1897 Project No. 1

[ssgross]

Cleaning rod damage on the bolt face(?)

yes. a bit worse I thought - someone put a rod in the muzzle and beat on it trying to get a stuck action open.
Here is a quick summary what the damage was when I found it to save some reading.
1. extension (original serialized one) was broke in the usual place by slot for the slide arm, what looked like a hammer mark on the outside. maybe bubba had a hard time taking the forend off,
2. barrel was dented on 2 sides, maybe 6 inches from the breach. Over tightening of a barrel vise perhaps?
3. barrel had a bow in it midway.
4. mag tube was oval shaped at the rear, and had a few dents in it
I think maybe it suffered a fall before bubba gave up?

Doesn't look it hit the buffing wheel too hard on the last reblue

Thanks. Last reblue was me, unless you mean what it was when I got it. I don't use a buffing wheel...lots of time with paper backed by file or wood block, and slow rust blueing. It's not perfect, and on a project like this I rarely remove all the age. A few dots of where the worst exterior pitting was on the receiver can be seen if you look really close in good light. I like my projects to look their age, but also look well cared for. I wanted to be careful to keep the edges as they were when I got it, so I was particularly careful to "do no harm".