OK, my turn for a question. I recently bought a Model 94 Winchester with a serial number in the 4,000,000 range. It is top eject and everything is in excellent shape except the blueing and some pitting on the receiver only. I think it is one of the iron receivers that Winchester used black lacquer on.

What is the best way to remove the pits (small ones) and get a nice blue on it again? The barrel, tube and lever look great.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Larry, they can be hot blued by using different bluing salts than the normal caustic solutions. They have to be washed with acid first and then put in the tank. I usually blue the receiver first then switch tanks and then blue the barrel and other parts. Not as easy as most blue jobs and you have to play with temperature and rinse a lot. Definitely not fun. Bill

Boy it's been 30 years since I fired up a blueing tank. On some of the last ones I had to cook them for around 2 hrs. With 3 or 4 cold water dips. I think I remember washing them in rust remover. Might do the same as Bill's acid. Finish was not fantastic but more a matt black. The metal doesn't not polish worth a darn.

Guys, thanks for the replies. Do you think I would be better suited polishing/removing pits and then sending it somewhere for a teflon type coating? I like the ones I have on some of my other rifles.

BTW, I don't think it has, nor do I care about collector value.

Thanks again.

quote:

Guys, thanks for the replies. Do you think I would be better suited polishing/removing pits and then sending it somewhere for a teflon type coating? I like the ones I have on some of my other rifles.

Or just leave it alone.

How about having the cast steel receiver bead blasted to remove the "blued" iron plating and leave the action in-the-white?

There's a lot of information on this site:

Winchester Restorations.

flaco

The receiver from the factory was iron plated. You can uses salt for stainless steel from Brownells. You can have it satin plated at your local plating shop, but you will have to do some barrel work to get the barrel back to it mark. There is a shop in Iowa that does the iron plating. Shop name Craftguard phone 319-232-2959

Many thanks to all!