.22 LR Refurbishing

[BaseballStud20]

So I found my grandfather's old .22 and it was in pretty bad shape. There is rust almost everywhere and the amount of crud built up inside the breech is ridiculous. I decided to just take everything apart and remove all of the blueing. Im having some trouble getting rid of all the blueing and removing all of the gunk built up in the breech. I was wondering if there was some kind of acid or something that I could use to thoroughly remove the blueing and clean the metal. Also, my plan was to camo the entire gun once I put it back together but am worried about the inner parts rusting since I am removing the blue. Do I need to reapply the blue or is there something else that I can use to keep everything from rusting?

Thanks

[docsven]

Vinegar is supposed to work really well, it's a weak acid and shouldn't hurt anything for dissolving the gunk.

[BaseballStud20]

Yeah I heard about that. Are you supposed to just leave the parts in the vinegar for a certain amount of time and then wash them off?

[docsven]

Yeah I heard about that. Are you supposed to just leave the parts in the vinegar for a certain amount of time and then wash them off?

I have mostly heard of using it to clean the bore, plug up the base of the bore and fill the barrel with vinegar overnight.  I think I would do it with the action for a couple of hours and take it out, see how it cleans up.  I doubt if you can hurt it by overdoing it because it's such a weak acid.  I would use cider vinegar instead of white vinegar, just a tip.

[BaseballStud20]

Ill give that a try. I'm still not sure what I need to do once I get everything cleaned. I'm only worried about the internal parts and the bolt. I will not be camoing anything around the breech so the metal will not be protected at all. Do I need to reblue all of those parts or is there something else I can do?

Thanks

[docsven]

I wouldn't worry about re-blueing the internal parts, on the bolt and firing pin, spring, you just want to keep a thin coat of light oil, polish it with an oiled rag.  Is this a single shot?

[BaseballStud20]

Yeah its just an old bolt action tube fed .22 LR. After I camo the barrel what should I use as a sealer? I know they have spray on sealer for wood...can I just use the same thing on the metal?

[docsven]

Yeah its just an old bolt action tube fed .22 LR. After I camo the barrel what should I use as a sealer? I know they have spray on sealer for wood...can I just use the same thing on the metal?

usually different products for wood and metal, but maybe someone can recommend something that works for both, just curious why you would want to do that to your grandpa's old rifle?  Camo it, I mean?

[Grizzly95]

My neighbor uses deck wash on his old guns that he refinishes, he is very tedious about the way they turn out. All his guns look awesome.

[gramps]

The "Foul Out" system made by Outers will work for removing the lead from the barrel.  It electroplates the lead or copper from a barrel onto a steel rod you insert into the barrel.  Works very well.  A Lewis lead remover will also work if you can find one. 

[BaseballStud20]

Well its either camo the thing or reblue all of the barrel and components. What exactly does he use the deck wash for...removing the blue or just cleaning out the gunk?

[EastWaViking]

What model of 22 is it?  How old is it?  You may be messing up something that is valuable.  I got my Grandpa's winchester 25-20 for the 1800's, and I just hung it on the wall as is.

[BaseballStud20]

The barrel says Wards Western Field. I have searched every inch of the gun and cannot seem to find a date anywhere. So if I decided I wanted to just reblue all of the metal is that something I can do by myself or do I need a gunsmith to do it?

[docsven]

You can re-blue it yourself, you can get blueing in most sporting-goods stores.  Can't really mess up too bad since you can remove it if you don't like how it's turning out.  Good luck!  Did the action come out clean?