FACTORY REBLUE

[ROBOPUMP]

Question? I have a rifle that I know has been reblued, but it looks so original and all the letters are still very crisp. The blueing looks very Remington. It does have two barrel date codes with the "3" that indicates that it was sent back to the factory. I think that back in the day that a guy could send a rifle back to the factory to be refurbished. If that is the case and the factory did the reblue, then it would still be all Remington. Should this take away from the value?The biggest give away is that some parts have been blued that were not suppose to be. But wouldn't the factory know which parts to blue? Is there anyway to find out what was done to a gun returned to the factory?

[81police]

I wouldn't imagine Remington rebluing parts not supposed to be blued, such as the operating handle, etc.

I don't think there's a way to find out, I would suspect however that Remington's cost of refinishing a rifle would far, far exceed your local gunsmith of the day. I doubt most would send a standard grade rifle back to the factory when the gunsmith in town could do it for a fraction of the cost.

[DWalt]

Seems I read Remington did a rust or charcoal blue at the factory. If that was the case, a local gunsmith would not be able to duplicate that. I know Winchester went from machine bluing (or charcoal bluing) to tank immersion bluing in the late 1930s, and I'd guess, but don't know, Remington (and probably every other gun manufacturer) made similar changes in their metal finishing processes at about the same time. This was because tank bluing was much safer, faster, and much less expensive than other methods, not because it was any better. After WWII I think all American gun manufacturers had switched to tank immersion bluing. Of course, that process could be performed by a local gunsmith.