I recently bought a Mauser 24/47 from Classic Arms.

I got it from the Brown Truck O' Happiness and, like a kid on Christmas morning, could hardly wait to tear open the box.

It was just as I expected...

Completely covered in Cosmoline.

But it looked like there might be a nice rifle under al that crud.

Here it is on my bench.

I began by taking it all apart and started the long process of removing the Cosmoline.

I use Mineral Spirits to wash the Cosmoline from all parts of the rifle.

It works like a charm.

I then lay the parts out in the sunlight and they are dry in 15 minutes.

I just kept repeating "Cosmoline if our friend. Cosmoline is our friend."

Here's how the action looked when I took it apart.

Full of grease.

I don't think we will have to worry about any rust.

I had to pry the action out of the stock.

It was "glued" with Cosmoline.

The bolt was covered also.

When I pushed a patch through the barrel, the Cosmoline came out like a pile of guts.

I couldn't even see any rifling, but knew from experience that it would take some cleaning to get to the rifling.

I then disassembled the bolt.

You have to be sure to get every bit of grease out of there or the firing pin won't strike properly.

Here's the bolt after cleaning.

I cleaned all the metal parts completely and then re-blued them with Birchwood Casey Super Blue.

I've tried the standard Blue, but it has exactly 1/2 the bluing agent as Super Blue.

Super Blue works like a charm.

I then coated all metal parts with oil and set them aside.