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recovering a Browning 425


nic
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hello,

come the end of the season i may ned to recover my 425.

i loved the feel of the gun when it was new 8 years ago, but the years o=n the foreshore have taken all of the 'duragrip' finish off and the camo is white on most of the stock now...

anyone any suggestions as to where to get the woodwork redone.... i may have the action and barrel ceracoted.

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7 hours ago, nic said:

hello,

come the end of the season i may ned to recover my 425.

i loved the feel of the gun when it was new 8 years ago, but the years o=n the foreshore have taken all of the 'duragrip' finish off and the camo is white on most of the stock now...

anyone any suggestions as to where to get the woodwork redone.... i may have the action and barrel ceracoted.

I think you mean refinishing or restoration.

WelshWarrior on here does that sort of work. Not a clue as to where for Cerakote.

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On 21/10/2020 at 16:54, figgy said:

I think you mean refinishing or restoration.

WelshWarrior on here does that sort of work. Not a clue as to where for Cerakote.

On the 425 waterfowl, browning put what looks like a vinyl wrap around the wood and metal sections.  the wood was then coated with what was called 'duragrip'  after the last 8 seasons, the duragrip is all but worn off and the wrap is showing white where is has the most wear from hand/finger contact with must/sand acting as an abrasive... i would like to get the wood re wrapped and rather than wrapping the barrels and working parts was wondering if ceracote was a decent option... never used it before.

 

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You can get the woodwork hydrodipped and then srayed with matt clear coat.

I've seen some guns done with spray paint and done with local plant leaves spraying different colours of greens brown and sand. This would be easy to repair and redo yourself where it wears.

If you want a wrap this may be of interest. https://www.gunskins.com/blogs/dominant-lack-of-presence/5-good-reasons

Edited by figgy
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  • 6 months later...

Gun all done now.

Got the barrel and working bits ceracoted Graphite Black by Tac Coatings of Hereford.  http://www.taccoatings.co.uk/

I tried to get what I thought was just a vinyl wrap off.... what a Tw%t !  The gunsmith (https://www.lucasandwatts.co.uk/) who did it for me I do not think will want to do another..... it took nitromors, bead blasting and soaking in acetone to get it ooff and a lot of elbow grease to do around the chequering.... however the gun's furniture is now wax and oil finished and it basically looks like a new gun, not one that does 50 plus trips onto various marshes each season and is treated unfairly and abused regularly ...

excuse the dog fur in the picture, but it is sitting on their bed 🙂

IMG_4228.JPG

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2 hours ago, nic said:

Gun all done now.

Got the barrel and working bits ceracoted Graphite Black by Tac Coatings of Hereford.  http://www.taccoatings.co.uk/

I tried to get what I thought was just a vinyl wrap off.... what a Tw%t !  The gunsmith (https://www.lucasandwatts.co.uk/) who did it for me I do not think will want to do another..... it took nitromors, bead blasting and soaking in acetone to get it ooff and a lot of elbow grease to do around the chequering.... however the gun's furniture is now wax and oil finished and it basically looks like a new gun, not one that does 50 plus trips onto various marshes each season and is treated unfairly and abused regularly ...

excuse the dog fur in the picture, but it is sitting on their bed 🙂

IMG_4228.JPG

Look like a job well done and a costly one at that , I dare say this day and age if I had the same work done on my guns apart from my ( best ) one it would cost more than any of my other four guns are worth , so for the rest of their time in my cabinet they will continue to get a drop of 3 in 1 oil and a rub down with a bit of fine wire wool if they show signs of rust if after been left in the gun sleeve for a few days after a night out in the rain :good:

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1 hour ago, London Best said:

@Marshman, why would you leave your gun in a sleeve for a few days after a night in the rain?

With respect, that’s not just lazy, it’s stupid.

I fully agree and their is no excuse , as you say it is stupid and are asking for trouble , by more luck than judgement I have had very little trouble with any gun I have had until they ended up well past the sell by date , my everyday gun at present is a second hand B S A , s x s, ej ,I bought at auction for just under £200 a good 10 or more years ago , in that time I have fired on average 2000 shells a year and to date I have had a top lever spring put in and that is it , not so much now but in my younger days I have been out in all weathers virtually every day of the season with often doing the morning and evening flight on the same day, apart from Sundays as we can't go in our county and that would be the day it had a good clean so it was ready for service the following day , lazy and stupid yes , but I hold my hand up for not cleaning it after every time I went out .

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10 hours ago, marsh man said:

Look like a job well done and a costly one at that , I dare say this day and age if I had the same work done on my guns apart from my ( best ) one it would cost more than any of my other four guns are worth , so for the rest of their time in my cabinet they will continue to get a drop of 3 in 1 oil and a rub down with a bit of fine wire wool if they show signs of rust if after been left in the gun sleeve for a few days after a night out in the rain :good:

In regards to cost... it was less than a cheap semi or Turkish OU.... and the gun suits me.   After 11 years of abuse it needed a good service anyway as I had only ever given a basic clean/oil and never really stripped it. so in my head, I had factored that cost off of the price as it was cleaned and serviced during the strip/rebuild.

I could have reduced the cost by stripping the gun and doing the wood myself.  The strip is easy... anyone can do that.... its the putting back together so it works and not have half a dozen spare parts that i was concerned with.  The service I got from Chris at Lucas and Watts was excellent and I would highly recommend him to anyone needing gunsmithing services.

The wood really was an ****... I thought it would come off with a little heat ..... no kin chance... well worth the payment out.

The ceracote was £220.... thats the price, accept it or buy a can of matt black from Halfords 🙂

It is now like a new gun... one that is very hard to source second hand and no longer made

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1 hour ago, nic said:

In regards to cost... it was less than a cheap semi or Turkish OU.... and the gun suits me.   After 11 years of abuse it needed a good service anyway as I had only ever given a basic clean/oil and never really stripped it. so in my head, I had factored that cost off of the price as it was cleaned and serviced during the strip/rebuild.

I could have reduced the cost by stripping the gun and doing the wood myself.  The strip is easy... anyone can do that.... its the putting back together so it works and not have half a dozen spare parts that i was concerned with.  The service I got from Chris at Lucas and Watts was excellent and I would highly recommend him to anyone needing gunsmithing services.

The wood really was an ****... I thought it would come off with a little heat ..... no kin chance... well worth the payment out.

The ceracote was £220.... thats the price, accept it or buy a can of matt black from Halfords 🙂

It is now like a new gun... one that is very hard to source second hand and no longer made

Excellent job and really pleased you are happy with the end result , as you say , it is now like a new gun , it suits you and will give you many more years of good service .

My problem , well not really a problem is I don't look at a gun as a work of art but as a honest work horse , I have bought them all second hand and at the end of their life they have ended up in the melting pot , the only gun I sold which I regretted was a Midland Gun Company 3 inch hammer gun , it was full and full with 32 inch barrels , believe it or not I gave the bloke I knew what he wanted and that was £20 for the gun and another £3 for a belt nearly full of 3 inch shells , I used that gun in my peak years when I often shot fowl running into three figures in a season and used it throughout the year on pigeons , the weight didn't bother me one bit as I was pretty fit and weighed around 12 / 13 stone , that gun never ever let me down and I fed it everything from cheap clay shells to good quality three inch shells for the geese , with never letting me down it's not to say it was in very good condition as it started to get loose on the face and it was kept tight by a small piece of paper in the fore stock , time move on and I had already bought a another gun that was hammerless and a bit lighter when a chap I met coming back from a flight one day asked me what gun I used for the geese and I showed him my old hammer gun , told him it was getting loose and would soon have to give a rest , he said he would love to have that gun for a wall piece and offered me £25 , I shook his hand and the deal was done , it was only later when I no longer had it that I regretted selling it , where it is now ? , haven't got a clue but I hope it is still hanging up somewhere .

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14 hours ago, marsh man said:

I fully agree and their is no excuse , as you say it is stupid and are asking for trouble , by more luck than judgement I have had very little trouble with any gun I have had until they ended up well past the sell by date , my everyday gun at present is a second hand B S A , s x s, ej ,I bought at auction for just under £200 a good 10 or more years ago , in that time I have fired on average 2000 shells a year and to date I have had a top lever spring put in and that is it , not so much now but in my younger days I have been out in all weathers virtually every day of the season with often doing the morning and evening flight on the same day, apart from Sundays as we can't go in our county and that would be the day it had a good clean so it was ready for service the following day , lazy and stupid yes , but I hold my hand up for not cleaning it after every time I went out .

Have to say I have always been just the opposite and have never used a gun without cleaning it afterwards. Even after an evening flight when I was sleeping in the car by the sea wall the (ten bob) gun was dried and cleaned before food/sleep.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 07/05/2021 at 18:12, nic said:

Gun all done now.

Got the barrel and working bits ceracoted Graphite Black by Tac Coatings of Hereford.  http://www.taccoatings.co.uk/

I tried to get what I thought was just a vinyl wrap off.... what a Tw%t !  The gunsmith (https://www.lucasandwatts.co.uk/) who did it for me I do not think will want to do another..... it took nitromors, bead blasting and soaking in acetone to get it ooff and a lot of elbow grease to do around the chequering.... however the gun's furniture is now wax and oil finished and it basically looks like a new gun, not one that does 50 plus trips onto various marshes each season and is treated unfairly and abused regularly ...

excuse the dog fur in the picture, but it is sitting on their bed 🙂

IMG_4228.JPG

That looks proper smart. I have a 525 3.5 inch and the blued barrels always make me wonder if they will start rusting soon but I suppose if the do I can always do as you have. Let the 1st of Sept roll on

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