10ga TA Grade 3

[Jay Oliver]

I did talk to the seller and he sent me more pictures. I couldn't help myself and I bought it immediately. The story was that the gun had been in the same family since 1949 and had not be shot in all of that time.

I did get a research letter. It didn't mention a specific person, though the gun was shipped to Claybrough Golcher & Co. of San Francisco in 1890 who I believe was a gun dealer/maker.

The gun has nice stock dimensions - 14 1/4 LOP and DAH 2 7/8. I will shoot both black powder and smokeless shells with it this weekend.

Would you clean this gun up at all of leave it as is? I agree that it has a great patina from years of use and I don't want to take that away. There is some tarnish/build up on the lock plates and on top of the bolsters, should that be cleaned? Mechanically it is off face(I put in a metal shim which tightened it up for now) and the lever catch needs a new spring. Barrels are pitted but shootable.

[Bill Murphy]

Clean anything that can be cleaned, including the bores, fix the trip spring. Your shim will fix the looseness problem. After this, I would shoot it.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Jay Oliver

Mechanically it is off face(I put in a metal shim which tightened it up for now) and the lever catch needs a new spring. Barrels are pitted but shootable.

Could someone give a bit more detail about using a shim to help tighten an action, please?