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advise on stock restoration for a DSM34 and complete disassembly

stewartb

stewartb

Member
Hello fine fellows, I recently purchased a Walther DSM34 off of Gunbroker for what I feel was a reasonable price. It was near or in a fire at some point in it's history, I am looking for some Stock cleanup advice that is the lest intrusive to the stock. Mainly I want to get it to where it can be handled without getting Soot on me. Second part of my inquiry is What is the best method to full disassembly to remove the barrelled action from the stock? I'm assuming it is straight forward remove the screws from the trigger gaurd and remove the pins from the barrel bands and it should come out. I have concerns on removing the pins, damaging them or that they need to come out a certain direction. I tried the search function but could not find what I was looking for. Thank you in advance for your help
Bret
 
<I'm assuming it is straight forward remove the screws from the trigger gaurd and remove the pins from the barrel bands and it should come out. I have concerns on removing the pins, damaging them or that they need to come out a certain direction.>

You've got it, Bret. The pins can come out either side, and they usually move fairly easily.

<Mainly I want to get it to where it can be handled without getting Soot on me.>

Post some good photos so we can see exactly what you're dealing with. The cleaning might be really easy, or it might be more involved. You want to do the bare minimum required.

Richie
 
Thank you Richie, that was straight forward coming apart. I did find a duffel cut under the band as well after taking it apart. Looks like I'll have to look up the process of that repair as well. Here are the pics as requested.
Bret
 

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R.W. Parker said:
Oh my. That sucker is really charred, isn't it?

By the time you got beyond the charred part, there'd be little left I'm afraid.

You'll likely have to buy a reproduction stock for that one. Check out http://fox-military.com/en/stock.php?id_produkt=132

Hope you don't have too much in that piece...

Richie
Click to expand...

Thank you for your help Richie, yeah it is burnt pretty good. Luckily I got it for a price I was ok with and it filled that hole for the time being. Thank you for the link, I doubt I get a Repro stock but it'll be an option at another time.
 
stewartb said:
Thank you for your help Richie, yeah it is burnt pretty good.
Click to expand...

It is indeed. I wish I could offer you some magic bullet, but I'm afraid that one doesn't exist. The charcoal has to be removed, because it's no longer wood. It can't be cleaned up and coated over. And in this case, there's a LOT of charcoal to be removed.

If you don't want to flip for a new replacement stock, I suppose you could scrape away the coal until you get down to solid wood, drive in some small wood screws, and build up layers of Bondo over them. Then shape the Bondo to the correct form, and paint the whole thing. Maybe use some of those peel-'n-stick masks that Dura-Coat sells, and do an interesting pattern of some sort. It would still be a Bubba job, and would involve a lot of grimy labor as well as time and expensive material. Faced with that, I'd almost rather cut a new stock from a blank.

Wish I had better news for you, buddy. Good luck!

Richie
 
Personally, I would advocate leaving it exactly how it is. I have had more than one gun that I have examined that were "fire rescues" that were sold to a new owner without informing them as such.

It is what it is. What it is, is its history.

I bought a DSM a few years ago from someone, the bolt lug was deformed, and it had a few other issues. It had been sported, so it was a parts gun anyway. The gun was a strange matte grey (ie your barrel and bands) and when I pulled the barreled receiver from the stock I saw the the interior of the stock was black. Nearly charred black. The exterior had been heavily sanded, I thought, as a part of its sporterizing.

I cut the barrel up, it was dead soft, and salvaged what I could. Maybe someday I'll re-heat treat the receiver, but I doubt it.
 
Fal Grunt said:
I cut the barrel up, it was dead soft, and salvaged what I could. Maybe someday I'll re-heat treat the receiver, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

How are the springs? The surest way to tell if the temper of a "fire gun" has been affected is whether its springs take a set. That's because every part of a firearm (with the exception of sear surfaces and the like) is heat-treated to a spring temper.

Measure the overall length of a decompressed spring with your dial caliper. Then give it a full compression, and allow it to return. If it returns to it's original length, the fire has not compromised the integrity of your rifle's steel.

Richie
 
I never looked at the springs, I just inspected and tested the steel. I use a rockwell superficial, hardness and tukon testers.

The hardness, and temper, varies based on the part, the composition of the steel, and the heat treat process used to harden it. Checking whether a spring takes a set is not a good way to test whether a piece of steel has any remaining hardness after a fire.

For example,
1030, which some people postulate is a similar modern steel to Mauser's receiver steel (it is not the same) when tempered at 1200 degrees for an hour results in a hardness of 200 HV.
However, 1095, a steel often used for springs at that same 1200 degrees would retain a hardness of 30 HRC, nearly or almost double what the 1030 retained.

(*disclaimer, 200 HV is not directly comparable to HRC)
 
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