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Nickle Mod 15-3 Cleanup
- Thread starter rover1992
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Mr. Rover, $240 for that was a bargain. Even in blue. If you shoot a nickel gun, they do get stained on the face of the cylinder. No way around it.
None of them look like new if you shoot them. Solution, just shoot it and enjoy a gun that is not made anymore.
None of them look like new if you shoot them. Solution, just shoot it and enjoy a gun that is not made anymore.
That's a real score for that price ! Cleaned up great. I'd be proud to own that one !
That you stole it.
Alk8944
US Veteran
Good price. Too bad some lazy such+which didn't take the stocks off and keep the frame oiled! I usually put a light coat of gun oil on the back of the stocks and wipe it off. Not enough to have any effect on the wood, but I have never had a gun rust the frame at all, even on guns I have had for 40+ years.
Agreed...Looks like it cleaned up nicely!...
...Bengtoppcop
Member
Rover,
You did well! I love Nickel guns. My old gunsmith used to tell me, "Have you ever seen a Nickel (coin) rust?" Nickel finish (if not scratched to the copper substrate) is actually pretty resillient to most environmental demons.
I've brought Nickel guns back to life. One of my Marines brought in a 4-inch Nickel mid-1970s Colt Lawman MK III for me to "clean-up" for him and his family. When he brought it into our shop at Camp Pendleton, I was aghast. It was stored in a Hunter holster for most of its life.
The slimy green verdigris was hard to remove and the whole gun was sticky, like somebody spilled Pepsi over it.
About 90-minutes with FLITZ removed all of the 'mung' and it looked LNIB. The Gunny was amazed that it came back looking the way it did. I admonished that leather and Nickel don't mix for extended periods and NOT to let Hoppes #9 linger on the finish.
There's nothing like a properly looked-after Nickel revolver. Very nice indeed what you were able to do for the Combat Masterpiece! Bravo!
You did well! I love Nickel guns. My old gunsmith used to tell me, "Have you ever seen a Nickel (coin) rust?" Nickel finish (if not scratched to the copper substrate) is actually pretty resillient to most environmental demons.
I've brought Nickel guns back to life. One of my Marines brought in a 4-inch Nickel mid-1970s Colt Lawman MK III for me to "clean-up" for him and his family. When he brought it into our shop at Camp Pendleton, I was aghast. It was stored in a Hunter holster for most of its life.
The slimy green verdigris was hard to remove and the whole gun was sticky, like somebody spilled Pepsi over it.
About 90-minutes with FLITZ removed all of the 'mung' and it looked LNIB. The Gunny was amazed that it came back looking the way it did. I admonished that leather and Nickel don't mix for extended periods and NOT to let Hoppes #9 linger on the finish.
There's nothing like a properly looked-after Nickel revolver. Very nice indeed what you were able to do for the Combat Masterpiece! Bravo!
Stay friends with that dealer! nice job on a real shooter
Alk8944
US Veteran
S&W NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, used a copper plating under Nickel! And the proper term is Under-Strike. S&W Nickel is what is referred to as Hard Plated This means simply that the plating metal is applied directly over the base metal, not that the plating itself is hard!
Colt tried using a copper under-strike for a year or two in the 1970s and had extensive finish problems with peeling because of it. At the time plating was being done by a sub-contractor. They had to re-finish many guns from that period. The plating operation was moved back to the factory after this.
If anyone ever sees a Nickel S&W that can be verified to have a copper under-strike that gun has been plated outside the factory, probably by a bumper shop! Plating of quality firearms is always hard-plating, only cheap, usually foreign guns will ever be seen with either a copper under-strike or so-called "triple plating", copper then Nickel and then chrome. That is how purely decorative chrome plating is applied.
No matter how many hundreds of times you see a reference to a S&W plated with a copper under-strike it is still wrong and the speaker/poster is simply parroting incorrect information he has seen/heard, just as you have! The often heard story that the copper is needed as a "primer" so the Nickel will adhere is simply a lie.
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+1. Looks great. Enjoy!
Jim Watson
Member
I got a Colt at a low price because somebody had laid it on a buffer to "shine it up." That had cut through the nickel on one side of the slide and started to expose the copper strike, gave kind of a pink coloration.
Very nice - thanks for sharing!
$240, that's highway robbery! You dun good!
Marshal Tom
Member
Good save and outstanding price! I take my hat off to you guys that take these pretty nasty looking guns and put the time and effort into bringing them back to life. Many of the ones I have seen on here over the years, I would have just passed on!
I kind of wonder what the dealer paid for it? That's a real nice gun. S&W must have been on their game with the 15-3s. My blue one shines like it's brand new. That nickel is nice. Nice wood, too
Model19man
Member
Agree. The old wives tale refuses to die and gets promoted by the unaware. Firearms are not bumpers.
local_dirt
Member
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You did a nice job on that gun. I wouldn't have believed that section on the frame behind the cylinder would have gotten that clean. Good work. I just did a lot of work on a 29-2 nickel gun that the cylinder wouldn't open when I got it. Really nice, now.
