Detailed Repair & Custom Restoration of two Spencer Pump Shotguns w/ Photos

[Roscoe Coles]

I spent a little bit more time with a file and it is looking good enough to start fitting the buttplate to the stock.  It might not look like it, but the original plate casting has been pretty extensively worked over.  All the checkering has been cut with a file, the top screw hole relocated, the top tang built up and reshaped, and almost all of the casting marks have been removed.  I also flattened the plate's curve by resting it on my heavy bench and pounding on it with a dead-blow hammer so it is now pretty close to the shape of the stock.  From here on in, I will fit it to the wood with stock makers black then mount it with some good screws, maybe some reproduction winchester 1873 ones.  A small project, but it is fun to make progress. 

[Roscoe Coles]

This is the busy time of year for me up here in Alaska.  Lots of fieldwork away from home, so I have not been able to do much on the Spencer project.  Over the last month, I have been finishing up the modification of the steel buttplate and fitted the replacement stock to the action.  It's turning out pretty well but there is a little more left to do to finalize things.  The stock screws are in and the buttplate is on.  I took my time fitting the wood using stock makers black and it came out well.  The stock was a little large, as it should be but the inletting was slightly off center, which meant there was more wood on one side of the tangs than the other.  Fortunately, there was just enough on the slim side to work.  I am quite pleased with the wood, not least because the grain, including the figure is very similar to the original stock.  Below is a photo of the current state of the stock being sanded to 400 grit.

In other good news, I found a fellow that color cases double gun receivers who will do the bolt, receiver and lower tang for $200.  I have not touched the receiver as I didn't know if I was actually going to do the color case.  Now that I am, I will clean up some of the pits before sending it off.  I am also thinking about having my monogram engraved on the receiver before the color case, in the fashion of some engraved Spencer's I have seen.  Looking forward to getting it done, but it won't happen till the fall. 

[Coffinmaker]

  Eggseptional!!!   

[Roscoe Coles]

First coat of oil on the stock, looking pretty good. 

[Roscoe Coles]

One more little stock fitting task today.  In fitting the lower tang I got the inletting a hair too long, which left an unsightly gap between the wood and the tang (a little less than 1/8th of an inch at the tip). Because I am polishing the receiver for color case hardening anyway, I built up the end of the tang with my welder and shaped it to fit the inletting.  Cheating I know and not always an option, but it came out pretty well (picture 2). Still more polishing to do on the receiver, but it's getting there.  I need to fully reassemble the gun and make sure everything is functioning properly, then I can give it a final polish before refinishing

[El Supremo]

Hello:

If your color-case hardening contact is open to doing that for others, please share info here after you have his work in hand.  Many thanks.

El Supremo/Kevin Tinny

[Roscoe Coles]

Sure, I will post the names of the folks who do the finish once I get the stuff back and know if I can recommend their work. 

[Roscoe Coles]

I have been very busy with fieldwork, which has slowed progress in the Spencer, but some progress has been made.  A couple of weeks ago I was in Coldfoot, above the arctic circle waiting first for the weather to improve and then for a tail rotor to be replaced on the helicopter we were using.  Fortunately I had planned ahead and brought along the Spencer receiver and some small parts to work on in my down time.  I filed and sanded the receiver to get rid of the little dinks and pits and get it ready for color case hardening. There was not much pitting, so I did not have to get too radical.  Interestingly, the finish under the surviving case coloring showed that the gun was not highly polished before color case.  I actually took out some tool marks that were left by the factory.  I am taking some other parts to work on this week when I am spending a week in a hotel and getting Covid tests before going out to a mine for a week of work. 

Now that the receiver is sanded and looking good, I sent it down to my dad to get a monogram engraved on the side before I send it off to get color case hardened.  Below is  the initial pencil layout of the monogram on the receiver.  Dad will do some additional scrollwork or a shield around the monogram.  I sent him a number of high quality photographs of engraved Spencer's to get ideas. 

One interesting thing we noted while talking about the layout is how much longer the shell stop slot on the 1890 Bannerman is than the stop on the 1882 Spencer.  My later 1896 Bannerman is similar to the 1890.  My bet is that the shorter stop on the 1882 was prone to breakage and was lengthened at some point to reduce stress.  Not sure at what point that happened.  Always something to learn.

[Roscoe Coles]

The first cuts, shading and details to come...

[Roscoe Coles]

A bit more of the engraving.  It needs to be polished to get rid of the burs caused by engraving.  Dad is thinking of coloring one of the letters in the monogram. For those of you that are unfamiliar with engraving, in the old days engraving a set of closely set lines on a letter was used to indicate color.  Different angles indicating different colors. i am pleased as punch.  It should look great under a new color case. 

[Roscoe Coles]

All done and in the mail back.

[Reverend P. Babcock Chase]

Holy Cow Rosco,

Your dad is a receiver Rembrandt. Absolutely gorgeous.

Rev. Chase

[Roscoe Coles]

Dad is a professional engraver who does mostly jewelry and restorations.  He does the trophies for pebble beach golf club and other high end things.  He does lovely work and I am lucky to have him.  He has done work on several guns for me, including an over the top nimschke style 1956 SAA that I restored. 

[Roscoe Coles]

Things have been busy at work and at home, but I have been working on the project.  I am getting the block and receiver ready to go to color case.  This has involved making a receiver inset to thread onto the barrel hole to keep its shape and making sacrificial screws to hold it together during color case. You can see them in the pictures because the heads are long so I can grab them if they stick during hardening. I also made a spacer to hold the tangs in the right place. 

Before it goes off to color case, I am going to make new side plates out of tool steel.  The original ones are soft, worn, and bent.  There is also some play between them and the receiver.  They shouldn't be too hard to make and will make a difference in the gun's function.  I hope to get them done and get the receiver off for color case and the other parts out to blue before the end of the year. 

[Roscoe Coles]

Things have been busy with work and home but I took some time to work on making new side plates today. The side plates are what holds the forearm in place and they take a good bit of wear and tear  I used some O-1 tool steel I had on hand which I can harden and polish up before blueing.  They are dovetailed into the frame and held in place with two small screws. The old ones were soft, worn, bent, and loose in the frame.  As such, it was only the screws that held them in place.  The new ones are a snug slip fit with no play. I used a file to shape them and cut the 25 degree bevels on the sides and round end.  I still need to shape the rough end and thin them down a bit to match the frame, then I need to harden them and a couple of screws, but it's progress. 

Once I get these done, the gun is pretty much ready to go out for color case and blue.  I am going to make a new brass shell follower and an ivory bead but That can be done while things are out for finishing. 

[Roscoe Coles]

The side plates are coming along.  One tricky task was to notch them to match the countersink for the screw heads.  This had to match the existing countersink in the frame.  They had to be in the correct place and at the correct angle to keep the new plates firmly in place.  After that, the new plates had to be thinned down to meet the contour of the frame.  Here is a shot of the first one about done.  Looking pretty good but the other side still needs a bit of work.  Once the fit is good it's time to harden them. 

[Roscoe Coles]

Well. The Spencer is out of my hands now.  I sent it off to Classic Case Colors in Idaho.  They do refinishing of double shotguns.  They are going to color case the receiver and bolt, rust blue the barrel and magazine, and hot blue all the small parts.  They say the turn around time is 2-3 weeks, so with shipping it should be back in a month.  Can't wait to see it.  While it's gone I am going to make a new magazine follower out of brass and try my hand at making an ivory front bead. 

I had a little screw up before the gun left.  I had to make a second set of side plates because I messed the first set up while heat treating them.  O1 tool steel is not supposed to shrink but I left it in too long  which caused some scaling.  Making the new set took less time than the first and they fit well and look good after heat treating. 

[Roscoe Coles]

 I got these pictures today from the fellow doing the refinishing.  Looking good so far.  He is rust bluing the barrel and magazine tube this week, then it's on its way home. 

Can't wait to get it. 

[Black River Smith]

Sir,

I have enjoyed this posting. immensely.  Thanks for sharing your rebuild, with all of us.
Hope it all goes back together and performs well for you.

[Roscoe Coles]

Thanks, I am glad you are enjoying it.  It has been a fun project to do.