[Rick McC.]

Last fall, I picked up my Dad’s 30-30 that he’d loaned to a friend for the last few years.

It apparently lived on a farm tractor. Sitting muzzle down. Ensconced in a piece of PVC.

Now, it was no LNIB rifle before the farm duty, as it was Dad’s deer gun for many years when he ran the dogs, hunting whitetail deer in the swamp.

Since it has a lot of sentimental value to me (besides Dad’s use, I shot my first deer with it) I was interested in getting it back into some semblance of working order.

When I picked it up, I initially thought that the guy had cleaned it up pretty good, until I saw it up close.

I started on it the following week, and put 3-4 hours into it at a time, whenever I had a chance.

I tore it down fairly far, and started in on the outside of the barrel, magazine tube, and frame with 0000 steel wool.

Everything was rusty, including the bore, inside of the mag tube, follower and spring, and most of what came out of the frame.

After a lot of scraping, brushing, and cussing, it was time to put everything back together. I lubed easily reached parts, and the outside, with Eezox, and used a standard CLP on the internals, thinking that the most they’d get down the road would likely be stuff sprayed in from the outside.

I’d never worked on one of the old Winchesters before, but I guess I managed to stumble through it OK, as it works, and there were no parts left over.

It’s currently keeping his old Browning A5 company (which I rescued similarly several years ago), in my gun cabinet.

Next hunting season, it’ll accompany me in the swamp; just as it did Dad, so many years ago.