Leave it alone, shoot with pride in the memory of your Dad.

 

Respect your dad and heritage by leaving all the marks your father put on it paint and all.

 

I'd just strip the paint and clean up the rust.

Strip the finish on the wood, too.

Probably nice wood under it.

Give the barrel a good cleaning with a lot of elbow grease and I bet it has a good bore.

You'll be happier.

 

How about posting a couple pics? You can leave it "as is" which is fine. Or maybe you could do a little cleaning up.

 

If the rifle now belongs to your oldest son, I would let him decide which way to go. He'll remember grandpa either way.

 

A good cleaning of the bore and some cleaning and oiling of the "internals" won't hurt anything, and might even improve the accuracy.

As to any refinishing, remember, "It's only original once." As the gun currently has family history and a great story, personally, I'd leave it alone.

I have my grandfather's single shot bolt action Remington .22. I learned to shoot, such as I did, with that humble .22. I inherited it in 1972 when he passed, and I am SO glad that I resisted the urge to refinish/restore it all those years ago. I'm not sure if my son ever shot that rifle (I gave him his own .22--a Romanian M69--when he was 14), but I look forward someday soon to watching both him and HIS son (who just turned 6) shoot it, making them the fourth and fifth generations in my family to shoot it.

 

Your thread title certainly had most of my favorite RFC keywords; there must be something wrong with my computer though, because I'm not seeing any pics. ;-)

That rifle certainly is a treasure esp. with the cut-out notches; if it was me I'd certainly remove the paint, but retain what little original blueing was left. Same for the stock, no refinishing there. Good stuff

 

Sounds like a Model 33 to me—I just recently sold mine but it was a 33P NRA model and not too common.

 

Could well be a Model 33, I have a NRA Junior model that I "refreshed" the finish on, no dents or dings removed, no sanding, just removed the finish and replaced the Lacquer on it....

Before..

After..

 

Leave it the way your Dad left it, the story is the nice part of it all.

 

In memory of your Father, leave it as is.

 

I have my Grandfather's model 33.
It was the first rifle I shot 60 years ago. Fond memories !!

 

I was given one of these decades ago. Be careful, it will probably shoot really well. At least the one I've had did. Looks like you did well on the restoration. Enjoy it, the rifle is a treat!

 

I have my dads old Rem 41 target master (smootbore). It's as he left it, although cleaned up a little with some 0000 steel wool and cold blue on a couple spots.