Thompson Center Renegade Re-Finish

I recently received this TC Renegade Stock from an online buddy who had stored it and the bore ended up rusting up badly. This was a kit Renegade back from the late 1980's and so rather than bother with a new barrel, he sent it to me as long as i paid for the shipping.. No problem!

I found a barrel for a great deal of $65 shipped and so i was all set for this Restoration!

The stock wasn't that bad to begin with, but there were issues like improper wood to metal fit. To much wood over lapping the Buttplate, Lock, as well as some slight over hang around the trigger guard.

I took my time stripping it and once finished I went to a new technique I use. Steam! Steaming a stock is just as it says... You take an Iron, heat it up and then use a damp wash cloth, place it over the area that needs the grain raised and put the hot iron on and work the area. I did a lot of steaming on this stock get make dent & scratch removal very easy.

After the steaming was finished i hit the stock with some 220 grit sand paper, clean the stock off with a damp rag, let it dry and then used 0000 to buff the grain down for a smooth finish.

This Renegade has some beautiful wood grain and is fairly dark in color. I decided then to NOT use any kind of stain PERIOD! I wanted natural wood beauty to show.

i ended up using 15 hand rubbed coats of Truoil, 10 coats of spray on Truoil and then i finished it off Three days later "cure time" with Oiled 0000 steel wool for a nice satin finish that looks great on the rifle.

The rifle was originally a beautiful dark blue, but this is just to common and gets boring to look at. A little to modern in my eye. I decided to use Birchwood Casey Plum Brown solution and brown all the metal, trigger guard, buttplate,wedge pin, Everything!

I heated up the parts and soaked a rag with the solution and did Two coats of this for a nice Plum Brown finish. I again used Oiled 0000 steel wool and lightly buffed to parts to a slightly higher sheen. Came out perfect, the way I thought I might like it. The Plum Brown on the steel just really sets the rifles looks off.

Getting the Renegade together last night I loaded up a few Powder Tubes with 80gr Pyrodex RS, 250gr Powerbelt Aerolites, CCI #11 Magnum Caps and headed out to the 60 yard range where i pulled off an excellent group for the first time out with this rifle! I didn't even have to touch the sights, it was dead on and ready for use!