Remember this: If you don't clean your gun your skeletons will fall out your gun cabinet.
Recently visited an elderly man that had two guns out under his shed that he used to shoot nuisance varmin. Both guns were functional but in disrepair. I picked up one and checked it for bullets. Sure enough inside the chamber was loaded. I checked the safety to make sure I don't pull a Barney Pfiff. I walked over to the grapevine he had on a wooden beam and put a couple of shootable cups with pecans up on the flat surface. It had a scope on it so I fired away blowing one cup in two. Seeing how this was an automatic a bullet got stuck inside the chamber without being fed into the bullet's slot so the trigger could execute the hammer and fire the bullet. I looked at the old timer and asked him did he want it fixed or at the very least cleaned. He told me with some nonchalantness to 'do whatever I wanted to it'. Well I did.
I must confess now I am not a trained gunsmith. I am sure there is a gunsmith crying a river of blood right now at the things I did to these two guns. There was also a single shot wonder made in Brazil with the ERA stamped on the side. Truth be told the guns looked like a dusty broom closet where someone would hide a body. I found spiders between the metal and wood, cobwebs, completely rusted out, and the wood was atrocious. I felt a little sullied.
This was the second gun I did an overhaul on. I finally decided to take her apart and clean it good
because of the jamming problem with it.
With every gun there will come that point in its life where you got to give it a facelift. The gun is like everything else. If you expose it to the elements for to long it will rust and go to pot. I am not going into the detail of what I did to these guns.
My point here is show your gun some love. It needs cleaning, oiling, bluing, or even stock care.
I have noticed on stocks that carvings in the wood are point of origins for wood spliting. Even if you take the butt off the stock if there are small metal pins in there to hold the gun butt cover on, a crack can originate from there. Wood stocks have to be cleaned of grime, gun powder, or residue. Re-stain or vanish them to keep the effects of the elements off of them.
Preventative people, preventative.
Most guns aren't shot for years or even picked up. They are stowed away in a locked gun cabinet, hopefully, or God forbid left outside to rust into wrack and ruin.
For the money that is put into the purchase take care of the gun. If you're going to pass it down to the children or another person keep it in pristine shape. Its a family heirloom. I have relatives that have guns from the Civil War.
It is a crying shame when you see a man or woman with a gun from the twentieth century and a gun from the seventeenth century makes it look like trash for the dumping yard.
Hunters and Huntresses talk about how well they love hunting but the very tool they use is a disgrace even if its functional. Guns are not as the old joke goes "the red headed stepchild" or even the "black sheep of the family". With that said, some people remember the pings and dings of a gun for some monumental period in their history.
Just because its a lowly gun that doesn't cost all that much is no reason to trespass against it and fling it carelessly into the dirt. The brazilian made single shot gun I worked on I found was made in a barn in Brazil. The company later went bankrupt, changed hands, then eventually was attained by Stoeger and Benelli.
That is Providence. Providence is what lends value to things.
What is the history behind it? Maybe its your family history? Anyone now can google and join Ancestry.com to find a tin picture of the very weapon that is mounted over the family fireplace with a picture of the relative. That is how you instill pride in your children and give credence to a gun passed down through the ages to family members. You have to show your children why its of importance so they can see its value even if its just to your future generations.
Written by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
