My 100 year old Winchester 9422 Mag...long read

I "inherited" this Winchester 9422 Mag from my uncle. I kept finding it outside on his golf cart that he used on his land. He left it outside in the elements all the time, I tried to tell him what it was and that at one time it was collectible. He really didnt care, he only paid $75 for it years ago at an auction so he thought thats about all it was worth. I finally couldnt take it anymore and took it home and gave it a good cleaning, it was rusted and already had some pitting in areas and the clear coat was peeling off. I gave it back on the agreement he would take better care of it...I found it on the golf cart again a week later so this time I took it. I told him I wasnt giving it back because I hated to see it rot away...I know its his gun and he can do what he wants with it but still. Ive had it for about 3 years, he finally stopped asking for it and said I could just keep it. Ive had it stripped down for a while and wanted to make it look like a 100 year old/Antique gun, I finally finished it today. It was to rough to reblue and I thought it would be unique done like this, any value it had was long gone. I never had the intention of keeping it and I think it will be a good Christmas present for my Uncle. I visited with him about a week ago, he said he had seen the same gun in a store for $900 and it made him sick, he just didnt know what he had, lol. These are Before/After pics. Just thought Id share...its also the first time Ive tried this.

nice work

Awesome. Those older .22 mags are awesome. My grandpa has a pump .22 mag thats about 50 years old that I can't help but stare at every time I go to his house.

And you got a nice uncle. Mine would've beat me if I took his rifle home.

What finish did you use

nice

Sweet

Can you explain a little bit about what type of finish/color, etc. you used? Its hard to tell exactly what you did. The first series of pictures shows the rifle stripped to bare metal and I'm assuming the later pictures is some sort of rust colored coating type finish? Looks good.

Good luck on finishing this rifle. Personally I would let a professional do the work on a gin of this grade.

Good work man!

Thanks fellas, the finish is Birchwood Casey's Plum Metal finish. You have to strip/clean the metal, heat it and apply the finish. Its a long process and not the easiest thing Ive ever done but it came out very nice IMO and it looks pretty close to actual patina. Its still a tack driver too.

Dogcatcher...I had a professional look at it, I wanted to have it restored to original condition. Its hard to see in the pics but the rifle had alot of pitting and rust, I got almost all of the rust off. He told me that to fix the pitting and restore it would cost more than its worth. Like I said, any collector value was gone, Ive refinished several guns just never used the Plum. Itll be in the family from now on and can always be stripped back down and restored, just not the route I went.