I agree with David. I collect C's and have a handful of 12's and small bores, including a couple 16ga's. A nice CHE 16 ga just sold for $11,500 at a well known and watched public auction. This gun, if in good condition, would be in the range of the recent sale and what David mentioned.
The gun, as you know, has not been treated well. I believe a small bore C is always worth carefully looking at with an eye toward bringing back to presentability. This gun is going to take a lot of careful and skilled work, and how far it goes is always up to the owner. Pits in metal can be TIG welded and smoothed so that they are indistinguishable. Wood can be repaired or in extreme cases replaced. The bolts are not right but damage to the screw holes can probably be repaired by a machinist, new screws made, timed and installed.
I understand the sentimentality of your grandfather's gun. On my grandfather's gun, I had to steam out lots of dents, gouges and barbwire grooves, rechecker the forend, reblue the barrels and replace action springs. It's still the old gun I usually grab and go with. Many of us have ancestral guns that we treasure.
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