The Gun Doctor’s Restorations
I enjoy restoring antique rifles and decided to share some of my projects with you on this blog.
Single Shot Rifles
I am fascinated by single shots. From the 1860’s to the 1900’s was an amazing time of innovation and craftsmanship. I especially like finding rifles that seem to beyond repair and bring them back to life.
Flintlocks
I love shooting and building flintlock rifles
Lever Actions
I enjoy lever action rifles, especially older Marlin rifles.
- 1893 Marlin 38-55
- 1889 Marlin 25-20
- 1897 Marlin 22 LR
- 1894 Marlin 44-40
About Us
I am a hobby gunsmith located in western Canada. I especially enjoy restorations of antique rifles and building flintlocks.
Get In Touch
Rexnewkirk@gmail.com
Drop By
Saskatoon, Sk
Canada
Kibler Colonial
I finally got around to finishing a Kibler Colonial in 54 cal with extra fancy maple. I applied aquafortis to the wood, heated with a heat gun to turn brown then applied Lee Valley Polymerized Tung oil. I have applied about 20 coats to the stock, and two coats of Osmo Oil to further protect…
Ballard Pacific 38-55
Recently I purchased a Ballard Pacific 38-55 on a online auction. It is a lovely original rifle but unfortunately the bore was no good. It was way oversize and rough. I took it to the range and tried it but the bullets were coming out sideways! I purchased a TJ liner from Nine35.ca a little…
Stevens 44 in 357 mag
I picked up a Stevens 44 in 25-20 SS but someone ran a 25-20 WCF reamer in and buggered up the chamber. I decided to reline it to 357 so I can shoot 357 and 38 Special in it. I purchased a 357 Chaszel liner from Nine35.ca and installed it. I also casehardended the action…
Casehardening at -40 C
This weekend Saskatchewan was the coldest place on earth so of course I casehardened 2 actions. My old PID on the 1970’s temperature controller died so I used my PID from my nitre tank for the furnace. I cranked the temperatures up a fair bit. The. Colors are more muted but still very nice in…
Stevens 044 1/2
This week I decided to reline a Stevens 044 1/2. If your not familiar with these little guns, they are a true falling block. Harry Pope designed it for Stevens to create an action that can handle smokeless powder. It was first sold in 1903. The used many of the same machin set ups as…
Lighter Hepburn
I reduced the weight of a Hepburn that had a #4 32” barrel in 40-82. Now it has a 30” 1/2 octagon barrel in 40-65 and is 10 lbs 13 oz and very nice to hold for offhand chickens.
casehardening of 73 Win
Today I casehardened a Uberti 73 Winchester with a friend of mine. It was a blued rifle but I just had to see what it would look like casehardened. I am glad my buddy let me change it. I think it looks much better now.
Christmas Project
This Christmas I built a nice Ballard 22. It is a Red Willow Reproduction Ballard that was a heavy barrelled 45-70 with a droopy lever. I used a Green Mountain round barrel blank and tapered and octagoned it. My buddy provided the wood for this project, a very nice piece of Walnut from California. It…
Building a Stock for a Ballard
Over the Christmas Hollidays I spent lots of time in my shop working on a Ballard. The stock has been inletted and carved. I just put the first coat of tung oil. This piece of wood has some amazing colour and figure. Next up is the metal finishing.
Converting Ballard to Rimfire
I finished the octagon barrel but still need to polish and blue. The rifle was a 45-70 so I converted the breech block to rimfire. It works perfectly now. Now I am building a stock out of a very nice piece of english walnut.
Steven 44 Casehardening
Today I repaired a Stevens 44 in 22LR and casehardened the action. The barrel, breech block, hammer and trigger had original bluing so I just casehardened the action and fixed and blued the screws.
Marlin Model 20 Pump
My buddy purchased a very rough Marlin pump 22. It looked to be beyond repair but he cleaned it up, made new butt stock, we relined it and he used my furnace and bluing tank to finish it. It is now a very nice rifle.
Marlin 32-40 again
I finished up another Marlin in 32-40. I relined the barrel with a TJ liner last weekend. Today I blued and Casehardened the rifle. It made for a very long day, I started the furnace at 6 am but I am pleased with the results.
Boring 32-40 Barrel for lining
Today I bored a Marlin 32-40 barrel for a new liner. I bought the liner from Nine35.ca. The liner is a TJ liner in 9/16” dia. I ground a pilot on a 9/16” drill bit to fit into the old bore. I mount the barrel in a 4 jaw chuck and drill at slow speed…
40 cal Flintlock Continued
I decided to work on my 40 cal flintlock that I assembled last christmas. The stock is stained with aquafortis and I have started slow rust browning the barrel and applying oil to the stock. Today I casehardened the lock and fire blued the triggers and screws. I am looking forward to shooting this in…
Casehardening
Time in my shop has been a bit limited but this last week or so I had some quality time and finished a couple of projects. One was a highwall that I barrelled in 40-65 and casehardened as well as a Marlin 1893 Lever that I relined, fit a butstock and blued and casehardened.
Happy New year – 40 cal Flintlock
Happy new year. I chose to finish out 2023 by working on a 40 cal flintlock with a hard maple (mostly plain) and a swamped Rice barrel and a good Chambers lock. I am getting pretty close to start the finishing process. Hopefully this spring I can give it a great work out. I always wanted a 40…
Christmas Favorite
This holliday I rebuilt an 1894 Stevens Favorite. I bought a rusty action and a shot out 25 cal barrel with a forend. I used a Cooey barrel to make a new barrel in the Stevens barrel except it is now 26” long. I put a new buttstock and buttplate on it. The rear sight is a Marbles sight…
Casehardened a Stevens 44 1/2
Today I case hardened a Stevens 44 1/2 I am building with 2 barrels (38-55 and 22 LR) with a nice english stock blank. I blued the barrels and casehardened it. The mix was 2:1 wood:bone charcoal, heated to 725 C for 1 3/4 hours and 15 minutes at 700 C. The water was about…
Ballard #1 3/4 in 38-55
I just finished a Ballard in 38-55. It is from a Ken Briesen barrel blank, the action is a Ballard 1 3/4 iron frame (notice how the double set trigger plate sits below the action. I picked up a chunk of wood from a local gun shop. It already had another stock cut out of…
Kibler Woodsrunner
I purchased a 50 cal Woodsrunner from Kibler. It has fancy maple stock but was a B-grade discounted due to a stain on the stock and a small crack infront of the lock. The stain pretty much disappeared when I applied the Aquafortis. The crack I filled with Brown CA glue and you have to…
Grinding wood charcoal
My buddy and I ground a couple bags of lump charcoal today for me to use in casehardening. I mixed 2 five gallon pails of ground lump charcoal with 1 pail of bone charcoal. That should do me for a while now. Check out this little video showing the grinding process.
Hepburn
I purchased a nice Hepburn a bit ago but decided to rebarrel it and caseharden it. It is now a 38-55 with a Ron Smith Gain Twist Barrel and I casehardened the action. This is a sweet rifle and will be great fun to shoot.
Casehardened a Highwall
I bought a very nice Highwall in 40-70 SS. The action is from 1887 with a Badger barrel. The action was polished nicely but still in the white so I casehardened it this weekend.
Finished the 20 Gauge Fowler
I finally finished the fowler I was building. There are a couple of spots on the barrel that seem to be resisting browning fully but I will try to encourage them to rust over time and hopefully they will blend in with the rest of the barrel. I also have to make a longer range…
Profiling Barrels
This week was busy at work with some teaching in the evenings and such but I did get in the shop today for a bit. I am doing a few repairs but set my lathe up and tapered some barrels. Three of the barrels are half octagon so I cut them to the large diameter…
Barreling Hepburn and Stevens 44 1/2
This weekend I received 3 barrel blanks from Ron Smith. Two are 38-55 and one is 22. All are gain twist chrome moly. One 38-55 is going on a Hepburn the other two are switch barrels for a Stevens 44 1/2 pistol grip, double set triggers. This weekend I cut the shanks, threaded and fit…
Progress on Fowler
I am making some progress on my fowler. The finish is really starting to show the figure. After I took these pics I rubbed it down with 800 grit pad and put another coat of Osmo oil. The barrel still needed another coat of browning too but hopefully it will be ready to shoot by…
Casehardening of Fowler Lock
My fowler is coming along nicely. I was debating how to finish the lock but I really enjoy casehardening so that is what I did. I didn’t go to a bright polish just 320 grit so it didn’t look out of place on the flintlock.
Powder Coating
I powder coated some bullets for my 25-20, I am hoping I can push the bullets a bit faster without getting leading. I tried two types of power coating and surprisingly the Princess Auto Blue Powder coating. I am going to try it out tomorrow . I loaded some with 4 grains of Unique and…
25-20 Loading
This weekend a buddy and I tried out the newly cut 25-20 mold which is now 63 grains and is flat base without a gascheck. He used his newly lined 1892 Winchester and I used my newly lined 1889 Marlin. Using hard lead (wheel wieght) it shot much better with light loads. It performed very…
25-20 Mold and Sight
This weekend I finished up a handful of small jobs on the Marlin 1889 including cleaning up the stock, putting a tang sight on the rifle. The tang sight is a very cheap sight that I had only the base and the staff. I used a MVA eyecup and made a part so the cup…
1889 Marlin Project
Last weekend I relined a 1889 Marlin to 25-20. Today I had a few things to fix on it so I can try it out tomorrow. The bolt had a few problems. Someone broke off the round bit at the front of the bolt. I wonder if they tried to pry it open and busted…
Picked up some walnut
Today I was in the area of Windsor Plywood so I stopped in to see if they had any nice walnut. I found a nice piece 2 X10” about 8’ long so I bought it. Wood has become very expensive but when I find a nice piece I have learned you need to buy them,…
Relining Stevens Favorite
Yesterday I got inspired to reline some barrels. The main barrel is a Stevens Favorite barrel that I plan using to build a ladies rifle. The first task was to extend the octagon by 2 inches. I cut the barrel 2” ahead of the octagon, cut the 2” round section down to 5/8” dia. I…
Marlin 1897
I restored an old and tired 97 marlin in 22 this winter. I made a few parts for the action, relined the barrel with a Redmans liner, made new stocks, rust blued the barrel, nitre blued the small parts, and casehardened the action. I am still working on the finish on the wood that is…
Antique Rifle Restorations by the Gun Doctor 
Leave a reply to Doug Shand Cancel reply