On the whole, the rifle is in very good shape. The inletting has to be seen to be believed - I do check many rifles out every couple of weeks at the various stores here and have not seen any production rifle with the barrel and action as closely inletted as in this budget gun from the pre war years. Not everything has changed for the better, it is obvious.
There are patches of surface rust on the barrel and on the magazine as you can see in the Before pics. The wood, surprisingly, is immaculate in condition though it has no figure at all, like pre war guns could be expected not to have. The Lyman micrometer sight has seen better days but it is in good shape and nothing that a little TLC could not improve.
I hope to work on this little rifle slowly over the spring and shall post pictures of the progress on it as I get things done, stage by stage. I shall be using a Boyd's restoration kit - cheap and we bought it when Inder and I went to the Rockford gun show for just $ 9. As someone who has virtually zero experience finishing metal or wood, this is going to be an interesting pursuit for me this year. It should also tell me whether I need to try my hand at working on more expensive guns or just pay the $ 350 or so that it would cost to get them refinished at Gander Mountain.
excellent ji!