# Old German Shotgun Restoration



## Supercracker (Apr 16, 2012)

I get asked about the other guns I've fixed up and Setter Jax has suggested a time or two that I do an ongoing thread on the next one I do. I haven't really been excited about doing a thread before because I didn't have anything really special but I got the chance to wipe down and really inspect this gun closely over the weekend and this thing is going to be NICE when finished.  I'm excited enough about it that I had to share it. So....here goes. But, let me clarify, I am not a gunsmith and I'm by no means an "expert" at this. I just enjoy it and have a few varied skills I've picked up in my meandering interests over the years. I'm sure there will be people far more qualified than me here and I hope they chime in. I am always looking to learn something new. 


  I picked up this gun a few months ago and have been so busy that I haven't had time to do anything much except work. Well, things are slowing down so I figured I'd finally get around to it. 

It is a 12ga, 32" Damascus Twist barrels. Gold and Silver (maybe platinum??) inlays, full coverage engraving with game scenes, very well carved stock. After a light clean up and wipe down I could see the figure in the wood and it looks like it's going to be PHENOMINAL once it's refinished!!!!!!!!  Judging from the styling, the fact it's a toplever and proof marks I put this at about 1880ish. I haven't been able to find any makers markings so far. It looks like it was an upper middle/lower high end gun. Not a best quality but certainly much higher grade than the norm. My initial opinion is that this was one of the many Guild Guns turned out by the community of German gun makers for various resellers in that time period. 

The issues are

Rust on barrels and locks
some inlay metal missing
no trigger return springs
no striker return springs
LS hammer ear broken off and badly replaced by crack head monkeys
LS lock will not cock.
action lever gummed up/spring breaking
crack in cheekpeice
crack in TG
off face
horn BP has wormholes
hammers loose on tumbler
LS tumbler screw missing, probably used by the monkeys to make a pipe. 
screws/pins boogered up a little
century and a half of gunk in checkering
it has a Setter on it

Now, before anyone says it. I know you CAN decrease the value by restoring. BUT, this is an unsigned, undocumented gun, of unknown origin, with non functioning and missing parts, that is in bad shape already. Plus, I paid very little for it, I want a shooter to hunt with not an investment and I enjoy doing this. So shut it.   lol

Sometime between now and September I plan to address all of this. Enjoy.


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## Jim P (Apr 16, 2012)

Shane that pop gun looks neet as heck, I have seen what you can do with these old fire arms, I know this one will be a work of art.


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## Supercracker (Apr 16, 2012)

Thanks. I appreciate it. 

Did you ever find the fore end latch you were looking for?


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## Sine Nomen (Apr 16, 2012)

That's a very cool shotgun!


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## Setter Jax (Apr 16, 2012)

SC,

Looks like a great project.  Just stand next to Jim this season the first time you shoot it.  lol

The "Setter" is a great touch.  lol

SJ


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## Jim P (Apr 16, 2012)

Shane there is a gun smith that is making me the part for my pop gun. I think that as good as you are you could shorten the tail on the dog, and you will hit more birds.


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## Supercracker (Jul 12, 2012)

Have been busy with a bunch of other stuff and haven't had the chance to do much work on this. At the "reminding" of Setter Jax and Jim P I got enough done to warrant a small update. 

Got it stripped down and saw a few very minor things. Mostly just a century of accumulated gunk was keeping things from working right. 

Had to deal with a stuck screw on the trigger plate. A normal application of penetrating oil every day for weeks made no difference so I had to go to plan B. My trick for super stuck old bolts is to grind the blade on a soldering iron to tightly match the screw slot(the same way you should do for EVERY screwdriver/turnscrew you use on a gun you care about). Then every day I set it up in the slot on high heat for 15 or 20 minutes to heat up just the screw. Then I give it a few taps with a brass punch to help break up corrosion on the threads and create tiny tiny air pockets within the corrosion. Then put penetrating oil on it while it's still hot. As the tiny pockets of air cool they contract and pull the oil deeper down in the threads than a normal soak ever would. A week of this and it came right out. Sorry, didn't think to take pics of that.  

Cant decide if it's worth it to make a new horn buttplate yet or not. 





The locks were in really good shape underneath the crud. Half cock notches intact, strong springs and everything still there. All the pieces parts are soaking in oil now to get all the nooks and crannys cleaned out. After a couple of weeks they'll get scrubbed down (unless someone wants to buy me an ultrasonic cleaner ) then polished, plates refinished in a french gray, soft bits rehardened and reassembled. I'll also repair the cocking ear on the Left hammer.









The action had soooooo much crud in it that it would barely function or come apart. I had to soak it in warm oil for a couple of days just to get the crud loosened up enough to disassemble the crossbolt and top lever. 









The stock got....is getting, the original finish pulled off. I'm using a natural, less toxic stripper. Going in small steps. Apply to a small area, let is soak for a little bit, then scrub with a toothbrush, repeat...repeat...repeat...repeat..etc.etc.etc.   Good wood work takes a WHILE. If it were'nt for the crack in the cheek piece I would have left the wood alone. But that has to be addressed. Because of the irregular shape of the crack I'm not going to try to fill it flush. What is going to happen is I'll open up the inside of it with a tiny dremel and tiny scrapers and chisels I'll make just for the job. Once I've gotten to virgin, clean wood I'll fill it with expoxy to within 1/8 of the surface and clamp it. The epoxy should help hold it in place and keep it from growing while leaving the character of the crack which I think will look better on a 150 year old gun than a repaired crack. After that it's getting God only knows how many coats of a rubbed oil finish. Probably with a tiny bit of French Red.









This wood is going to look FANTASTIC once it's done!

I'll have more free time soon. I'll also get a new phone to take some pics with. I WILL be mildly inconveniencing quail and ducks with this gun this winter.


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## ROAM (Jul 12, 2012)

I was wondering how this project was coming along.  You are undoubtedly more talented at restoring these old guns than you give yourself credit for.  I will stay tuned in.


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## Setter Jax (Jul 13, 2012)

Shane Great looking gun, your project is coming along nicely.  Is that this years shooter????


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## Nicodemus (Jul 13, 2012)

I`m enjoyin` followin` along with this.


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## rhbama3 (Jul 13, 2012)

What a challenge! 
Supercracker, i can't wait to see the finished gun!


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## Hooty Hoot (Jul 13, 2012)

Nicodemus said:


> I`m enjoyin` followin` along with this.



This is a real good thread. I too, will follow along.


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## Supercracker (Jul 14, 2012)

Setter Jax said:


> Is that this years shooter????



Hopefully, yes. 

I don't want any gun I can't shoot. 

Going to try to do some metal refinishing tonight.


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## 8pointduck (Jul 15, 2012)

Nowyour going to rusT blue right or just leave the metal alone.?


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## Supercracker (Jul 16, 2012)

8pointduck said:


> Nowyour going to rusT blue right or just leave the metal alone.?



The plan had been a rust blue brought back to gray with steel wool. 

However, I tested it with a cold blue and there is just enough of the original case hardening left to make the blueing not take in places. The solution would be to re case harden the plates. But if I did that I would melt the gold and silver inlays out. So that's a no go.  They're going to be polished and left in the white with a coat of oil to protect from corrosion. 

All the internals cleaned up nicely though.


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## 8pointduck (Jul 16, 2012)

Sounds like a winner to me.


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## pine nut (Jul 21, 2012)

I'm too impatient!  Wanna see some more! TTT


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## Supercracker (Jul 21, 2012)

pine nut said:


> I'm too impatient!  Wanna see some more! TTT



Well....I've been too busy. lol  
Tomorrow will be the first whole day I've had free in a while.  Planning on raising the dents and maybe working on the metal a bit. 

Today I had a couple of hours free while I was waiting around on other people at the shop. I had to freshen up the anti pig riverine assault craft.  There's some islands I need to be able to get to next year.


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## Jim P (Jul 22, 2012)

Is that a geenew (spelling not right) flat bottom canoe
?


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## Supercracker (Jul 22, 2012)

Jim P said:


> Is that a geenew (spelling not right) flat bottom canoe
> ?



Yep. Picked it up a while back for dirt cheap. An easy patch of a pin hole, replace a couple of pop rivets, repaint it and VIOLA. Duck/Pig boat for less than $200 including paint. 

The hardest part was deciding whether to christen her CSS Quantrill or CSS Bill Anderson.


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## Supercracker (Jul 22, 2012)

Little bit more done. Steamed out some small dents. But the camera wasn't charged up yet, so no pics. I'm going to be gone most of next week. So when I get back from that it'll be time to start applying finish. Once you've started to rub in an oil finish it MUST be done every day or the previous layer will get too hard to allow the next layer to go through. There'll be a couple of weeks of that. 

Today the trigger assembly got done. 

Before and after polishing with the R & L triggers. Gunk got scraped off, polished the trigger face, polished and trued the upper surface where it meets the sear so it will have a smooth action, and tightened up the slots in the trigger plate to make up for wear. 

The final polish prior to blueing is done a bit more coarse than you would for a newer gun. If this were a new gun I'd polish up to 600, but her I'll only go to 320. That way, after the blueing it looks like it's the same age as the rest of the gun and not a shiny new trigger on a century old gun. I'm not trying to make it look like a new gun. I'm trying to take a century old gun that was neglected and mistreated and make it look and function like a century old gun that was taken really good care of. 





once that's done the the whole shebang got case hardened and rust blued. 
Here's the trigger plate half way through the rust blue. When it's still a plum brown. You can see a couple of shiny spots where the original case hardening is still there and it rusts a much much slower rate. If they were'nt hidden by the trigger guard I'd have to go another route. 




Once you get that brown color you boil it in distilled water. Being heated in an oxygen starved environment causes the iron oxide (rust) to turn into something else that I can't remember the name of but it's blue. Then a soak in a baking soda solution to stop any residual rusting process. And a light oiling and it's ready to go. I couldn't get any pictures of it blue. I don't have the right lens or lights. 

After the blueing a file across the surface wouldn't scratch it. So I'm happy. Hopefully it'll give another 130 years of service.
Then it all goes back together nicely and fitted tot he trigger guard. 









I also started making a new cocking ear for the........."less than elegant" repair job someone did. 
















I'll take that to work with me tomorrow and TIG weld the new blank on. Then there'll need to be 2 or 3 hours of meticulous work with needle files, then redo the engraving to match the other hammer, then polishing, then hardening. My fingers hurt just talking about it. 

another couple hundred hours of this and I will have managed to turn a $400 gun into an $800 gun.  YAYYYYY


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## pine nut (Jul 22, 2012)

I will be patient, I will be patient, I will try to be patient....Really great job you are doing and I want to see the end product.  I saw a very beautiful similar shotgun in Kearny  Nebraska at a gun shop there last fall.  It was also a work of art!


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## Supercracker (Jul 23, 2012)

Stop
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hammer time! 





















Pretty darn close if I say so myself!  I'll save the engraving for later. I'm terrible at that.  





If this were a Prussian Sauer and Sohn or a Holland and Holland I'd spend days making and remaking the hammer ear til it was perfect. But this will do for a woods gun.


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## Lightnrod (Jul 24, 2012)

Sir, you have SKILLLLSSS!


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## webfootwidowmaker (Jul 24, 2012)

That was a lot of fun. What a perdy shotgun


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## Supercracker (Jul 25, 2012)

Lightnrod said:


> Sir, you have SKILLLLSSS!



ehhh, I don't know, it could be a LOT better. 

The new ear is a little bit thicker than the original, also a little bit more narrow at the base, the top/bottom blend line has a wave in it whereas the original was a gentle arc almost straight and the radius of the bend at the top is too large.

It's good enough for this, but I think it should be a lot better.

The R hammer on this Percussion gun also needs the same work done. However this was a near presentation grade gun in it's day. So I'll probably spend several days working on this one when I get to it. But this one is already a shooter, so it might be a good long while before I do.


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## Setter Jax (Jul 25, 2012)

Shane,

You are too hard on your self.  lol

SJ


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## Timberdoodle (Jul 25, 2012)

ART!  You have a gift, not least of which is patience.

Thanks for sharing.


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## coveyrise90 (Jul 25, 2012)

Wow! Very impressive. Thanks for sharing and please keep the info and pics coming!


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## pine nut (Aug 17, 2012)

ttt.  Still waiting to see her finished up and want to find the thread easier!


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## whitetaildoe85 (Aug 17, 2012)

Absolutely beautiful!


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## webfootwidowmaker (Aug 19, 2012)

Update! pls


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## Supercracker (Aug 20, 2012)

Nothing going on right now. I need more free time. I kind of have to be "in the mood" to do this stuff. lol


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## pine nut (Aug 20, 2012)

I understand that.  We all consider you to be an artist and the mood is quite understandable! lol


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