A couple No. 4 questions after a trip to the range...

[CINDERS]

You know thinking of what your saying it maybe that the wood is excessively dry and has shrunk over the years as we know nought of their history for all we know about it is it could have lived in a barn in the Arizona desert or Death Valley.
So strip all of the wood off the metal give it RLO/Min Turps 50/50 till it cannot soak up another drop letting it dry between coats whilst your there you can inspect the draws and anything else you can't whilst assembled thats what I would do as the very first thing before faffing about with anything else......

Most of the guys here are registered gunsmiths and or armourers whether in service or retired they offer their advice free of charge and with integrity, like I say to my son when he becomes to smart being a smart ar$e "Don't poke the Leopard" in reference to a game warden on you-tube who did that with a long stick to try and get a Leopard out of a cage in the back of a land Rover in Africa.
Upshot of that was the Leopard jumped out bolted into the passengers side only thing is he left the window down half way cats being cats it joined him in the cab luckily it could not get its back legs in there but it caned that chap really badly, I saw the aftermath pics he was not healthy looking more like he had been through a shredder.............

Here's the clip its worth watching the whole thing so you understand what & why the cat attacked.