Would it be crazy to refinish this?

Personally I would cut and crown and oil the wood. Love that hard earned wear on the gun.
But as others have said collector value is gone.
 
Collector value is very discriminatory
on a piece like this one, properly restoring it will not wreck it at all as it has been well when and a collector will not lay top dollar for it in its present condition .
However, proper restoration will actually improve the value as it will be bought by someone who wants to hunt it.
ibhave bern told many times that refinishing s gun will wreck it's collector value .
The conversation normally ends when I offer to sell it to the person for what they say it is is worth!!:rolleyes:

Cat
 
Based upon the OP's post number 8, he thinks hes going to rust blue it and refinish the stocks, thus facilitating an increase in sale value of 100$. I'm having a bit of trouble with that math - particularly the cost of rust bluing.
 
It might be fun to work on refinishing that rifle. On the other hand, if you are going to sell it anyway, let someone else worry about it. I don't think you'll improve its value.
 
OK, I'm NOT an authoritative Winchester collector, BUT.... there are plenty of issues with the OP's "rifle" that already make this gun into collector repellant.

1) It's rusty with basically zero finish. Winchester collectors demand better and better is easy to come by at reasonable prices compared to this gun.
2) The gun is not original as it is. Someone has mix-mastered it in the past. It's got a rifle front end and a carbine butt. I'm thinking the chances it left the factory like this are exceedingly small as it would have had to be special ordered. I see no other special order telltales (take down, double set triggers, checkering, unusual sight options, etc.) to lead me to believe this was a bespoke firearm, so that leaves us with some tinkerer swapping the buttstock for whatever reason. Right away this moves the gun from collector to shooter.
3) The muzzle is shot out. So to the guys saying "just enjoy it", how long would you live with that if the gun keyholed? I'm thinking not very long.

Now the practical side of things. If the plan is to fix it up to spin it, jus keep walking. Making this more valuable will require more effort than you will fully recoup by selling it. The quick and dirty fix would be to shorten the barrel to carbine length, but to re-use the rifle mag hanger and forestock. This will require smithing work best done by a professional. The barrel needs to be shortened, re-crowned. The hanger dovetail need to be re-cut. The mag needs to be shortened as well, and the mag cap retainer screw re-driledl into the underside of the barrel.

To do a full blown restore, you'd re-stock the gun, source a new barrel or have the existing one re-lined or opened to a larger calibre (tough since it's already a .38/55). You'd need a full quality re-blue by a really good bluing man. Rust blue would be the most appropriate. You could even have Oskar Cobb case harden the receiver and lever.

But i it doesn't speak to you, save the grief, work on something you will keep and use. Tire's no profit in fixing this up unless someone is agreeing in advance to cover all your labour charges.
 
I too, would refinish and repair it. It has no collector value and you want a shooter. To those that say nay, it is your property and you can do what. 38-55 with cast is a fun cartridge so refinish reblue recrown and reload! Have fun!
 
cosmic said:
Based upon the OP's post number 8, he thinks hes going to rust blue it and refinish the stocks, thus facilitating an increase in sale value of 100$. I'm having a bit of trouble with that math - particularly the cost of rust bluing.
Click to expand...

Not many things more annoying than people referring to me as "OP", and then talking about me like I'm not in the room... But I'm getting off topic.

What exactly doesn't add up for you? I have refinished and rust blued many firearms before this one, it is by no means my first waltz. I have also shortened barrels and mag tubes on lever action rifles and re-cut dovetails, drilled and tapped barrels etc. I'm pretty competent in that regard. And like I said I'm really just looking for a hobby project, not a great money making endeavour. I'm not going into business rebuilding winchesters for a measly $100 markup.
So what doesn't add up?
 
mikeystew said:
Not many things more annoying than people referring to me as "OP", and then talking about me like I'm not in the room... But I'm getting off topic.

What exactly doesn't add up for you? I have refinished and rust blued many firearms before this one, it is by no means my first waltz. I have also shortened barrels and mag tubes on lever action rifles and re-cut dovetails, drilled and tapped barrels etc. I'm pretty competent in that regard. And like I said I'm really just looking for a hobby project, not a great money making endeavour. I'm not going into business rebuilding winchesters for a measly $100 markup.
So what doesn't add up?
Click to expand...

As Claven pointed out it was Mixmastered already then by all means go and work on it. I don't know enough about them to know what I was looking at. If it makes you happy and you can do the work well then by all means go and do the work. I wouldn't myself because I am not too gun smith oriented and would do a terrible job.
 
This reminds me of the kickback I got initially when I posted about refinishing an old BSA Martini. Everyone was for leaving it alone, even though it was rusty and someone had already refinished the stock at some point and ruined the checkering. I re-blued it, recut the stock checkering, re crowned it and polished the internal action mechanisms. Turned out beautiful. And I made a couple bucks on it.

It went from this;





To this





 
Sure, fix it up MS. I did the same to an older M1893 Marlin 30-30 that someone had done the outside of.

I acquired it as a non-collector, but a fixer-upper/shooter. But I found the bore was toasted [30-30]

Shipped it off to Ron Smith, who has made a 38-55 out of it for me. I know I will not get my money
back, and do not expect to. I'll just have a lot of fun shooting it and hunting with this old piece of history.

Regards, Dave.
 
Eagleye said:
Sure, fix it up MS. I did the same to an older M1893 Marlin 30-30 that someone had done the outside of.

I acquired it as a non-collector, but a fixer-upper/shooter. But I found the bore was toasted [30-30]

Shipped it off to Ron Smith, who has made a 38-55 out of it for me. I know I will not get my money
back, and do not expect to. I'll just have a lot of fun shooting it and hunting with this old piece of history.

Regards, Dave.
Click to expand...

Now if this was a Marlin Dave, I'd be keeping it. ;)

But I plan to sell this regardless. Idle hands are just looking for a project. I thoroughly enjoy taking a junker and making it beautiful again, and this seems like a good candidate.
 
Yer nawt implying yer gonna pewt sum checker'n awn this ole gal?

Awwww, jest jesting.
Giv'er chit and post some photos up.
Go shoot the dang thang first.
Twack a gopher or two.
 
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