Well I got my second gun from the Christmas sale. Have to admit I'm disappointed and am thinking people who ordered elsewhere or not at all may have dodged a bullet?
For starters, I did ask for 3 things in my order: 1) a low date, 2) a decent stock and 3) NOT a Brescia because I already had one.
I got a very rusty low-ish date (1918), a cracked, chipped and non-matching stock that looks to have been recently swapped (dealer?), and it's A Brescia (FFS!). Also, the boor is dark, pitted, worn - I'd say poor to fair, at best.
What I learned: 1) GNG rifles are NOT "inspected" as claimed. 2) don't trust them to select anything you ask for - I PM'd the dealer with what I wanted, they said "sure", and then didn't send me something that matched what I asked for. 3) "good" with this import batch really means "fair to poor" - or at least it does for what's left.
Photos for the curious:
Overall (good from far, far from good) - notice the buttstock is cracked. It goes half way through, not all the way to the other side:
The state of rustiness on the metal "good condition"?:
Notice the band screw is not installed. This is relevant, because the band screw was just lightly inserted in the hole on the reverse side of the stock, not screwed in, and fell out when I took the rifle out of the package. Meaning the stock was recently changed on the rifle and whoever did it could not be bothered to screw the screw back in place. The "grunge/dirt line" where the metal meets the wood also does not match this stock, so this stock is a recent addition to the rifle. Makes me wonder if the dealer (or distributor, or importer, or?) scrapped 2 bad rifles to make one that was sellable - can't say I have hard evidence of that, but this mismatched stock was 100% recently replaced and not fully re-assembled.
Markings faint, but not matching serial number and no refurb cartouche. Makes it very likely this stock was on another rifle until very recently.
A Brescia - the one manufacturer I asked they NOT send me - lol.
chunk missing out of the stock right where you grip rests:
Someone's name carved into the stock.
So... basically my first rifle is rather superior to this one. Sadly.
I've got the bore soaking - it's badly fouled, but if it doesn't clean up, this will be a parts rifle or wall hanger, I think. The bolt is period correct (color case hardened WW1 era bolt, but wrong manufacturer (Terni) in case anyone was curious.
