I have a Browning 300 Win mag Rifle with a "Saltwood" stock in the shop. It is property of the original owner. He has been using the gun since new until the trigger recently refused to work. I just broke it out of the stock, and I recognized it immediately. Is there any compensation program active with these guns now? I think I may be able to salvage the barreled action, and it looks to me that a stock for a commercial 98 will work, particularly if I remove the extra recoil lug.

Bill Jacobs

Not that I’m aware off. I’ve done a complete bedding and used the same stock. Probably is an FN.

They did have a recall on the salt cured guns back when I was working for them. We simply replaced every one that came in the shop, even if it was for a simple cleaning. Since then I'm pretty sure Browning has orphaned them. Western Gun Parts bought up most of what was left in Belgium back in the 1980s when they were still The Custom Gun Shop. I was working for them at the time and we received close to 200 pieces of wood for the Browning Safaris, Medallions and Olympians both in Sako and Mauser. I don't know if they have any left, but it might be worth and email. They ship to the USA.

http://www.westerngunparts.com/

Unfortunately for these owners who were unaware of the problem there is no longer any warranty from Browning.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:
Unfortunately for these owners who were unaware of the problem there is no longer any warranty from Browning.

If memory serves, the salt cured wood was used from 1966 to 1971. So it's been 47 years since the last one was turned out. If you had to warranty everything forever, you wouldn't be able to buy a simple toaster. At some point you have to say that an object has fulfilled it's purpose. And, as with Winchester, after Browning was sold it is pretty hard to hold the new company liable for such things if the old company was not willing to make arrangements and parts available for that purpose to the new corporation.

I worked in the Browning Gunsmithing Shop in Arnold, MO from 1978 to 1982, lots of my time and many of the other smith's was spent replacing salt wood stocks and repairing the damage to the metal. At one point the workload became such that Belgium could not supply replacement stocks fast enough to keep up with demand. Browning then turned to Fajen and Bishop to supply replacement stocks. Until they were able to get up to speed with production customers guns were stacked on skids and stored. I can remember a time when there were several skids worth of guns waiting for wood. Lots of unhappy customers during that time, I would not have wanted to be a Browning Customer Service Rep. at that time.

We replaced several of the Olympians that had exhibition grade salt wood on them. It was a pity to destroy them and of course a couple of them found their way into my truck instead of the dumpster. I later stripped them and refinished them with clear Endura epoxy paint which is an isocyante based epoxy similar to Imron and Fuller Plast. I sealed them really well with a couple diluted coats inside and out and let them set. Then I blew on 2 coats of topcoat and wet sanded them and laid on one topcoat and buffed them. It came out the same as Weatherby Mark V finish that you could blind a buffalo with and tough as nails. I hand scrubbed in a diluted coat of the finish into the carving and checkering and after it hardened gave it a light soda blast to break the shine. Those two stocks have been on a couple of medallion rifles that we built from leftover parts from Belgium for 25 years with no problems at all. They are absofuckinglutely gorgeous pieces of wood.

Any pictures Rod?

George

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Any pictures Rod?

George

No, but I still see that customer off and on. Next time he's in I'l ask him to send me a couple jpgs. All of the Olympians had nice wood but these two really stood out.

I like Rod's approach, thinking most of the damage from the stock has probably been done already, anyway. If the barrel and action can be savaged, that suggests the damage is managable and you may save the period stock.

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
I like Rod's approach, thinking most of the damage from the stock has probably been done already, anyway. If the barrel and action can be savaged, that suggests the damage is managable and you may save the period stock.

They never really sealed the inside of those Brownings that well back then. If you can seal that salt away, especially with a bullet proof epoxy, then there should be no reason for concern. In the case of those two it worked out rather well. I wouldn't trust an oil finish to that mind you. Oil finishes can take on and give off moisture with humidity changes over time. They breath. If water can move, it is logical to assume that the salt could move with it.

Years ago at the big gun show in Puyallup, WA, I was introduced to the salt water Brownings.

My boss was a long time Mauser collector and we were at the show looking for FN actions. Found a few. And found a nice Browning, we took the stock off and guess what. Did not buy that one!

He told me that Browning or their wood supplier tried to short cut the blank drying process by layering the blanks with salt. Sort of like the Portuguese make their famous hams.

The salt pulled out a lot of water but as you all know the salt penetrated the wood.

quote:

Originally posted by WoodHunter:

He told me that Browning or their wood supplier tried to short cut the blank drying process by layering the blanks with salt.

I can't remember his last name, but "Bob" from Calico Hardwoods said that Browning had required Calico to treat their stockblanks with a chemical(not rocksalt!) that was basically a type of salt to speed-up the drying process. He blamed Browning and said that it was their shortcut.

Bob is retired now. I used to spend way too much time hanging around his shop as it was on my way to work.

My dad has a Browning Pigeon Grade OU that he used as his go to field gun. After some years of sitting he noticed the stock finish went bad (maybe early 1990s). Called Browning to ask if anything could be done and they said it was the salt issue and to send in and they’d fix. Came back perfect, looked brand new, besides the stock think even the gold inlays were redone.

Salt wood is salt wood IMO..I suspect a rather thick glass bedding job that covered all the inletting 100% would protect the metal, but I would keep tabs on it..reblue your metal and put it back together, at best you will have a shooter only..pits can be welded with bailing wire or coathangers up to a point, but it just man not be worth the expense..depends on the pits involved more than anything else and if it won't clean up salvage what you can and dump the rest...sometimes its just no feasible to salvage as it can be just too expensive depending on the gun..