Seeking Pictures and Advice for Refinishing a Lyman GPR

[zneufeld]

I haven't done work on my 2019 GPR to the extent that others in this forum have (someday), but I got pretty decent results from a few coats of Tru-Oil with steel wool buffing in between. 12-24 hours between coats.

Before:

After:

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

I posted these pictures elsewhere on the forum but, here is what the walnut on my Lyman GPR looks like after the factory varnish was removed and replaced with a stock finish oil. Yes, it is natural curly walnut.
View attachment 54735
View attachment 54736

Zonie- wow! That’s a Lyman? Unbelievable. How did you remove the factory finish and what did you use to refinish it?

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

I would remove the factory finish with 'Circa 1856' stripper, then sand it all down and refinish with linseed or one of the plastic oil finishes. I would also remove the bluing from the barrel, etc and brown all of that, I also get rid of the adjustable rear sight, and replace it with a more traditional Hawken buckhorn. Have fun with it.

Yes, I love brown guns and when I finished my pistol kit, I did brown the barrel and nose cap. That was fun, but way easier with a pistol-size barrel in terms of making a humidity chamber for the browning process. Not sure that I’m ready to commit that much effort for this Lyman. But the barrel and other hardware certainly would look better (to my eye) browned.

As for the sites, I have already replaced the Lyman sites because (1) The rear site adjustment screw kept falling out, and (2) my eyes aren’t what they used to be and struggle to focus on the factory sites. I had to replace them with non-PC fiber optic sites. This is a hunting gun, so I was willing to sacrifice on the PC in order to increase accuracy and likelihood of an ethical harvest

 

[Zonie]

Zonie- wow! That’s a Lyman? Unbelievable. How did you remove the factory finish and what did you use to refinish it?

I didn't do the refinishing on this GPR. It was that way when I bought it at a gunshow. I also didn't inlet the blond wood diamond but whoever did the job did it right.

 

[bptactical]

Don’t have any pics of the one I redid a few years back but it came out nice.
Don’t worry about sanding the old finish off, there is so much excess wood on a GPR as long as you go light in detail areas such as lock panels your not gonna hurt anything.
Take the opportunity to get rid of some of that excess, the cheekpiece is a great starting point, that darned thing looks like a surfboard stuck on a rifle stock......

 

[Pete G]

Be careful when sanding, you don't want to round off contours that should be sharp. Pay particular attention to lock panels and comb.

 

[flntlokr]

Yes, I love brown guns and when I finished my pistol kit, I did brown the barrel and nose cap. That was fun, but way easier with a pistol-size barrel in terms of making a humidity chamber for the browning process. Not sure that I’m ready to commit that much effort for this Lyman. But the barrel and other hardware certainly would look better (to my eye) browned.

As for the sites, I have already replaced the Lyman sites because (1) The rear site adjustment screw kept falling out, and (2) my eyes aren’t what they used to be and struggle to focus on the factory sites. I had to replace them with non-PC fiber optic sites. This is a hunting gun, so I was willing to sacrifice on the PC in order to increase accuracy and likelihood of an ethical harvest

I use a long skinny plastic bag for a barrel curing chamber; I just hang the barrel up by the tang hole, apply the solution, and slide the bag up and over .

 

[saaman]

That’s the finest example I’ve seen of a GPR. I love the metal and stock finish both. Nifty.

Thanks Bob. Forgot to mention that when I draw filed the barrel in preparation for browning I kept going until all the Italian writing was gone.