20 gauge CHE found in a garden shed

[Dean Romig]

Those are interesting barrels... Titanic Steel is stamped on the rib but where the steel type is generally stamped on the right barrel flat there is a K. I have never seen this stamp before and am curious as to its significance... any thoughts?

[Brian H]

Thank you for all the interest in this gun. I sent away for a letter today to see what that brings up. I have had 11 offers to purchase the gun and a few other folks give me some sound advice on proceeding. At this point I am not a seller to those that have offered, although it would be more helpful if you have interest to give an assessment of value as a few were willing to do. I am on the fence to proceed with any work myself although the $$ investment over the 2-3 years it will take is not that significant in my opinion. $7K-10K is not a bad way to get an amazing gun.....like 3 years same as cash on that new convertible! I will tell you this gun was not given to me, or found at a yard sale. I paid what I considered a value worth it to me in its current state and it was in excess of the $1k a few of you offered to me......but not too much more. Where are you going to find a 20 ga. CHE ejector gun? Barrels or not its like owning a LS6 454 with everything rusted out but the cowl and the ID tag attached to it....................you can build another car around that!

More of the important stuff such as gun info:
The butt stock was given to me in a box with the rest of the gun, it does not appear to be from this gun after close inspection, although it is a skeleton butt stock (SSPB) with a straight grip that could be modified as a pattern for duplication.
It is missing a few parts such as the trip, spring and pin.
Funny to see case color under the locking lever!
I have to believe the barrels can not be saved, but you never know....I used a green scotch bright on them after these pics and they actually look quite a bit better. The choke cleaned up very nice with now only about 1/4" inside the muzzle with rust the rest of the interior is clean and bright. I see 3-4 areas that appear to be a bit deep but small in size.
Besides the exterior rust, all the internals operate freely at they should.

Thanks again to all with constructive helpful comments.

[Dean Romig]

The barrel appear to be deeply pitted but can be saved by the right guy. Do NOT dismiss those barrels.

[Fishtail]

.....I think it's a great find, though sad.

That said............I don't see this gun after being fixed being worth nearly what people think (and shame on those who would offer $1K for it).

If I were buying a CHE 20 that had been heavily reworked, I would not go wild with the money. Let's assume an original CHE that had never seen that sort of misery were to bring $20K (and I am not sure it would). That means I'd be all done at $15K for this gun, and that's assuming the work had been done very well.

Like it or not, this gun will always be a 'George Washington's Axe' gun.

[tom tutwiler]

I believe the restock to include blank will run about 4K. Recutting the engraving another 4K. Can everything else be done for additional 3K? Course that assumes the barrels can be salvaged/sleeved. Is it worth 11K to put it back to where it was? Don't have the answer but I think 11K might be in the ballpark to get everything done correctly. Sure hope someone does it as I'd love to see the "after" because we've all seen the "before".

[George Lander]

I am of the humble opinion that NO gun is "too far gone" as not to be resurected by the right hand and I don't believe that it would cost anywhere near $10,000 to save this one.

Best Regards and Good Luck, George

[Greg Phillips]

In the right hands this gun should more than likely become a nice gun. If your desire is to keep and enjoy the gun, I say forge ahead with patience and investment.
Restoration for re sale will most likely be a marginal idea. Best wishes with your choice.

PS- Whoever left that gun in a garden shed should have been taken to the wood shed!

[tom tutwiler]

Originally Posted by George Lander

I am of the humble opinion that NO gun is "too far gone" as not to be resurected by the right hand and I don't believe that it would cost anywhere near $10,000 to save this one.

Best Regards and Good Luck, George

George I need to shop where you shop.

Agree if the barrels are salvageable you can do it for less then 11K. However Gournet (or someone of that ilk) is going to charge a good bit to rengrave and restocking with high grade Turkish will certainly cost 4K because the blank is going to cost probably a grand. Now if someone is capable of doing a lot of the work himself then that changes the dollar investment considerably. If one sent it to Turnbull I don't think my 11K figure is far off.

[C.O.B.]

You asked for an assessment of it's value in it's current state and some here have offered a thousand dollars, that's the assessed value to them. you obviously thought it was worth slightly more because that's what you paid for it. In it's present state it's worth whatever it will bring.

I think full restoration is going to run close to $10K and if the barrels are to far gone then you can add another couple of thousand for a replacement set of barrels. At the end of the project you will have between $11-15K in it. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that. I would spend the money and have it done if it were mine.

An original CHE 20 can easily bring $20K in good condition.

[C grade]

I have to agree with Greg. This would not be a financial rewarding project.
I had an initial interest in doing it, but believe I could purchase a nice all original
CHE 20ga 30" at pretty close to what this would cost to have a Bachelder or Turnbill restoration. In my experience a restored C grade Parker sells at a significant discount to a decent original. I have seen projects like this take 3-5 years. I did not make an offer for the parts , am no longer interested, but $1,000-$1,200 would not be a steal.JMHO
David