At one of my local Gun/Pawn shops I do business with Saturday. The owner took me to the backroom where he had just opened a crate of 1916's (20) in 7x57. They were COVERED in cosmoline.
He picked the only one with a Tangent rear sight, and I picked this one. They all had greasy Navy Arms tags attached. $169 a pop.
After spending most of Sunday stripping and cleaning, I was pleasantly surprised. After cleaning and steaming out dings, I wiped on a coat of linseed oil and placed it in the sunshine (97F)The metal was left as is. There was no rust anywhere except a few spots on the barrel underside. After getting the "gunk" out of the barrel it has a nice shiny bore with well defined grooves. The import stamp under the barrel is SAMCO The serial #s match on the receiver, rear sight, trigger guard, barrel, floor plate and stock. The first pic is before cleaning. Taking it out for a test run tomorrow. If all goes well I will pick up 1 or 2 more.
First pic is before cleaning. It's a 1923 date.
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