I would happily pay $100 for a BL22. They are very nice rifles. I also do most of my own stock work so even though its beat up I could give it a better life. Let me know if you decide to sell it. Browning is the only levergun 22 I still want to add to my group.
Yeah, ditto. Not just Yes!, but Hells Yes!
It looks worse than it is, I bet.
That high gloss finish they put on those doesn't look good after a bit of time as a truck gun.
The metalwork looks like a wipedown with some oil would be about what you need to put into it to make it shine again.
A coat of paint for the barrel bands, if you don't feel like making and bluing some steel ones.
I would suggest that you stay far far away from 80 grit paper, too coarse.
If you strip the wood first, after it's dried and cleaned up some, and you have had a go at any really bad dents with some paper towel and a steam iron, then start with a hard rubber sanding block and some 180 or 220 grit. Maybe even finer. You will rapidly see if the grit is going to need to be changed up to something finer, if the lines the paper digs into the wood are too coarse.
I can say from experience and with authority, that if someone offered me that gun as-is for $100 I'd have the money in his or her hands so fast that they would think it was a Magic Trick. The metal doesn't look too bad to me. The stock doesn't either, and I think it's well worth putting some time into it, and keeping it. Great little guns, to nice to just send on down the road for chump change.
I'd drop 250 in pretty quick order for that. What are you looking for as trade bait? My wife is still a little PO'd at me for sending an old Marlin Lever down the road instead of fixing it up for her. That was some years ago...This might get me out of that particular doghouse, at least briefly.
Cheers
Trev