Ecuador 88 Commission Rifle Carbine Conversion

[Eaglelord17]

To be fair, Paul does have many things in his books which makes me question the quality of his info. For example his book on Mannlichers he has a improperly loaded Mannlicher clip in a photo. He does mention several times that he uses others collections to get his data, which generally means he isn't a expert in the subject himself.

With Mannlichers and Commission rifles I take all data with a grain of salt, as there is so much misinformation floating around it gets hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Aragorn243]

I have four separate sources that list the sale of the rifles from Germany to Ecuador between 1898 and 1904. The exact date is in question, the time frame or the seller is not. These sources include the importer who purchased them and got his information from Ecuador. These same sources also indicate that Ecuador returned rifles to the Czech's to be rebarrelled when they became worn out. The new barrels were kept in the same original caliber as the initial sale rifles. What is also not clear is whether the carbines were part of the original sale or a secondary sale. Granted not a lot of information out there but there is at least some documentation for this and oddly enough, some of what Bob believes fits in, the involvement of the Czech's for one. What he believes was a sale was instead a refurbishment.

But really, I didn't start this thread to turn into another one of the senseless 88 Commission rifle arguments. I wanted to show a little known example and my efforts to stabilize and restore it.

In that note, I cleaned and washed the stock. Most of it is solid with the exception of the front 6 inches. Seems OK but shows indications of some dry rot on the interior. Does not extend to the exterior of the wood. A lot of the dents worked themselves out without me doing anything other than running hot water in the shower on it. Still plenty left. A few things showed up, a pair of crowns on the underside behind the trigger guard. Faint but there. There is a A J carved into the butt and an A carved into the middle of the stock. I noticed the A's but not the J prior.

[browningautorifle]

indications of some dry rot on the interior. Does not extend to the exterior of the wood.

So, what did you do with the other? Are you going to do it to this one as well? You injected something...?

[Aragorn243]

I thought about that but I'm going to wait and see what it feels like after the oil is out. I did inject the other one with wood petrifier and it worked real well. I'm thinking something will be necessary because something has to be strong enough to hold the nose cap on. I can't get the stuff due to the holiday anyway. I think I had to throw it away after the first use, hardens in the bottle.

[browningautorifle]

I think I had to throw it away after the first use, hardens in the bottle.

Probably, then you can guarantee your results. Otherwise we hold onto this stuff for years and wonder why it isn't up to snuff. Anyway, we'll see as it proceeds.

[Aragorn243]

Stock is cleaned. Metal is cleared of the vast majority of rust and it's put back together, oiled. Coated with BLO and it looks as bad as it did before I started. Man this is an ugly rifle. But I like it. Still need to fix the end cap and I think I will get something to fill the pitting in the shroud. Rust did eat it's way through it with two pin head sized holes.

[Aragorn243]

It does look a little better. It is stabilized anyway.

[browningautorifle]

It DOES look better now.

[Aragorn243]

Thinking about doing a full restore on this. JB weld the shroud, smooth and krylon black paint. Steam the stock, replace bad wood (cut it out). Polish the metal, cold blue. It's in poor condition now so not likely to harm the value such as it is.

What do you guys think?

[Eaglelord17]

The receiver would have originally been in the white and the barrel shroud blued. I personally would try to replicate that (I also love in the white parts despite the lack of practicality).