I have named it Slopbucket and let me tell you why.
Firstly, when I opened the box it was covered with packing peanuts. Covered as in stuck to the gun on every surface. Clue number 1. When I scraped all the styro off I found the NASTIEST rifle I had seen in a while. When I say nasty, I mean NASTY. It slid out of Satan's bunghole, made a stop in Detroit then straight to Century Arms. I'm not making any of this up. It had cosmoline globs all over as big as pinballs. Under the cosmoline globs were actual clods of dirt. Earth, I tell 'ya! The cleaning rod was stuck in the stock with a combination of dirt and rust. I opened the orange colored bolt and the inside looked like a Doritos Loco taco that had sat in the sun and spoiled. After a dog vomited on it. I couldn't even see the bore because there was a colossal funk booger in the receiver blocking the view. The magazine was a solid chunk of suet. The bolt holes, magazine release and even the cross bolt were completely flush with hardened grease. It was awful. The gun looked rough but I thought that a good cleanse might help. Hell, any attention what so ever might help. But, it's a wartime 42. It's supposed to look rough, right?
Jesus Christ, not this rough.
So, I pulled out all my gun shop instructions, gunsmith suggestions, and gained internet knowledge and went to work. I'll either have a gun when I get through or an interesting middle buster.
It took a while to get the stock and hand guard off because of the rust, funk and dirt. Once I got it off, I mummified both wooden pieces in paper towels and wrapped them in a trash bag. This went on the dash of the car to bake in the four million degree Mississippi sun for two days.
Now for the metal parts. Everything got cleaned with hot boiling water, Ezzy Clean industrial degreaser, a toothbrush and a ball of copper wool. It made for a disgusting soup. A thick and chunky one. Possibly a stew. I did the 'ol Barry and Eric trick of chucking up a shotgun cleaning rod in my cordless drill, used a 20 gauge bore brush gobbed with JB Bore paste and cleaned out the receiver. It worked like a charm. The hyper-cleaned bolt goes in and out like glass. Then I took the JB, about a quart of Hoppe's #9 and what seemed like a set of flannel sheets worth of patches to the bore.
Two days later the wood parts came out of the Toyota oven, the metal parts were clean and oiled, it was time to assemble and take some pics.
What I unearthed with all my cleaning is a butt-ugly rifle. Whoever refurbed this one, it was their first day or their last. The metal parts cleaned up good and they are the typical, crude wartime variety but the wood..........Ewwww. It could have been pretty nice. But someone must have lost a bet. I don't know exactly what the guy had against installing new stock escutchions, but he made up his mind to use these blood-pitted dandies. Also the shellac was obviously applied with a live chicken. At night. During Mardi Gras. Let's put it this way. This gun looks good at a distance.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. These are in no particular order. Best I can do with a phone. Keep scrolling, there is a silver lining.


Looks like somebody tried to open a can of biscuits on this next part.











It's so damn ugly, it's pretty.
So it has been christened "Ol' Slopbucket"! I know it's nothing special, probably not worth the time it took to make this post. But I spent a lot of time and effort to make this one look at good as I can so you have to suffer my silliness.
Here's the silver lining. It has one of the best looking bores I've seen on these guns. Nice and bright. It's also has only about a four pound trigger to boot! Breaks crisp and groovy. This might be the best shooter I've got. Time and ammo will tell.
What's in your wallet?






