bnred9

556/223 Confession

Well the truth is I have been a AR guy for sometime. However, the CDDN Mini 14 kind of got me excited about a old mini I had tucked away. I had picked it up years ago and it had not been treated vary well. I think the guy said he carried it on the tractor year around in Eastern Colorado for coyotes.

So I dug it out of the back of my safe. This thing is full of dirt and grim so a good cleaning is in order. The rifle also has a lot of ware on the upper part of the barrel near the front sight, and some on the receiver. The wood stock has a few dings, but over all not to bad. Now my task has become to clean the rifle up and make it look good again.



What is the best gun blueing method?
What else would the Ruger Forum guys do?

Thanks,

Bob

LeMat

If it's in pretty bad shape, I'd have it park'd.

bnred9

parked you say, yes maybe that is the way to go. I know I want to try and make the stock look like a USGI M14 oil stock.

Bob

bwinters

The mini 14 is a great gun and I have 1 and still have ars.

heymatthew

If you don't have to have it blued, you could take it to a place that does Cerakote and have them sandblast it and Cerakote it in a semi-flat black or an armorer's black (pretty flat). Or parkerizing can be good, too.

As for the stock, if you want to leave it as-is, you can. Or you can sand it down smooth and fill in any dings and dents and then refinish it.

You can find the stocks on eBay fairly cheap as well.

LeMat

A company called Stocky's Stocks used to make a Mini stock out of essentially the same walnut as the M14 stock. So close I couldn't tell the difference.

A park'd Mini with one of those would be incredibly cool!

bnred9

Have only found a laminated stock.

So plans moving forward is to strip off existing stock and see what I come up with.
I have a home brew park and I local shop who will do the parking. Not sure witch one I will use right now, but will do one or the other after Elk season. Bob

GunBlue

I'd suggest a call to Ruger and get a quote for a refinishing and factory bluing job. They do it far cheaper than any 'smith, and they'll also go through the gun for you and get it back to speed. Often, they'll replace worn parts N/C. Best thing is, the bluing will be the correct color, and it won't come out with some indigo blue they never made. If on the other hand, you desire to get that military M-14 look, you can check Brownell's and order a Parkerizing kit and have fun. It's very easy to do.