Need help restoring an old gun

[S&W500Mag]

Does anyone know where I can get parts for the gun I'm picturing here? Do you think they would have to be custom made? I know you can't tell much from the pictures, but this is an old River Side Arms 16 gauge that my Grandpa got when he turned 16 back in the day. The barrel says Browning on it though. The action is getting pretty worn, and I would like to fix it up. The little tooth that pulls the spent shell out of the barrel is getting pretty worn, and doesn't always pull them out. Also, the action doesn't stay closed. You can close it, and without firing it, if you wiggle the forend a little, you can open it again without pushing the release button. Several parts in the linkage are worn. Also, once in a while it will try to let more than one shell out of the lower tube when you go to chamber another round. It's an old gun that has seen a lot of use, but I think it might be worth something. I'm not sure though. It's definitely worth something as an heirloom.
Does anybody know anything about bluing? I would like to make this gun look like new again, but I'm not sure how to go about that? Would it be better to just have a gunsmith do that? What about the stock? I would like to either refinish it or else make another one for it so the original one doesn't get scratched up any more.
One thing I do like about this gun is that years ago when it used to work correctly, the action is designed in such a way that it shouldn't open up from the recoil, unlike my 870 Remington. (Does anyone else have that problem?) Take a look at the square hole on the top of the gun. When the action is closed, a part of the action slides up into that hole making it flush with the rest of the top of the gun. When the shell recoils it is held in place and can not push the action back until you pull back on the forend. When you pull back on the action, the little square flips down out of the hole, and the action can travel backwards.
If anybody knows anything about restoring old guns like this, but needs more information about this gun, let me know. I'm not sure where to start here, but I would like to do as much of this myself as possible. I've had the gun apart into little pieces several times, but don't know where to get new parts.
Click on the pictures for a closer view.

[Frenchy]

A simple search with the model name and number will get you places with parts, as for bluing the gun, if you want to keep its calue as an airloom or prestige of old gun, stay away from it, keep it as original as possible, if you plan on making a range gun of it, and dont mind the loss of value, then go ahead and blue.

There are many bluing agents out there, even parkerizing and paints, its just a matter of looking them up.

I did a .357 Lever lately, only because the person before me took steel wool and sand paper to it, mind you i paind $150 for it and it is one of my regular range guns. Took me one evening, and was fairly easy.

[knight0334]

Before you do anything.. Be aware that "restoring" or any sort of refinishing can knock the value down of an old firearm. If you are interested in retaining that shotgun for collector value, you may want to have it appraised or inspected.

Original finish and condition are desired over any restoration when value and collector status is concerned.

If none of that is of concern and its just for your personal interests and usage - good luck with your project. Theres a strong chance that some other company actually made that firearm and Riverside put their name on it. ...sorta like Sear, JC Penney, Western Auto, etc shotguns and rifles. We need to figure out if that is an actual Riverside production or an off brand of another company. With that having Browning on the barrel, that'd be a good place to start looking for matching Browning models. Once you match one up, we can then look for parts.

Parts: Numrich's - http://www.e-gunparts.com/

As for bluing - hopefully someone else can chime in. ..no experience here.

[S&W500Mag]

Thank you both for the input. Maybe I should consult with others in the family before trying to restore it, or at least before re-blueing it, because I didn't think about it that doing so would lower the value of it. I'm not sure what it's worth, but I did check out e-gunparts.com, and they had very little inventory for any Riverside Arms. I did find out that Riverside was associated with some other companies, but without looking at it again, I forget exactly how it said that was. What I was mostly interested in is making it function correctly again, because this is a gun that me and several of my brothers hunted with over the years. It still works, just not optimally. I'll try to find out more info about the gun, but it doesn't have many more markings on it, so I'm not sure were to start. I just like it because its so solid.

[Black_Wolf67]

Hi, I never talked to you before, but i thought you might like to see this? I found your post on a search for the Riverside arms company. This is a match to the one you have but it is a twelve gauge. I bought mine in a little gunshop in lake Carmel NY a couple years ago. I was told mine was used to train rear gunners in WW2 to teach them how to hit targets while speeding by in the back of a truck. Dont know if that is true, but i have seen video archive footage of that exact training method.




If you still post here, holler back and i'll tell you what i know about Riverside. Numrich has parts for them, too.

[S&W500Mag]

Hey, that's cool! I'd be glad to hear what you have to tell about that gun. Thanks!

[Black_Wolf67]

Hi again. Ok, the online history of riverside arms is sparce. By searching the net when i first got my gun the info i ran across was vague and contradicting. I have seen that Riverside arms was a trade name by the Stevens arms co for their lesser quality basic guns of which the same design more deluxe models could be had that carried the Stevens tag. Basically the riversides were the stripped down models without all the fancier asthetics.

But, then i have also read that Riverside arms were a company that was bought out by stevens in around 1916 i believe. They made alot of the double barrel exposed hammer coach shotguns.

Telling the difference between One of the Riversides and one of the Stevens riversides i think would be next to impossible without SN#'s or detailed records, which i have found none. Mine has none, the only markings are the Riverside arms stamp on the left side reciever, proof tested 12 gauge on the barrel and a 5054 B stamp on the bottom reciever butt stock tang.

The picture below shows the stevens higher grades that wore the stevens brand, they are not labeled riverside, but are mechanically the same gun. Parts for these are available from Numrich as i said before. The upper model are Browning patent slide, which would explain the browning stamp on yours, mine does not have that, so i'm led to believe it is either one of the early Riversides before the stevens buy out, or is is one of the Pederson patent slides like the one pictured near the bottom, even though it bears no Pederson stamp. You can see now where the mystery and confusion from lack of detailed or lost history comes in. This is how i found your post. I re search from time to time to see if any new history has hit the web since the last time i searched. The Stevens company in turn was bought out by Savage arms and made firarms in Chicoppee Falls Mass also. I collect old savages and no doubt the guns could have been made on the same machines just bearing three different monikers. Alot of my research comes from the Savageshooters website where i believe i read that long ago fires played hell with the history as pre buyout company records burned and were lost forever

Yours is the only Riverside labeled gun like mine i have ran into so far. I have handeled Stevens marked examples that look exactly the same except for the stamps at gunshows and gunshops. I would get her mechanically safe and leave her outsides alone. She's a looker just how she is. I will be getting parts, also as mine suffers many of the same things and needs part replacements to be a safe shooter. They are both very old, built like tanks and are super neat. I'm very fond of mine and it is evident you feel the same for yours.

Hope this helps? Sorry if it's long, i tried to shorten as much as possible and still be informational without putting ya to sleep

[Black_Wolf67]

Oops, forgot to tell you. Yours would be a very close match to the Stevens 525 as it has checkers instead of grooves. Those would be the parts you need . If you look close ours differ slightly. Mine has a screw near the front of the reciever that yours doesnt to make mine a four screw reciever and matches the gun near the bottom, even though mine also has the checkering like yours, but that doesnt seem to be an option for that model in this value guide. More mystery! LOL. Sorry page is cut off on right side. The pic comes from a large old value guide and was difficult to get into the scanner fully.

[S&W500Mag]

Thanks Black Wolf67! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I'm in college and sort of preoccupied with that currently. Don't worry about trying to shorten up any messages; I'm notorious too for writing dissertations on stuff that I wouldn't have to. LOL! :-) If there was more info that you would have wanted to include but didn't, I'd be glad to hear it anyway. I found what you wrote interesting, informative, and very helpful. Again - Thanks! I'll definitely be looking into Numrich further when time and $$ permit. You seem to know your stuff, and appear willing to have spent the time researching this; so I might be contacting you again sometime if I run into questions when I finally get around to trying to order some parts, if that's OK with you.

I think you are right when you mentioned not trying to refinish the gun's exterior; that's pretty much the general consensus with what other people have been suggesting, and I agree. It would be nice to have the gun properly functional again internally though. I had looked into Numrich a little bit once, but didn't know which model to research for parts. I'll have to look into the model 525 some more now. What book is that one that you scanned a page in from? That's great! Where did you find that? According to the book, how do we know for sure that my gun is a 525, and not a 520, 521, 522, 530, or 535? Does that make a big difference as far as looking up parts on Numrich is concerned?

I agree with you; these guns are a solid chunk to carry. Back in high school, I went small-game hunting with one of my teachers, (small private Christian school) and he couldn't get over how "genuine" that old gun is. He had some flimsy new plastic Mosberg or something. I'm still young, and I've made a lot of good hunting memories with that 'ol gun........sniff *honk*......sorry.

[Archie Clement]

Originally Posted by Black_Wolf67

Yours is the only Riverside labeled gun like mine i have ran into so far.

I realize this thread is getting old but I was trying to find info on Riverside. I have one of those marked Riverside, also a SXS marked Riverside.