TargetTalk

Hey guys, I decided to start a thread on a BSA Martini MKII rifle that I fully restored! This rifle was actually the first Martini I picked up, have two now. Its a full length MKII that was in need of some real love! As you will see in the first pictures I am going to post, the whole rifle needs to be restored... Stock, Finish, Action, Sights... etc.

Since I started work on this one far before I decided to take detailed pictures of the full restore, it may not be as detailed as I prefer.

Now that the rifle is done, its an amazing rifle and the nicest one I have ever seen! The metal was all prepped by me and blued at my friends at PPK. The lever and trigger were dropped off at Classic Guns in Crete and they case colored it for me.

Enjoy...




































Here is pictures of me starting to strip the bluing off the rifle.... I have already taken the action out and applied the Naval Jelly.... It gets pretty nasty so, dont be like me, wear gloves.









Sanding and brushing with 0000 Steel wool to get the crap that wouldn't come off with only the naval jelly







Almost there!!




Bluing is almost all stripped off












First bit of sanding on the receiver. I started with 320 on this one, as stated in the OP, its was not terribly pitted but, it is still a lot of hard tedious work sanding and checking to make sure its 100% perfect. The prep is most important when flat sanding and bluing.




Now that the bluing is off, I can start to polish the barrel and receiver! This is wet sanded to 400! You can see that it is already looking good! If you look at the vice you can clearly see where I stopped sanding... pretty big difference!








Putting a bunch of oil on the barrel for sanding and to prevent the start of rust. You can see where I have not started sanding and what has had a quick run over on it.






Cross sanding at 400... tedious, tedious work...




Once you start polishing is when you start seeing damage on metal... the higher the grit, the more you will see. The only way to get the pits out is start over from your lowest grit, SAND... then cross sand until those marks are gone.. and so on. When minor imperfects pop up... START OVER






Receiver is looking good! Its pretty much done and ready to blue (tomorrow)






Same goes for the trigger guard, those are not pits, and that not bluing... I have oil on it so photos are not perfect.







Laying out the parts getting ready to hand for blue










Bluing is DONE
























Case Color is DONE!!!












And now........ THE Finished project! This is actually for the first full restore I have ever done start to finish... I would say it is without a doubt one of the best BSA Martini MKII's I have ever seen! All thoughts, feedback, and opinions are obviously welcome! This restoration would not have been possible without the help of a few very good friends of mine... Who I consider family at this point. Thanks to my "Brother" Brandan Bunker of Bunker Arms who guided me along the way with the metal prep! "Uncle" Spiro Patros & John Phillips of PPK Firearm Restorations who let me use their bluing tanks and assisted in the bluing process, They guys over at Classic guns for the Case Coloring, and "Uncle" Rik Mitchell who is a master gunsmith, woodworker, etc...

I would recommend all of them in a heart beat and I think the work speaks for itself! If ANYONE has questions or needs contact information, done hesitate to ask!





























I have gotten a few PM's asking A few more pics of the full rifle! Enjoy

BRAVO!!! Well done Bobby! And thanks for sharing all of those pics. Really gives one an appreciation for the amount of work that you put into saving that MkII.

Mike

Very nice job!!!

Any pics of the wood being restored?

Thank you very much for sharing!

Thanks for posting, great job. We have a few Martini's at my club that could benefit from your handiwork. :)

rmca wrote:Very nice job!!!

Any pics of the wood being restored?

Thank you very much for sharing!

No pics of wood being worked on... Some secrets gotta stay close to the vest:)

Wynne G Oldman wrote:Thanks for posting, great job. We have a few Martini's at my club that could benefit from your handiwork. :)

Been on the hunt for a MKIII for years... If anyone over there has one that they are selling at a discounted price, just holler at me!

Nicely done

spektr wrote:Nicely done

Thank you sir!

WOW!

A few folks asked for pics of the full rifle... enjoy

Cundiff5535 wrote:

Wynne G Oldman wrote:Thanks for posting, great job. We have a few Martini's at my club that could benefit from your handiwork. :)

Been on the hunt for a MKIII for years... If anyone over there has one that they are selling at a discounted price, just holler at me!

We do have quite a few BSA Martinis at our club, sadly none of them MKIII's. I did ask our Rifle Captain about the differences between the different versions, and he gave me a great deal of information about the subject. Very interesting. I do understand that even if you did find a good MKIII in England, the costs of exporting it to the USA would be prohibitive. Shame, as good BSA Martini's can be picked up for a couple of hundred quid over here.

Nicely done. Very crisp and attentive to detail.

Always sad to see the markings overbuffed and the holes dished out by the commercial operations, not to mention the minimum-wage employee jamming a hard iron wire down your bore to suspend the barreled action in a tank. ;)

Absolutely beautiful....

Too pretty to shoot, be afraid I might scratch it.