Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Weaver
whats it cost? $300, $500, $800, $1000? just trying to gauge the expense..
Enough people here have had that done.. is it a secret? :-)
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I just delivered my L.C. Smith damascus gun to a local gunsmith, Keith Kearcher who specializes in re-coloring damascus barrels. His fee is $420 to refinish the barrels. He is also going to re-choke the gun to IC/Mod, from Full and full and hone the rough spots from the bore. I told him I don't need to have the bore perfect, if the roughness is deep, but he said there is plenty "meat" left to allow most of the barrel to be honed pretty clean. I explained that I want to shoot the gun, so I don't want to tubes to be made paper thin.
He also said the forcing cone and chambers would probably need to be lengthened, but I said I'm planning to shoot 2.5" RST shells and the original chambering will probably be okay.
A few years ago someone here complained that Kearcher had bored his barrels too thin. I called Kearcher to confirm that the gun would be safe to shoot. I'm going to trust him. He has a good following, most of his work done by mail. I'm a rare "local guy" customer. I also asked him what color he'd make the barrels. He replied that most L.C. Smith's were brown. I did some research on the topic of the color of Smith gun damascus tubes and found both brown and black,and frankly I like the appearance of brown and silver tubes best.
My Smith was a clunker, with no color and plain, but undamaged wood and pretty rough bore. I'll polish the stock with beeswax when I get it back, but I am not going to refinish it. I am looking forward to my newly finished O grade Smith. I plan to shoot the dickens out of it - clays and skeet. It will not be brought back to like new. I stipulated that the original patina on the action be left as is...I can just make out some case colors. Very little rust.
Total cost will be about $700, which means I'll have about $1100 into the gun, which is pretty close to its value, I think.
I don't know if Kearcher's prices are competitive, but he is in business. You can google his website for details.
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