Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Gietler
CUT barrels, are cut barrels, doesn't matter if cut in a factory, or in a barn vise.
They are still ''CUT''
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That's a slippery slope. I have always wondered where the line is drawn with originality. No one seems to have a problem with a gun restocked 10 years after new by the factory, but does not accept a gun restocked by an outside gunsmith. I can see this argument. The argument that cut is cut even in the factory takes the opposite position on barrels vs stocks. The gun quoted was ordered with long barrels but ordered with short ones, so the factory shortened the barrels of a stock gun to fill an order. Is it devalued because the stock records when actually built don't match the order? I would say no. Which one takes precedence, the original build, the order, or the gun as shipped new? What about guns shipped with substitutions? There are a number Damascus ordered and spec'd guns whichwere shipped with Parker Laminate barrels. Are they not original? Parker often took in guns for alteration and used the old barrels and such for later use. Does this lead to two non-original guns or one? I suspect the reason some barrels turn up without the tell-tale blank line at the front of the rib is that Parker did this very thing; cut a stock barrel down to fill a new order.
I think the only thing that can be purely original is the gun as shipped as new from the factory door. The order record and the factory record are only records at some point in its' life. What went out the door is what it was originally. Anything else is not. It's all relative to your viewpoint and is most important in negotiating prices. I believe the other "degree of originality" are personal beliefs.