Finished up the clean up and repair/refinishing of the new 444. The crack repair didn't turn out quite as good as I would have liked, but I guess it's good enough for who it's for. I ended up cutting on the inside with an exacto knife through the crack, and separating the broken corner. I cut away the old glue and tried to close the gap as much as I could. It still was very obvious, so I filled the crack with some wood epoxy. I'm not crazy about the blonde portion of the front underside of the forend anyway, so I may still decide to replace it down the road.
I also replaced the badly worn, dry rotted buttpad with the closest replacement I could find at Midway, and refinished all the wood with a few coats of tongue oil. I also filed/repaired some bubba'd screw heads, and touched up the blueing in places, along with total disassembly and cleaning. Now, as soon as the brass shows up, I'll get this thumper to the range.
It's a 1977 vintage, and will make a nice sibling to the 356, and 375 models I already had.
