As with most things ,I always seem to have an opinion ,Generally ,I try to keep most to myself . This can be a real can of worms ,My personal opinion , is this very simply , If I choose to purchase a gun which has never been refinished ,apparently there was something about the gun ,I already liked and usually just give her a little clean up and use it the way I bought it ,now if this gun has been beaten up a bit and I can have bumps taken out of the wood ,checking recut or cleaned up and some new finish on the stocks to make it a bit nicer ,then I will go ahead and have it done as long as it is by a reputable smith that makes his best attempt to finish in an original style ,same with Damascus barrels ,I really like the patterns in the Twist and Dam. barrels and will not hesitate to have at least the barrels redone by a good Damascus Barrel Man! As for a total restoration ,even though ,I have had a few done ,and done by some of the top names in the business ,I never seem to be as happy with the gun as I would have been if the job had never been done even though it looks nice ,they are just not the same to me ! The one gun ,I owned was a 30" DHE 28 Ga. ,this gun had been refinished in the past and very poorly ,I purchased this gun knowing " FOOL " well ,I could never live with it the way it was but a 30" DHE 28 " WOW " how do you pass it up with a decent price tag on it , I had the gun completely refinished by one of the top refinishers in todays market and it was absolutely Gorgeous ,I carried it a bit and really never warmed up to it and eventually sold the gun ,lessons learned , I think guns with their Patina ,and Age are always going to be more desirable than a refinished gun and will always have a better following from true enthusiasts than a refinished gun which someone has attempted to bring back to it's former Glory ! Again ,just my two cents !
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