When I picked up this old BSA International .22, I was a bit disheartened when I saw it for the first time. It looked like it had been sitting in a dusty old barn for years, and it had a lot of brown discoloration which I at first thought was perhaps surface rust. I took the thing home, and plunked it on the reloading bench where it sat for nearly a year.
Now, over the cold-spell, I happened one day to take a wipe at it with a rag and some light solvent - the brown discoloration dissolved immediately into the rag, revealing beautiful blueing underneath.
It turns out, the entire firearm seems to've at one time been coated with some sort of shipping/storage grease, which in the end, preserved the old BSA from deterioration. After a full clean deep clean and polish, I am pleasantly surprised to see the actual condition of this ol' piece. From inspecting the screw-heads and the seam-lines between parts and between the stock and the steel, my guess is this rifle has seen limited use, and very possibly, had never been deep-cleaned or dismantled in its lifetime.
The scope-mounts await a scope of its era - which will be arriving soon
Then will begin the search for its favorite ammo.
BSA Martini International .22 restoration
Linear Mode
