Would like opinion on value

[ArtS]

This would likely make a great old shooter. I have a lot of old guns, and I mean that literally. I in fact am a person that tends to gravitate toward, for a descriptive term, rejunevated guns. I like to take old guns and redo them to shoot and enjoy. I can tell you that you will seldom recover what you spend on them. I don't spend more on them than is economically viable or that suits my budget if the gun is something I really want. I have never in my life bought a gun because it was simply rare or valuable. I truly appreciate the workmanship and rarity of historic firearms, but if I'm not interested or they are unuseable they have no draw.

If a gun is really really rough but can be put right, and it is interesting to me, I will buy it and work on it for months to save it but not spend a lot of cash on it. If it has some significant attribute and I really want to own it, I will spend considerably more and do a lot of the work myself but never expect to profit from it in the short term. I have a not small rack of relatively pricey guns on which other people have had total professional restorations done for which I have paid several thousand per gun. In several cases I have recieved the paid reciepts for the restoration and they are often twice what I paid for the guns at auction. They often look more presentable than the high priced original but originality, condition and rarity set the value. With only 2 of the three, you are out of the serious collector market.

In the case of your gun, what people are saying is that the condition is such that it can likely be improved to make it useful again, but it can literally never be made excellent, even with a complete professional restoration. The barrels have been cutoff and left unfinished and the metal is pitted and corroded to the point that you would likely never be able to remove the surface imperfections to the point that it looks like a quality job without thinning the metal too much. The stock can be repaired but will still not be in a restored condition.

Since it is a family gun, the advice given above is the best I think. Have someone repair the muzzle. Boil or sonic clean the barrels to remove the corrosion and put on a rust arresting oil. Have the barrels inspected as to condition and safety before any of this. Have someone with experience repair the stock and refinish it. A lot of this can be done by you with help and/or advice. You will end up with a family gun in useable shape and a condition in which it probably spend most of it's active life. The value will still be it's current value plus what you spent on it.

[Bill Murphy]

Andy, woops, sorry, ArtS, your post made a lot of sense up to the last sentence. The amount spent on it will not be added to its present value. Its present value is about what it will be worth after much work is done on it. The damage done to it by previous owners will always be evident and detract from its value. That is not the case with all abused guns, but it is the case with this one.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Andy, your post made a lot of sense up to the last sentence. The amount spent on it will not be added to its present value. Its present value is about what it will be worth after much work is done on it. The damage done to it by previous owners will always be evident and detract from its value. That is not the case with all abused guns, but it is the case with this one.

I'm Andy and I didn't say that. That's Art, and he said that. And I agree with you Bill, it won't add value.

[ArtS]

I guess I would have to disagree with that. The cost to get the muzzle repaired should not be alot. Most everything could be done at no cost. Knowledgeable people on here volunteer to help people measure barrels every day. People with a little guidance learn torepair and refinish wood all the time. Thousands of people clean and rejuvenate metal if they work carefully and ask for help or direction, be it an old car, an old gun or an old toaster. The secret is to take your time, be commited and work at learning. If these things were done, I will gaurantee that someome would be willing to pay more than it is worth right now. Maybe not much more but more than the pittance in actual dollars you would be out of pocket, and the knowledge you gain would be priceless.

[Bill Murphy]

Sorry, Andy, I meant to address Art S.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Sorry, Andy, I meant to address Art S.

No problem! I’d make it a chicken coop gun. If I didn’t have a chicken coop I’d build one around that gun.