What is this orange stuff?

[bored184]

The 40X my father picked up has turned into a restoration project. Does anybody have an idea of what this material is inside the action? It has a orange like color and requires a dental pick and a lot patience to remove. We are afraid it is either bedding compound or when the rifle was rebarreled they might of epoxied the barrel in place.

 

[people]

Looks like rust to me.

 

[tclaunch]

There is a copper based anti seize that could explain it. Not normal at all to epoxy a barrel in place. Heat and a very good barrel vise such as the one Larry Scott sells would be a plus when its time to remove it.

 

[Toolbreaker]

When the barrel was replaced, was the barrel & action re-blued?

 

[bored184]

When the barrel was replaced, was the barrel & action re-blued?

Those are great questions my father and I trying to find out. I have reached out to who I think might be the original owner and my father is trying to reconnect with the guy who he bought it from, we have yet to hear back from either one of them. We are not mad over this purchase just confused and would like to know more. What we were told is that barrel was rebarreled by a local smith using a douglas or shilen blank. That statement was eventually proven false because the barrel has Remington factory markings on it. We are hoping maybe Remington did the rebarrel because the other work we have discovered has been pretty shotty at best. My father has been in machine repair/tool and die/ and smith for 35 plus years so he knows the right way to set things up and machine on them. I can post photos of the other work if interested. Attached below are some markings that are on the rifle.

 

[JLT]

Looks like old grease to me. Hit it with some solvent and see what happens.

 

[GrocMax]

Could be cosmoline, old cosmo looks like that.

 

[carlsbad]

There is some orange grease, comes in a syringe, I can't recall the name right now, but it is popular on bolts. --Jerry

 

[snert]

Soak it in kerosene. Can't hurt it. Looks like it was not well cared for and ridden hard. To me it almost looks like the barrel was set back, but on a 308, why?? Maybe just how it looks to me.

 

[KMart]

It looks like it was sprayed down with WD-40 and left to marinade for a long time. I picked some of the gummed up WD-40 out a trigger assy that looked like that.

 

[Steelnecktie]

There is a orange epoxy called "chockfast". It is so hard that it's brittle, don't think you could touch it with a dental pick

 

[joshb]

Does any body wonder if it IS epoxy? Thinking that a "shoddy gunsmith" made his threads too loose and used epoxy to "tighten" them up? Is the material hard or goo?

 

[Albany Mountain]

Looks like a remington barrel to me from the markings.

 

[Papa Charlie]

I blew up your picture. If it is hard, it looks like it could be some type of epoxy, if it is soft then my guess would be dried grease.

 

[bored184]

The stuff is hard but brittle enough it can carefully be removed. Would Remington if epoxied the barrel?

Say another gunsmith put a Remington factory take off barrel on this. Would the barrel stampings be perfectly aligned with the receiver?

 

[bobinpa]

Looks like WD-40 that has turned into varnish.

 

[Phil]

Could be cosmoline, old cosmo looks like that.

My first thought too...........

 

[joshb]

Let us know when you figure it out, please. Josh

 

[Ggmac]

The stuff is hard but brittle enough it can carefully be removed. Would Remington if epoxied the barrel?

Say another gunsmith put a Remington factory take off barrel on this. Would the barrel stampings be perfectly aligned with the receiver?

Usually yes , esp if he took his time .
There are date codes on the barrel that may narrow your search . Being a repeater 40 X 7.62 nato it may have the stripper clip guide . But something is odd the receiver ring cut out , usually for say a 30-06 or any long action cartridge . It's been awhile since I had 308 factory repeater 40x so take with a grain of salt .

 

[Frankr]

Looks like WD-40 that has turned into varnish.

Yep looks like congealed gun oil to me.. soak it with some butches bore shine and clean it out with some brake clean