Thread: Winchester 88 Restoration

Well spring comes around in about a month so the winter project better finish up. Restored a 1961 Winchester Model 88 .243.

Before. Stock was quite banged up, action was rough, trigger felt like there was several forests worth of dirt in the internals, bluing very worn on the barrel. There was piles of dirt in every nook and cranny!







Metal work stripped, rust blued, soaked in oil, cleaned and gun oiled. Used the rust blue solution @rambo-6mmrem made up. I did "adulterate" the mix with a very small amount of ethanol to improve the wet out on the metal, increase drying speed, and dilute it a bit more. This significantly improved the solution, but please if you do choose to do this, do not mix in ethanol in the bottle, only mix with the amount you dispense each time you use it.




Stock. All the dents steamed out, several coats of finish, repair a couple of areas of gouges, checkering, final coats of finish, then buff back.




Assembly. I'll just say a Winchester 88 is not a low parts count firearm and is not as simple as a 1873 Winchester style lever gun to pull apart and assemble!
Added a bit of bling with the Skinner peep sight and a brass foresight. I ordered the tallest front sight and will file it down when I sight it. I'm hoping I can get a front sight hood on but I doubt it.