I recently got my C&R and have been having a great time finding and refinishing some old military rifles.

I was looking at an old SMLE that I own that was built in Lithgow, Australia.

It appeared to have once been painted olive drab green.

Here's a pic.

So, with that assurance, I ordered another Savage SMLE.

It came by way of the Brown Truck O' Happiness.

Here it is, in it's original state.

And here.

Kind of rough, but with good wood and lots of potential.

I ordered some olive drab paint from Brownell's called Gun-Kote and Tman had some flat black engine paint that he has used before.

We decided to clean it all up first.
I took it apart and cleaned up all the metal. Tman stripped the stock and we were ready to go.

Tman refinished the stock and it looked great.

He applied the paint and let it dry, per instructions. He then baked the painted parts in a small oven at 300 to 325 degrees for one hour.

It gives a very tough finish.