Mossberg 44us(a) Restoration

My son-in-law was contacted by a mutual friend of ours. The friend gave him some rifle parts - a barrel with trigger assembly and a stock. The story for the rifle was that this Mossberg 44us(a) .22 caliber belonged to or friend's father. They used to shoot it together when he was a child but hadn't seen it in more than 40 years. During that time, his father dismantled it for an unknown reason and lost the parts. Since his father has passed away, he was hoping we could restore the rifle so he could fire it and remember those happy times with his father. This is what we started with:

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As you can see,the bluing on the receiver had worn away, but thankfully there was no rust.

The stock was stripped and refinished using 8 coats of hand-rubbed BLO followed by a coat of gunny's wax. New parts were obtained via Ebay, Numrich and Havlins (really nice people!). Usabaker found a butt plate for us. The barrel and miscellaneous parts were stripped and cold blued using Birchwood Casey followed by a soaking in oil for several days. Final assembly was completed and the rifle returned to its owner earlier today. Needless to say, he was very happy to have this keepsake returned and relive those happy memories with his father as he shot it this morning. It was just a civilian model .22 rifle, but it meant the world to him.

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