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Help needed to identify and clean a gun


Rabbit-NL
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I am from the Netherlands and inherited a gun.
I want to sell it (if that is allowed here), but I need help.
How can I best clean it and make it shiny again?
And how should I describe the gun?

I only know what I read on it: B.S.A.  guns ltd. England .22 cal

IMG-20180811-WA0001.jpg

With "allowed here" I meant not this forum but Netherlands. :)

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33 minutes ago, Rabbit-NL said:

Are there tricks to make it look nice again?
The owner was a heavy smoker and not that neat.

Can anyone give an estimate of the worth of this one?

0000 Wire wool and plenty of oil on the metal work will usually remove rust stains, but you need to take it easy or you could remove the bluing. The stock looks like it could do with a total strip and re-finish. However, unless you are totally confident you know what you are doing, you might be wise to leave it as it is. A poor refurbish could well reduce the value rather than increase it. If I was looking for an elderly air rifle, I would expect a few dings and battle scars; poorly finished woodwork or gleaming bluing indicates that it has been tarted up to secure a sale and make me suspicious of what else has been done on the inside that cannot be seen. Polish it up as you see fit, but please dont expect the selling price to double !

I personally would never try to value any gun unseen because there are so many faults that could be present that a photo does not show up. What the market is like in the Netherlands for an Airsporter I have know idea. If you want to see what they fetch over here in the UK have a look at ` "Guntrader.co.uk"; you can filter out what you are looking for by gun type / make / model / caliber. 

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17 minutes ago, JJsDad said:

0000 Wire wool and plenty of oil on the metal work will usually remove rust stains, but you need to take it easy or you could remove the bluing. The stock looks like it could do with a total strip and re-finish. However, unless you are totally confident you know what you are doing, you might be wise to leave it as it is. A poor refurbish could well reduce the value rather than increase it. If I was looking for an elderly air rifle, I would expect a few dings and battle scars; poorly finished woodwork or gleaming bluing indicates that it has been tarted up to secure a sale and make me suspicious of what else has been done on the inside that cannot be seen. Polish it up as you see fit, but please dont expect the selling price to double !

I personally would never try to value any gun unseen because there are so many faults that could be present that a photo does not show up. What the market is like in the Netherlands for an Airsporter I have know idea. If you want to see what they fetch over here in the UK have a look at ` "Guntrader.co.uk"; you can filter out what you are looking for by gun type / make / model / caliber. 

Correct, that gun needs to be restored by the new owner, nothing you can do will fool or impress the kind of guy that'll buy that.

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Nice old Airsporter - I believe this one is from the late 60's. It has the self opening tap, the straight barrel, not tapered and full length cuts for the scope dovetail rather than four small cuts. With a serial number it could be dated fairly accurately.  Nice to see it still has the spring hood foresight cover, these are usually missing.

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7 minutes ago, Hamster said:

Correct, that gun needs to be restored by the new owner, nothing you can do will fool or impress the kind of guy that'll buy that.

It is not my intention to fool anyone.  Just want to show a little respect to potential buyers to hand them a non-sticky gun because it is very dirty.
If the wood was Original white it would have this color now too. :-) 
Maybe my English isn't good enough and I should not have used the word "trick".
 

3 minutes ago, 1066 said:

Nice old Airsporter - I believe this one is from the late 60's. It has the self opening tap, the straight barrel, not tapered and full length cuts for the scope dovetail rather than four small cuts. With a serial number it could be dated fairly accurately.  Nice to see it still has the spring hood foresight cover, these are usually missing.

Where can I look to find the serial number?

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40 minutes ago, JJsDad said:

0000 Wire wool and plenty of oil on the metal work will usually remove rust stains, but you need to take it easy or you could remove the bluing. The stock looks like it could do with a total strip and re-finish. However, unless you are totally confident you know what you are doing, you might be wise to leave it as it is. A poor refurbish could well reduce the value rather than increase it. If I was looking for an elderly air rifle, I would expect a few dings and battle scars; poorly finished woodwork or gleaming bluing indicates that it has been tarted up to secure a sale and make me suspicious of what else has been done on the inside that cannot be seen. Polish it up as you see fit, but please dont expect the selling price to double !

I personally would never try to value any gun unseen because there are so many faults that could be present that a photo does not show up. What the market is like in the Netherlands for an Airsporter I have know idea. If you want to see what they fetch over here in the UK have a look at ` "Guntrader.co.uk"; you can filter out what you are looking for by gun type / make / model / caliber. 

I have no intention to refurbish something I know nothing about. Just give it a good clean (I'm a woman ;-) ) because of dirty stcky finger spots and heavy smokesomething on it. :-)

But i don't want to do it wrong so I do damages.

Edited by Rabbit-NL
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Nothing wrong with your english, its just a case of us understanding the condition and what you are hoping to achieve.. If its only a good clean up thats needed, a good rub over with a piece of coarse cloth (like a bit of old towel) and a light machine oil such as `3 in 1` should remove any sticky residue on the metal work. The woodwork could be rubbed down with a cloth and a few drops of `white-spirit` and then treated with a wax furniture polish

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10 minutes ago, HW95J said:

Must be someone on the forum who might like to purchase and restore this? Would make a great thread to see before/after 

im tempted but im just soooo busy at the moment.............i wish i wasnt...:lol:...i quite like that.....its from the same "era" as the BSA Merc' S   and the HW77 ive just done

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