I hadn't given much thought on the effect of rebluing on the gun's value. There is minor scale on the trigger guard and muzzle along with a spot of white paint(probably from leaning in a closet for 50+ yrs) and the bore seems to have cleaned up well. For now,I'll concentrate on cleaning up the stock, butt plate and take down disc.

I used rust bluing to good effect on a .50 watercooled BMG last year. The gun was covered in several layers of white and battleship grey so a complete refinish was necessary. Prior to working on the gun, I experimented with the bluing on some old spare parts. Just by removing any scale/crud and without taking them down completely in the white, the rust bluing could be applied in successive coats to blend very well with the original blue. The key was in attempting not to change the surface finish on the metal prior to bluing.

Maybe if the 98 proves to be a real tack driver I'd reblue it. If it's so-so I'll probably use lots of finishing oil and keep it the way it is.