Not sure if the photo shows the difference very well, but I got most of the finish off of the hand guard, and the wood seems to still have the dark brown color to it (although it looks well sanded). I did remember to remove the rear sight so that I could slide the hand guard down the barrel. I'll have to clean some more of the flakes off, and can start on the stock.  Not looking forward to the long nights of scraping off old finish.  Glad that I disassembled. The hand guard retainers are rusting and started to rust the barrel.

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