- Re: What Do I Have? Archived Message
- What Do I Have? - Jack Craft June 13, 2008, 11:44 am
Posted by revdocdrew on June 13, 2008, 12:59 pm, in reply to "What Do I Have?"
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What a wonderful legacy Jack! The first step should be to check the 'Shotguns', 'FAQ', and 'Photo Trail' on the Home Page. You can determine the grade, date of manufacture, and how to obtain a research letter from the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The question of to what extent a gun should be refurbished/restored is common, and probably deserves a FAQ. When enough smart fellas respond, I'll do just that  Here are my muddled but seriously contemplated thoughts: 1. Refurbish means some degree of external clean up with a return to excellent mechanical funtion, and may include removing dents from the barrels or replacing a tired top lever spring. Restoration means 'like it left Fulton or Syracuse' and may well cost several thousand dollars, especially if a new stock is required. A restoration of a lower grade gun will likely cost much more than the value of the gun following the restoration. 2. If you've just discovered a pristine or high grade gun in the rafters of the henhouse, and your desire is to sell the gun DON'T DO ANYTHING. Any alteration will markedly diminish both it's value and desirability to a collector. The buyer will want the restoration performed to his specifications, and by his expert. 3. If it's not a pristine or high grade gun (a 'shooter'), it's certainly reasonable to make it right for you recognizing that the clean up/refurbish/alternations will add little if anything to the value, and if outside the 'normal' would make re-sale much more difficult ie. chopping the stock to 13" for your 13 year old daughter or removing the choke from a 32" barrel trap gun. 4. An external clean up is certainly warranted, might prevent further cosmetic damage, and not that difficult. Please see http://www.lcsmith.org/faq/cleangun2.html 5. Any LC is likely to be well past due a mechanical check and clean by a doublegun specialist smith. Upon disassembly, the smith is very likely to find something needing repair (especially cracks in the head of the stock) and glas-bedding to prevent future wood damage might be a good idea at that time. If you'll let us know where you're from, we might be able to recomend someone near you. 6. I believe that every scratch in the wood, every handling mark, the thinned blueing and worn case colors are a testimony to the joy given the gun's previous caretakers, and especially if that caretaker was a family member, would view each as a treasure to be cherished rather than to be erased. Would your grandfather be more proud to use the gun as is was, or as it could be made to look? Then again, it's your gun, so do what you want  |
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