As my rifle was rough on the outside, I refinished the metal.  This was before the days of high tech spray-on finishes, so I had it professionally blued.  I cut back the fore-end of the stock and I painted the wood in camouflage colors, based on an article I'd read in SWAT Magazine in the 1980s.  It came out much better looking in the sense that it looked new; originally it had looked beat.  But not long after that I got really into military rifles and never sporterized another.

MY first "milsurp" was a Lee-Enfield No.5Mk1 "Jungle Carbine" that a guy had redone himself, thinking he'd made it original.  It wasn't.  The fore-end was cut wrong, and stock was finished in Birchwood-Casey's Tru-oil.  Tru-oil's a great product, but normally leaves a high gloss finish--not appropriate for a military rifle.  He also Parkerized the metal, wrong for a British rifle.  After that and my previous experiece I thought I was done with altered military rifles...

..but oddly enough I ran across a very well done Winchester M1917 that had an after-market Manlicher-style full-length walnut stock.  It had a nice finish--probably matte Tru-oil.  As it was very attractive, I bought it.  As it turned out it shot wonderfully.  I shot some of the best groups of my life with that rifle--which was still in the original .30-06 chambering, or course.  I kind of wish I'd kept that one, but my preference for pure military rifles took over, and every military rifle I've had since has been an original type.

Sporterizing was very popular in the 50s and 60s, when it seemed like there was no end to the rifles coming into this country, but eventually that bonanza ended, and today a good original military rifle costs much more than a new-made commercial sporter.