First post here, looks like a group of gun enthusiasts, and I am a big fan and collector of winchester model 70s and really prefer the pre 64s. I hunt and target shoot with these and reload for these as well. I recently purchased a 264 win mag std (westerner they sometimes refer to it) and it appears to be very lightly used but came in pretty dirty. There is a layer of  grime on the areas where the barrel fits the receiver and the stock meets the barrel. I scoped the bore and appears to have absolutely no evidence of being fired at all.

I took dellivery and came to my cleaning station and the bore was not dirty at all, but the outside of the rifle had dust buildup in trigger guard, on muzzle, and on scope mounts, likely evidence of being stored upright in a gun cabinet for a long long time. I wiped the entire firearm with light gun oil and a cotton cloth. A little bit of this grime was removed so I worked harder and it got stubborn after a short time. The bluing seems really good still so I would like to find some suggestions if the grime or old grease or whatever it is can be removed while preserving bluing.

The barrel is stainless but the receiver appears to be rust free, just this grime buildup,almost like oil that collected dirt and then solidified.

The seller inherited the rifle from his grandpa, always wanted to use it but not being a handloader never was able to procure ammunition so guess what, he was not even certain of it’s condition or history, as he believes he remembers his grandpa target shooting with this rifle 20-30 years ago and used up his partial box of ammunition and it sat ever since allegedly, and it looks like it.

Now, I want to work up a load and shoot this thing, but it will function in current condition but I would like to clean it up. If I have to go through the bluing to get it cleaned is the value deteriorated from a bluing touchup or will it be better to just work at it with rags and gun oil until it comes clean, eventually? And finally what is a good cleaner/preserve/rust inhibitor for these rifles across the board?