20 gauge CHE found in a garden shed
 

This poor old girl spent a few years in a garden shed,. It has 30" barrels, an "O" frame and no safety from the factory. Butt stock is an absolute mess, . Any ideas on what to do with it? The top rib can be saved. I have all the internals.

Would make a worthy restoration project.

I agree, it would definitely be worth restoring. Titanic steel, that's interesting. I don't see a circle T on the barrel flats though.

A 30" CHE 20 gauge straight stock gun would be a very desirable configuration when restored.

Gawd, who would do that to such a gun???????:crying:

I agree with all of you but I don't think these barrels can be saved, the bores are clean and bright with exception of the last 1" of choke. The exterior of these are ROUGH with some pretty deep pits.

[B][I]Brian: You need a REAL gunsmith / restoration expert for that job. My pick would be Jim Kelly of The Darlington Gun Works, Darlington, South Carolina. I'm sure that there are others equally qualified. That's a restoration project that's worth doing, IMHO.

Best of luck with it, George

We should all be so lucky to have garden sheds like that.

To my novice eye, 5-6K would be well spent on this project.

Exterior pits can be filled and filed by a micro welding technique, the same way molds are repaired. Here is a B which had one of the bolsters badly corroded and which was weld filled , filed and re-engraved so that the repair is imperceptible.

Exterior pits in barrels , fluid or Damascus are easy in comparison and regularly corrected.

Reconstruction of this gun will be a costly and lengthy process requiring the owner's patience and pocketbook and a master gunsmith's expertise. There are also several stockmakers that could do the project. A nice stick of thinshell walnut will run $1000 to maybe $1500 that is appropriate for the grade then maybe a year or two for the woodwork.

Mr. Butler's estimate may be close on the low side. Done right, the finished gun should be worth in excess of $15,000. Done wrong, its a do over.

If it were mine I would have the work done. it's costly but the cost is going to be spread out over a year probably two maybe even a little longer.

I would send your pictures to Jim Kelley, Brad Batchelder, Brian Dudley and Doug Turnbull for an estimate on the cost and a time frame.