At it again - 16 gauge grouse gun restoration

[Harold Pickens]

Yeah, 13 3/4"LOP would be a tad short, and I'm 5'11". I would try a slip on pad first--another 1/2" would be great. Shoot it this year with spreaders while hunting. Maybe you will run into a gun that fits you better this year, and would be easier to sell an unmolested gun. It is an O frame I assume.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Steven Groh

But if the gun is nice and tidy, wouldn't a restoration be worth it? And I don't mean in terms of dollars and cents.

It's the ones that are abused beaters that warrant a restoration of sorts. Guns like yours are sought after to just put to work and and never have to worry about taking them out in the weather and the thickets. And this earns them a lot of pride and respect because they go wherever, and whenever, you go.

But it's your gun after all...





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[Mills]

If it functions for you as is, enjoy it this season, then decide what it needs and send it to someone then. The members here can recommend several competent gunsmiths

[24 grams]

Originally Posted by Harold Lee Pickens

Yeah, 13 3/4"LOP would be a tad short, and I'm 5'11". I would try a slip on pad first--another 1/2" would be great. Shoot it this year with spreaders while hunting. Maybe you will run into a gun that fits you better this year, and would be easier to sell an unmolested gun. It is an O frame I assume.

A slip-on pad adds 1/2," which brings it to 14 1/4." Still pretty short. I used one for a while on a two-barreled reproduction DHE, because I didn't want to mess with the skeleton butt plate. I was never happy with the solution.

Mind you, I am not obsessed with gun-fit (any longer ). I shoot a bunch of Berettas straight out of the box, even though modifications might earn me an extra bird here or there. But a gun has to be close enough that it feels like a part of me, in order for it to be a joy to shoot.

I could fill in the spur from the butt plate and add a 1" pad, which would give me about 14 1/2." Add a 1/4 spacer in front of the pad, bend the stock up and over a bit, and I would be happy.

[24 grams]

Originally Posted by Mills Morrison

If it functions for you as is, enjoy it this season, then decide what it needs and send it to someone then. The members here can recommend several competent gunsmiths

I have already spoken to Kody Kearcher about it. Although he has never done any work for me, his Uncle Keith did some excellent stock work for me a long time ago, and I thought I couldn't go far wrong.
(If anyone has experience to the contrary, please feels free to PM me).

[24 grams]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

It's the ones that are abused beaters that warrant a restoration of sorts. Guns like yours are sought after to just put to work and and never have to worry about taking them out in the weather and the thickets. And this earns them a lot of pride and respect because they go wherever, and whenever, you go.
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Nice thoughts. That is sort of what I had in mind: a gun to take to the woods without worrying about my "investment."

This is what I am thinking:

I bought the gun for $2,000. I could shoot it for a few years and sell it for that or perhaps a little more. Is a VH ever going to be worth a lot of money? I don't think so.

Realistically, if I spent $1,000-1,500 on a restoration, it might be worth $2,500 -3,000, so I would "lose" $500-1,000 in doing so.

But if it gives me a few years of pleasure in the field, restored to how it might have looked nearly a century ago, it would be well worth it.

Would I be destroying a bit of history by commissioning a faithful restoration, employing gunmaking processes from the last century? I don't think so.

I may love the gun so much that I shoot it "as is," but I also may love it so much after shooting it "as is" this season that I want to bring it back to life.

In either event, it should see honest use in the field for decades to come.

SCG

[Dean Romig]

And that's exactly where my last sentence in my last post plays in.




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[24 grams]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

And that's exactly where my last sentence in my last post plays in.
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Great minds think alike.

[charlie cleveland]

its your gun fix it to suit your self... it does look to be a gun never fooled with. the guys are right it will shoot another 100 years as it is....charlie

[Shane Jennings]

Function is #1. Beauty if in the eye of the beholder/owner. If it makes you happy to make it look better, then go for it. Tinkering is fun too. You probably wouldn't get all your money back after all of that, but if the cost/benefit for you was still a positive then it would be money well spent. Only you can determine that.