This is the story of a poor Marlin 783 that got another chance.
Last year I walked into a gun shop to have a look around. One of the guys there knows that I like 22s and work on stocks. When he saw me walk in he said to me, "I got you a 22 for your collection". He then pulled a bolt action Marlin off the rack and handed it to me. Oh the poor thing, I wanted to cry due to the un godly things that were done to it. There was wood filler and something else in a large area on the right side of the buttstock. There were small holes all over the stock. It looked like some one had used tacks to decorate the stock at one time. The tacks had been removed and the holes filled with a light colored wood filler. The right front of the stock had been glued back on with wood glue. I handed it back to him and said no thank you.
He then said he would let me have it for $100. I told him I would think about it and left the store.
Latter that day I went back to the store. I left again with the rifle in hand and $98 less in my pocket.
The rifle sat with my other project guns untill last week.
A gun could get lost in this place.
Here are a few pics of the Marlin.
First off I needed to know if the stock was salvageable so, I stripped it.
There were two deep holes and deep cut ugly checkering of some kind on the right side of the buttstock. I have no clue why this was done to the stock, but it appeares that someone wad trying to fix something that someone else had done to the stock before.
After taking a good look at the stock I decided that I would try and save it.
The big issue was the buttstock. I looked at it like it had cancer and cut out the ugly and replace it with good wood.
I used Acraglas to fill the tack holes and chips.
I also found another crack in the stock. It was an easy fix.
I stained the stock with Chestnut Ridge Military Stock Stain and have applied the first coat of BLO.
It still needs 2 more hand rubbed coats of BLO and a wax top coat, but it looks like it's going to look nice.
