the stock along the barrel channel to prevent water from entering there. Muzzle was taped shut as well. Every night I pulled a dry bore snake thru the bore and re-taped the muzzle. Then, all metal surfaces were wiped as dry as possible and given a good coat of Corrosion X. After about the 3rd day, I did notice that on the top of the scope ring screws ( Talley aluminum mount/rings were used) there was a slight rust starting but a dab of Corrosion fixed that. The stock has a few more dings of course, but other than that, looks about like it did at the beginning of the hunt. I haven't shot the rifle to see if there is any POI change, but plan to do so.

My boy teased me about over-cleaning, but honestly, I think that with careful attention, a guy can get by OK with such a rig.

09 May 2018, 03:32

AnotherAZWriter

quote:
Originally posted by devere:
I just returned from 9 days on Kodiak using my old wood stocked/blued steel rifle and thought I 'd let folks who like the traditional like me know how it survived. This is the 4th trip to Alaska for this rifle, but the first when rain was a daily thing. The rifle was totally drenched all day some days while other days just rained on occasionally thru-out the day.

Now, I certainly believe the stainless/synthetic is clearly superior for this type of place, there might be a few old guys like me who are wondering about using their old-time rifles on such a place.

The rifle survived fine. The inside of the stock was thoroughly sealed with multiple coats of finish ( polyurethance if I remember right ) However, I taped the stock along the barrel channel to prevent water from entering there. Muzzle was taped shut as well. Every night I pulled a dry bore snake thru the bore and re-taped the muzzle. Then, all metal surfaces were wiped as dry as possible and given a good coat of Corrosion X. After about the 3rd day, I did notice that on the top of the scope ring screws ( Talley aluminum mount/rings were used) there was a slight rust starting but a dab of Corrosion fixed that. The stock has a few more dings of course, but other than that, looks about like it did at the beginning of the hunt. I haven't shot the rifle to see if there is any POI change, but plan to do so.

My boy teased me about over-cleaning, but honestly, I think that with careful attention, a guy can get by OK with such a rig.

Well, you could also say there are risks with a synthetic/SS rifle in that you think it imperious, and when you get ready to fire nothing happens because rust developed in the trigger housing.

The fact you knew you had to take care of it is kind of a "forced maintenance" catalyst.

09 May 2018, 08:32

buckeyeshooter

Nothing wrong giving loving care to your trusted friend (classic rifle). For me, it is a nice way to relax and unwind before lights out.

09 May 2018, 22:21

458Win

quote:
Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Nothing wrong giving loving care to your trusted friend (classic rifle). For me, it is a nice way to relax and unwind before lights out.

That is nice when it happens but I have experienced way too many trips when you arrive back in camp a few hours past zero dark thirty, throughly soaked, sweating and too tired even to eat, much less clean a rifle caked in mud.

28 May 2018, 20:22

Tim Vining

regardless weather wood or synthetic, stainless or blued, daily maintenance is a must on Kodiak. Its not just moisture but exposure to the marine environment (i.e. salt). Simple precautions go along way to keeping the rifle functioning properly.

28 May 2018, 21:18

A.J. Hydell

quote:
The rifle survived fine.

Good to hear, but what make, model, and caliber did you take to Kodiak Isl.?

Our resident 'bear experts' would be especially interested ...

28 May 2018, 21:46

devere

The rifle is a pre-64 model 70 Winchester chambered for the .300 Win. Mag. It is not, in my opinion, the ideal caliber for brown bear, but I had used it in Alaska for mountain goats and black bear and it shoots good. It is scoped with a Leupold 2x7. I used handloaded Barnes 165 TSX bullets.

28 May 2018, 23:43

FMC

quote:
Originally posted by 458Win:
quote:
Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Nothing wrong giving loving care to your trusted friend (classic rifle). For me, it is a nice way to relax and unwind before lights out.

That is nice when it happens but I have experienced way too many trips when you arrive back in camp a few hours past zero dark thirty, throughly soaked, sweating and too tired even to eat, much less clean a rifle caked in mud.

C'mon "way too many" is being politically correct. It's all nice on the internet......but.....that's why they play the game......

When you count the seconds after you pour the water for your Mountain House to be cooked and then painstakingly savor each half filled forkful to make it last longer.....just before you crawl into your tent.....the last thing you want to do is wipe down your gun. Fuck that.

But that's what makes hunting Alaska so much fun.

29 May 2018, 07:01

chuck375

I love my blued/walnut CZ in 500 Jeffery, but if i ever bring it to Alaska I'm gonna put it in a synthetic stock for the trip, then swap it back to walnut. I just wish CeraKote would come up with a color that really looked like traditional blued steel as well.

29 May 2018, 07:23

buckeyeshooter

quote:
Originally posted by FMC:
quote:
Originally posted by 458Win:
quote:
Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
Nothing wrong giving loving care to your trusted friend (classic rifle). For me, it is a nice way to relax and unwind before lights out.

That is nice when it happens but I have experienced way too many trips when you arrive back in camp a few hours past zero dark thirty, throughly soaked, sweating and too tired even to eat, much less clean a rifle caked in mud.

C'mon "way too many" is being politically correct. It's all nice on the internet......but.....that's why they play the game......

When you count the seconds after you pour the water for your Mountain House to be cooked and then painstakingly savor each half filled forkful to make it last longer.....just before you crawl into your tent.....the last thing you want to do is wipe down your gun. Fuck that.

But that's what makes hunting Alaska so much fun.

Gee, not too much romance left here. Well, if I do get so tired and worn out that my trusted friend gets some ugly marks...... that means it gets a spa session and refurb at Turnbull's shop.

03 June 2018, 17:30

2th doc

I toted a Win mdl 54 30-06 around AK for many year as a guide. It had been dunked completely in the salt water more than once and is till to this day a near perfect rile. In this day and age of plastic and SS rifles one tends to forget we had none such rifle back in the day and tons of game was still killed yearly.

03 June 2018, 20:17

Fourtyonesix

quote:
Originally posted by 2th doc:
I toted a Win mdl 54 30-06 around AK for many year as a guide. It had been dunked completely in the salt water more than once and is till to this day a near perfect rile. In this day and age of plastic and SS rifles one tends to forget we had none such rifle back in the day and tons of game was still killed yearly.

Tons of game was also killed with iron sights, .30-.30’s, and no Kuiu.

03 June 2018, 22:17

sjr

quote:
Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
quote:
Originally posted by 2th doc:
I toted a Win mdl 54 30-06 around AK for many year as a guide. It had been dunked completely in the salt water more than once and is till to this day a near perfect rile. In this day and age of plastic and SS rifles one tends to forget we had none such rifle back in the day and tons of game was still killed yearly.

Tons of game was also killed with iron sights, .30-.30’s, and no Kuiu.

Wool , leather + wood old time hunting for sure
How did we ever survive !

03 June 2018, 22:34

458Win

quote:
Originally posted by sjr:
Wool , leather + wood old time hunting for sure
How did we ever survive !

With lots of gun and neets foot oil applied with elbow grease

Doug Turnbull hunted with me twice and on his moose hunt it rained virtually the entire time and at the end of the hunt I was inspecting his original 1886 Win and the fancy slim forend actually felt like rubber !
He saw me looking at it and simply said "don't worry, I know a guy who can fix it "

03 June 2018, 23:57

p dog shooter

I prefer stainless steel and synthetic stocks or hard nasty weather hunting.

04 June 2018, 04:06

chuck375

I've got a stainless coated Rem XCR II in 375 Weatherby I bought for Alaska. My youngest son hunts with it and likes it a lot. Myself I prefer my 1960s vintage Rem BDL in 270 and my CZ 550 in 500 Jeffery. I do worry about the rifle changing POI more than rust or the walnut. Next time I'm bringing the 500

06 June 2018, 18:59

sep

I tried Renaissance Wax on my Browning Abolt Medallion the last time I hunted Prince of Wales Island. It worked really well repelling water from the metal parts of the rifle. I would definitely use it again.

07 June 2018, 05:42

chuck375

Thanks!

10 June 2018, 04:23

Eagle Dad

I just returned from a costal black bear hunt along the Kenai peninsula. I took my custom Springfield 1903 chambered in 35 Whelen. Rust blued and English walnut. It rained 4 out of 7 days and it was covered in salt water spray every day. I even fell into the ocean with it on day 5. I waxed the stock inside and out prior to the trip. Applied grease to the metal below the stcok line. Prior. While hunting I kept a thick wax bead between stock and metal. Applied corrosion x every day and waxed the stock after it dried. Wiped everything down every day too. Rifle faired very well. After the swim I took it completely apart and cared for it once we got back. Fortunately I had just shot my bear before falling in. I still took time to care for my rifle after a 22 your day.

11 June 2018, 15:04

buckeyeshooter

quote:
Originally posted by Eagle Dad:
I just returned from a costal black bear hunt along the Kenai peninsula. I took my custom Springfield 1903 chambered in 35 Whelen. Rust blued and English walnut. It rained 4 out of 7 days and it was covered in salt water spray every day. I even fell into the ocean with it on day 5. I waxed the stock inside and out prior to the trip. Applied grease to the metal below the stcok line. Prior. While hunting I kept a thick wax bead between stock and metal. Applied corrosion x every day and waxed the stock after it dried. Wiped everything down every day too. Rifle faired very well. After the swim I took it completely apart and cared for it once we got back. Fortunately I had just shot my bear before falling in. I still took time to care for my rifle after a 22 your day.

My thought also on a loved hunting companion.

11 June 2018, 16:41

devere

MR. Buckeyeshooter: thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to hear that your fine old Springfield did just fine with some proper care in the field. The main reason I posted my experience is to convince some folks who have a fine trusted traditional rifle that with some proper care in the field, that they don't need to fall for the typical recommendation that if you're headed to alaska, you gotta bring a stainless/synthetic rifle. Just think of the number of traditional rifles that were used for many, many years in Alaska. In fact, I handled probably the most well known such rifle recently, Morris Talifson's .375 M70, and while very well worn after 40 years or so on Kodiak, it's headed out this fall for another brown bear hunt.

12 June 2018, 09:27

buckeyeshooter

quote:
Originally posted by devere:
MR. Buckeyeshooter: thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to hear that your fine old Springfield did just fine with some proper care in the field. The main reason I posted my experience is to convince some folks who have a fine trusted traditional rifle that with some proper care in the field, that they don't need to fall for the typical recommendation that if you're headed to alaska, you gotta bring a stainless/synthetic rifle. Just think of the number of traditional rifles that were used for many, many years in Alaska. In fact, I handled probably the most well known such rifle recently, Morris Talifson's .375 M70, and while very well worn after 40 years or so on Kodiak, it's headed out this fall for another brown bear hunt.

Wonderful, I own both of the books on their hunting. I do own several stainless/synthetic rifles, however, they are not as warm as wood and steel and also are a bit light for Alaskan hunting in chambering.

13 June 2018, 20:55

cessna

Just another suggestion. I use Johnson's paste wax on my rifles, including in the barrel channel. After years of use, a lot in wet weather no problem.

13 June 2018, 22:49

MARK H. YOUNG

I'm watching this thread closely as I'm having a wood/blued 9.3x66 being built for a brown bear hunt in '19 I've use Johnson's paste wax with good results in the past so maybe that and corrosion x is the way to go.

Mark

14 June 2018, 06:42

Eagle Dad

On my hunt I used paste Turtle Wax and Corrosion X. Worked well.

15 June 2018, 08:36

mlfguns

Congratulations on your hunt and the time spent with your son. Hunt and build memories as much as you can. All else is secondary.

11 September 2018, 03:21

Carlsen Highway

I come from New Zealand and it is as wet or wetter here. Plastic stainless is all the rage, but wood blued rifles survive fine. You just have to run a patch of oil through the bore at night, and wipe it out in the morning.

I used to seal the inside of a stock with spar varnish, and put pretoleum gel on the metal surfaces under the stock. But mostly I don't do that anymore.

After a longer trip you just have to take it out of the stock and clean it up.

In my experience Sakos and Tikkas rust quickly if you don't keep an eye on them. Even the stainless ones. (Tikkas are "stainless".)Old Brno's, BSA's and .303's hardly rust at all, unless you get salt water involved.

I can't recall ever missing a deer because my wooden stock was wet, I am sure it doesn't matter. on the other hand we are pretty hard on rifles.
A rifle that has spent 40 years hunting in Fiordland can be a sight, but if you keep the bore maintained it will be alright.

13 September 2018, 00:33

2th doc

That old mdl 54 30-06 I mentioned earlier got a good wipe down with Hoppes #9 down the barrel and over the stock, never took the action off the stock till the season was over and I was back in the lower 48.... then I would plop the action into a bowl of kerosene... more than once I was out of Hoppes and just used Wesson cooking oil from the cook shack.
That my friends was just how it was in the late 40s and 50s with guides in the Wrangles and on Kodiak where I did my guiding. I will laid a crisp $100 bill on the table if that action is still not smooth as snot on an frozen puddle.

13 September 2018, 07:27

Atkinson

Ive always planned to own a SS and plastic gun, even bought a few but sold them before I needed them...I hunted the four corners of the earth with blue steel and wood without a problem,Johnson wax was my salvation I guess, and some of the worst weather Ive been in has been in Idaho as a matter of fact, filled couple of saddle scabbards with snow...

All that said, I do have a boat paddle stock for my Ruger African .338 Win. that I can switch out without a change of zero, but have not used it..

I would like to have a Ruger boat paddle SS gun or a Kimber SS and plastic gun however, Those m84 Kimber the weigh 5.2 lbs. are pretty darn nice, been thinking about one in a 280, 300 Win or whatever..

Well I mislead some of you, I said blue and wood, but the couple of guns I'm talking about are actually no blue so look like SS, and the stock resemble driftwood..Ive never sold them probably because no one would buy them..

13 September 2018, 23:49

hikerbum

quote:
Originally posted by 458Win:
quote:
Originally posted by sjr:
Wool , leather + wood old time hunting for sure
How did we ever survive !

With lots of gun and neets foot oil applied with elbow grease

Doug Turnbull hunted with me twice and on his moose hunt it rained virtually the entire time and at the end of the hunt I was inspecting his original 1886 Win and the fancy slim forend actually felt like rubber !
He saw me looking at it and simply said "don't worry, I know a guy who can fix it "

Perfect comment from Doug

21 September 2018, 20:49

Atkinson

Neatsfoot oil makes wood spongy! its a leather dressing...any cowboy knows that!

LInseed Oil works best on wood but not by a hell of a lot.

21 September 2018, 23:15

Joeblack2345

458
The hunt you did with Doug hunting bear is that one of the TV hunts when his gun malfunctioned, when he closed the lever the gun went off?
Finally he took aim then closed the action and the gun went off I believe he got the bear.

11 October 2018, 01:56

Atkinson

That's known as "what ever works" on the ranch I was raised on!, ranchers are not always hunters, they just hunt to put meat on the table. My dad was fantastic hunter, he had to be because he couldn't shoot worth a flip...

I had a 25-35 as a kid that went off every time you closed the lever, I liked it that I could work thelever and it shoot, it was fast..I was 12 at the time, dad borrowed it one day and tossed it off a bluff, came home some time later with a new 30-30 for me...I had already retrieved the 25-35 and hid it at a friends house and traded it for bike..I also traded the new 30-30 for a new 25-35..

11 October 2018, 06:20

p dog shooter

quote:
I had a 25-35 as a kid that went off every time you squeezed the trigger

Are not guns suppose to shoot when you squeezed the trigger.

Or did you mean worked the lever.

11 October 2018, 08:44

458Win

quote:
Originally posted by Joeblack2345:
458
The hunt you did with Doug hunting bear is that one of the TV hunts when his gun malfunctioned, when he closed the lever the gun went off?
Finally he took aim then closed the action and the gun went off I believe he got the bear.

Doug has hunted with me twice
My son guided him on his moose hunt, which was filmed and where his rifle was literally waterlogged
And my daughter guided him and Frank Brownell on a bear hunt where Doug killed a 30 year old boar.

11 October 2018, 19:44

AnotherAZWriter

quote:

And my daughter guided him and Frank Brownell on a bear hunt where Doug killed a 30 year old boar.

That has got to be one of the oldest recorded, huh? Have you ever shot one older?

12 October 2018, 11:58

458Win

That was the third one over 30 years old we have taken. And we have taken two with skulls over 30"

13 October 2018, 04:08

Uncle Grinch

I don’t see much written about it,, but has anyone experienced extreme conditions with a Parkerized rifle. I ask because my hog gun is a Parkerized Siamese Mauser in 45-70 with a 20” barrel and peep sights. Other than the sight, it’s completely Parkerized and I never have experienced any rust with normal use.

13 October 2018, 06:19

Eagle Dad

The only Parkerised rifles I dealt with were from my time in the army. Despite rain, dust, mud etc I experienced no issues but I always took time to care for my weapons. Still do. Bottom line: if you properly are for your weapon it will function when you need it to. This is why despite long days in Alaska I still took time every day to care for my rifle.

13 October 2018, 22:37

chuck375

I bought a Rem XCR II in 375 H&H for my brown bear hunt seven years ago. It has a TriNyte finish. Seemed to work pretty well as it rained every day but the day we left. Rifle had some quality control issues but once they were sorted out, it shoots and functions fine. Next time, I'm taking my blued and walnut 500 Jeffery, just cause I want to