Pedersoli Rolling Block (.45-70 Govt.) - Nora

Found at the end of the 2017 guiding season, while vacationing in Seattle, WA, of all places. It’s an older Navy Arms import with some unique features, like a full octagonal barrel and brass carbine-style barrel band. In correspondence with Pedersoli, they claimed this serial no. was shipped in 1995.  

What it looked like when new

For this gun, I knew I wanted to redo it from the ground up. I would probably only ever have one "buffalo rifle", so I wanted it to be the ultimate. I got the idea in my head that I would take a Pronghorn with it at some point. At the time of this writing, that still hasn't happened.

I completely disassembled the gun and stripped all metal parts by soaking in vinegar, then used Laurel Mountain Forge’s browning solution to refinish as much as I could. This was the first time I strayed away from Birchwood Casey's finish, only because the barrel of this rifle was too long to fit in my oven.

I only started having real success with the cold browning solution after I discovered that I could run the shower and place the parts hanging in the humid bathroom. Once I figured that out, the rusting process sped up exponentially. By the way, if you've ever wondered about refinishing a case-hardened piece, yes, it is doable. 

After a couple days of maintenance coats, I took the gun out of the bathroom and polished the whole thing down with 0000 steel wool and gun oil, then let the barrel and parts soak in used motor oil for a couple days to stop any further oxidation. Nasty, but it worked. Then I just wiped it dry with a clean cloth. I also added a basic front dovetail sight, which was purely for looks.

Bricks and garbage can liners to make a vinegar soaking tub

Finished stripped raw

Reassembled after initial browning - still needs oil and buff

The wood furniture was sanded down raw and reprofiled for better fit (the Pedersoli’s I’ve seen, for whatever reason, are almost always proud on the bottom of the frame, making a “lip” under the receiver). While I was at it, I reprofiled the entire stock to accept a crescent buttplate from a Ballard Rifle. I also sharpened up the shape of the top comb, a personal preference of mine.

The buttplate was raw casted brass from Track of the Wolf and real rough when I got it, literally fresh from the mold (I regret not taking any “before” photos). I ground it down to the shape I wanted on a bench grinder, drilled the holes, beveled them for a countersunk screw using a larger bit, and then polished it using gradually finer and finer sandpapers from 100 grit up to 1500, then finished with steel wool. I was careful and precise in fitting it to the stock, and I got pretty close, but I’m not a real gunsmith so some axle grease filled in any mistakes I made. I had to take a *lot* of wood off the stock to make it fit. I’m actually shocked at how good it turned out.

The wood itself was stained with an incorrect stain that I used by mistake - it was some hardware store floor stain that was lying around in the shop. The label had rubbed off, so I confused it with my gunstock stain. But I lived with it, coated it with BLO for several days, buffed with steel wool, and then blackwashed with black spray paint before buffing it again. It turned out great, and it’s got the “dry” feel of an older gun.

I added a 5” extension tube to the 6x Malcolm scope just for cosmetics, because if I'm gonna use an old West scope, I want it looooong! I actually visited the Malcolm office in CA to find this - not much to see, but kind of cool to talk to the people there. I then rubbed the whole scope down with mustard to remove most of the bluing. The metal on these scopes is shiny aluminum underneath, so for a different look I just did one light streaky rub with the Laurel browning solution and left it at that, giving it a type of distressed copper appearance. 

There was a group of bighorn sheep in the sights here, but they didn't show up in the photo. (I didn't take the shot).

Seeing as my new crescent buttplate wouldn’t match the other, older brass parts, I decided to start over fresh. I soaked all the brass pieces in acetone to remove any remaining varnish, and then used a new method I discovered to tarnish the pieces; basically, you fill the bottom of a sealed container with vinegar, and suspend your parts above the vinegar to let the vapors work inside the container, without making actual contact with the metal. For my purposes, I used a piece of wood to create an “island” in the bottom of a lidded tupperware and put my parts on that, surrounded by a pool of vinegar just below the island's surface. I let it sit overnight for two nights, buffing some of the chunkier deposits off in between. The end result is extremely pretty, giving a dull brown look that is my favorite shade of brass. The new buttplate and the older pieces all matched perfectly. 

Brass ageing using the vinegar method

Final reassembly saw axle grease to fit all the wood-to-metal surfaces.

My only regret is not taking the chance to lighten the trigger springs while I had the gun disassembled. I should have taken the time to figure it out. Ah well. Guess I'll have to do it again.