Here are a couple of after pics. As mentioned, I didn't want to take it to the point of looking like a new rifle. So I just removed the coat of varnish that had been applied. That's where the majority of scratches/scuffs were. All I did was apply a couple of coats of BLOicon. I think I achieved the look I set out to do and it looks a whole lot better with not that much work.
But, is there a trick to getting the magazine to insert high enough into the action? The lever has that little clip on it so it barely moves when you flip it up or down. When the mag is inserted, the little nub on the lever mechanism hits the top of that little square on the side that of the mag that has the groove in it that the nub is supposed to fit into. So the mag doesn't lock into place as it can't go up high enough. I removed the clip but it still didn't work. The number on the mag matches the gun.