Gun Bluing

Do you know anyone who does gun bluing?

I had McBride’s re-blue a shotgun barrel once.  They sent it out to someone.  Their matte finish didn’t last more than three duck hunts on the coast.  So, I sold the gun and bought a camo one.  FCS guest Jim Irwin, Paul Irwin’s dad, owns Irwin Restorations LLC.  He is a fully licensed gunsmith located conveniently next door to Shady Oaks Gun Range at 3100 Woodall Dr., Cedar Park.  His phone number is 512-294-6331 and his email address is jimirwin@austin.rr.com.  Also, you might try Blackjack Gunsmithing at 13043 Pond Springs Rd., Austin.  Their phone number is 512-450-3535 and their email address is blackjackguns@gmail.com. I don’t know if either does blueing, but I’ll bet that they do.

I just noticed some surface rust (toothpick size freckles) on the blued barrel of my Remington Wingmaster – my fault completely for leaving it in storage for too long and probably did not clean it well enough the last time I used it.  A quick Google suggests I should use 00/000 steel wool to wipe them and re-blue the barrel with Birchwood Casey’s Cold Blue.  Does this sound right to you?  Would you do it any differently?

I would take some gentle solvent and the finest steel wool that you can find to clean your barrel.  Scrub it very lightly.

Re-bluing is a time consuming and difficult endeavor.  I’ve never tried it, but it’s an all or nothing proposition (you can’t do just “spots”).  The one time that I needed a barrel to be reblued was because there was dime to quarter-sized splotches on the barrel after a coastal duck hunt.  I had McBride’s do it.  It cost $115 or so.

With toothpick sized spots a future buyer will hardly notice/care.  So, if it were me I’d leave it alone if you can’t clean it off.