[ArtS]

Well, the 1880 Lifter 10 Gauge I have been working on since November is nearing completion. The first pictures I show are the gun as purchased.Metal was good, the barrels were better than I hoped inside and the mechanicals were good. The downside is that sometime in the far past, the gun had been dropped hard or something hit on top of it. The trigger guard was bent with the threaded connector replaced with a screw, the trigger had three breaks and was bent some, and the original stock was completely missing, having been replaced with a low grade Parker stock that didn't fit, was beat up badly and had multiple cracks in the headstock. The interior of the head was oil soaked and punky, and the original skeleton butplate had been ground to ruin and cobbled onto the "new" stock. The reason I bought it was that it was a Grade 3 Lifter and had Parker Laminated steel barrels, even though marked on the water table as a D.

The second pictures show the gun as it sits now.

I welded and repaired the trigger plate, reamed the 9 gauge size barrels by about 0.005 inches to remove the minor pits and flaws and made a new buttstock. The barrels were sent to Breck Gorman to have a few small dents removed and then refinished. I finally got it all back together today.
I still need a few things. I haven't had time to repair and finish the trigger guard. I found a used (badly used) hammerless gun trigger gaurdon eBay that is the exact same profile as my original. I filed, polished and blued it for the time being. When I get the original serial numbered and engraved guard finished, I will replace it and touch up the inletting and finish. I haven't found a replacement buttplate yet, so I left the stock long enough to install a skeleton butt and put a 1/2 inch rubber pad in it's place. I also need to move the stock shield from the bummer stock to the new one.

I am going to hold off on the checkering until I make a decision on the forend. The one on the gun right now is the 1880 original, but I have a roughed out new one that matches the buttstock exactly. I will probably fit the new one to see what it looks like before making a final decision. I don't want to have two forends to checker. At the end, I plan to wet sand the finish with 1000 to 2000 grit cloth and rub in a final few coats of Timberluxe. The finish right now is three coats of Watkins Danish oil as a sealer, 6 coats of Truoil of an old bottle I keep because it has thickened and then 6 topcoats of Timberluxe fast drying.

All in all I am pleased. The gun, being a 3 grade lifter with Parker barrels is a desireable gun, but without the original buttstock, it's future is more as a shooter than a collector. I didn't think the cost of a professional replacement would ever be justified financially, so I decided to go with a lower priced stock with modern shooting dimensions. With this work, I think my investment will be easily recoverable and I will get a lot of enjoyment from it.