Heads up on Deer Creek American Pistol

[Spitfire1]

Yeah that faults is one thing about the kits we have to live with, got a .32 here that was kit built as well and had to fix a lot of things I did not like and that affected accuracy.

 

[patocazador]

I tried to test fire the pistol this morning. A .490 ball was too big to use even with a .010 patch so I used a .457 ball with .022 ticking. I cocked and dropped the hammer 7 times before it fired. It only sparked the 1st and last time. I'm pretty sure the frizzen is soft and ordered some hardening compound from Brownell's.
I used a grinding wheel and burlew rubber disc to reshape the primer pan to lower it in relation to the touch hole where it contacts the barrel. It's slightly better now.

I disassembled the whole gun and started to reduce the stock to even it up with the hardware. Lots to do still. I'm going to disassemble the lock completely and work on the sear and pawl(?) to get the trigger down to about 3 lbs. from its current 10 lbs. I don't know how to get the slop out of the crude trigger assembly so will have to live with it as it is. The hammer's side has to be polished to avoid rubbing on the side of the stock and barrel. The mainspring also is moving and rubbing on the lock plate.
(This gun is made of very cheap components and I don't recommend anyone to buy it as it isn't worth the money.)

 

[Spitfire1]

Sometimes you buy something from the factory for big bucks expecting good quality and you get crap as well  

 

[patocazador]

Another thing I discovered with it is the barrel was so rough inside (and out) that it tore cleaning patches to shreds. I scrubbed the bore 110 times with Remington 40X Bore Cleaner but it didn't help much. Right where the crown of the muzzle meets the lands and grooves, there are several small blobs of metal that look like welding rod spherical trash. Maybe the barrel is sleeved and they welded the two ends??? and left weld residue behind?

 

[Spitfire1]

Can be tooling marks as well , give the barrel a good lapping with progressively finer grades of valve grinding compound and see how it comes out then.

 

[patocazador]

No, it's not tooling marks. It's 3 globs of weld trash.

I spent 3 hours today almost finishing the stock shaping. Also polished the brass and pot metal stuff like nose cap and trigger guard.
Next, I took the mainspring out of the lock and the trigger bar and polished the sear, lock backing and interfaces between the lock and springs. It's much better now on the trigger pull.

I'm going to wet the stock to raise the grain, sand it, dry it and stain it next. After I get the Express Blue, I'll blue it and polish and assemble.
I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[patocazador]

I stained the stock with one coat of Tandy leather stain - saddle tan color. It stains everything kind of red not tan but that's what's on the label. I wanted a slight reddish cast to it but with each coat of Tru-oil it seemed to get darker. I applied 5 coats of Tru-oil over the last 3 days and buffed it down with 0 steel wool after each coat. I didn't buff the last coat yet.

I want to buff and polish it to a semi-gloss or matte finish, not so shiny, what do y'all recommend?
I don't have any rotten stone or pumice but I have a couple of mildly abrasive polishing cakes meant for power buffing. I thought about working it over with 0000 steel wool and then polishing with gunstock wax.

Here is a picture showing it rough-assembled to make sure things didn't change after the finish was done. I still have to blue the barrel etc. after another 4000-6000 swipes on the barrel with 350 grit sandpaper.

 

[exMember]

man that looks great!

You can use some 0000 steel wool and oil it with boiled linseed oil and buff it down. The oil provides some slick surface so it doesnt not cut through the finish.

birchwood casey stock sheen and conditioner also cuts down the gloss greatly.

 

[Muley Hunter]

Won't that make it darker? How about tung oil?

 

[exMember]

any oils will make the stock darker. Thats why you see a tc hawken and its an orangish red color, they use a spray on poly and it doesnt soak into the wood, giving it a natural color.

 

[Spitfire1]

Looking good Bob !  I did my stock with furniture polish after the last buffing with steel wool and it came out snazzy.

 

[Muley Hunter]

any oils will make the stock darker. Thats why you see a tc hawken and its an orangish red color, they use a spray on poly and it doesnt soak into the wood, giving it a natural color.

Tung oil didn't make my Renegade darker.

 

[exMember]

I don't recall you removing the factory finish either. You went over it which is why it did not soak into the wood.

 

[Spitfire1]

Some of these new finishes can be a bear to remove.

 

[WillametteT]

Wow, that is a great looking pistol!

 

[Muley Hunter]

Some of these new finishes can be a bear to remove.

Nothing new about the Renegade. It's 30 years old. Just an oil finish that still looked new. I had no reason to remove it.

I thought Jon had said the boiled linseed oil darkened the wood. Remember the one he refinished. he sanded off the stain on it. When he put on the boiled linseed oil it really darkened the wood. I wasn't aware the tung oil did that too.

 

[exMember]

I didnt sand any stain off the TC stock, TC just shoots them with a clear coat and thats why you do not get the true wood color, the finish just sits on top rather than soaking in. Tung oil darkens wood as well. BLO over time yellows and gets real dark, but its not a good 100% full on stock finish because it dries out and wears off.

 

[patocazador]

Looking good Bob !  I did my stock with furniture polish after the last buffing with steel wool and it came out snazzy.

I used Jon's suggestion and used a linseed oil soaked 0000 steel wool pad to rub it down and then polished with Birchwood-Casey gunstock wax. It looks OK.

I started using a product from Brownell's called Express Blue. It is supposed to be as durable as a hot tank bluing with less work etc. I only tried it on the trigger guard, nose cap, bottom barrel rib, and tang. You have to degrease everything by soaking it in acetone, scrub it with a detergent, rinse with hot water, and dry. Then you have to heat the parts with a propane torch to 200 degrees and wipe on the solution which gives off a toxic orange gas (bromine, I think) and instantly rusts the steel. Then repeat the heating and application twice more. You put it in boiling water for 5 minutes and then card off the rust with a wire brush.

You have to repeat the whole procedure 6-10x according to the directions. They ought to rename the product to "PIA Complicated Blue".

I have to get better organized to finish the procedure. Also, the nose cap is pot metal and wouldn't take the bluing so I polished it back to the white afterwards. The ramrod tube took a partial blue so I reheated it and applied "Perma-Blue" to it and it turned out looking great with much less hassle. I don't know how durable it will be though.

 

[exMember]

Nose cap is pewter, thats why it wont take the bluing.

The express blue sounds like track of the wolfs browning agent, its brown and then you boil it to turn it blue. To much friggin work for me with a 32" barrel.

 

[Spitfire1]

I've never found anything that beats hot tank blueing , lot of work to get it done right though.